John Lithgow on stage during the 2025 OscarsA non-binary co-star of John Lithgow has admitted to having mixed feelings about his decision to accept a role in the Harry Potter TV series.The Australian actor Aud Mason-Hyde shares the screen with John in the movie Jimpa, which was filmed in early 2024, around a year before the news that the Conclave star would be playing Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the new TV adaptation of the JK Rowling novels.While the Harry Potter series isn’t expected to premiere until next year, it has already faced some backlash due to the involvement of Rowling as an executive producer, in light of her ongoing commentary about transgender people.This has included – but is not limited to – deliberately misgendering trans public figures on several occasions, and donating tens of thousands of pounds to the campaign group which raised the initial legal challenge that led to the UK Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling that the legal definition of a woman should include only those who were assigned female at birth.While promoting Jimpa in a recent interview with Out magazine, Aud hailed John as a “beautiful human to make work with”, claiming that he became “a mentor” in “some capacity” to them during the making of the film.“I never felt invalidated or questioned or doubted in my identity or in my transness by him,” they continued. “I consistently felt that he was a very loving and a very guiding co-star. And so there’s an element of [him being in the Harry Potter series] that feels vaguely hurtful.“But also, I think that he’s making this decision after we had made the film and after we had premiered the film, can’t take away from what we had and the time that we spent together and the beautiful work that he does in this movie and actually how incredibly authentically he played the role.”John Lithgow, Aud Mason-Hyde and Olivia Colman at the premiere of Jimpa at the Sundance Film Festival last yearShortly after his casting was announced, John admitted he was “absolutely not” expecting the backlash he received for accepting the role of Dumbledore, pondering: “I wonder how JK Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her and I’m curious to talk to her.”More recently, the two-time Oscar nominee told The Hollywood Reporter of the controversy: “I take the subject and the issue extremely seriously.“JK Rowling has created this amazing canon for young people, young kids’ literature that has jumped into the consciousness of society. Young and old people love Harry Potter and the Harry Potter stories. It’s so much about acceptance. It’s about good versus evil. It’s about kindness versus cruelty. It’s deeply felt.”He added that, because of this, he found Rowling expressing “such views” on transgender people both “ironic and somewhat inexplicable”.The Harry Potter TV show will dedicate one season to each of Rowling’s novels, with the likes of Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu and Nick Frost also playing key characters at the wizarding school.After raising eyebrows with his own casting Nick Frost insisted last year that his and Rowling’s views on the trans community are markedly different.“She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine,” he insisted. “They just don’t align in any way, shape or form.”Help and support: The Gender Trust supports anyone affected by gender identity | 01527 894 838Mermaids offers information, support, friendship and shared experiences for young people with gender identity issues | 0208 1234819LGBT Youth Scotland is the largest youth and community-based organisation for LGBT people in Scotland. Text 07786 202 370Gires provides information for trans people, their families and professionals who care for them | 01372 801554Depend provides support, advice and information for anyone who knows, or is related to, a transsexual person in the UKMORE HARRY POTTER:Harry Potter Star John Lithgow Brands JK Rowling Trans Comments ‘Inexplicable’Keira Knightley Reacts To Backlash Over Her Role In New Harry Potter ProjectJK Rowling Has More To Say About Her Rift With Harry Potter Star Emma Watson HuffPost UK – Athena2 – All Entries (Public) Read More