Emma Watson reveals she still 'treasures' J.K. Rowling despite trans row
Harry Potter star Emma Watson has revealed she still “treasures” J.K. Rowling despite the pair falling out over the author’s rigid anti-trans views.
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Speaking about their relationship for the first time since Rowling disavowed the stars of the original Harry Potter films, Watson said she aims to separate her relationship with the author from her controversial views.
“I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have mean that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with,” Watson said.
“I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don’t get to keep and cherish to come back to our earlier thing,” she told Hollywood Authentic.
“I just don’t think these things are either or. It’s my deepest wish that people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”
J.K. Rowling has publicly slammed the stars of the Harry Potter films, saying she could “never forgive” Watson, Daniel Radcliffe or Rupert Grint for their support of the transgender community.
Despite rumours Watson may quit the big screen, she said: “I’ll never say that i’ll quit acting.
“I’ll always be an actor. I’m still open to doing it again,” she said.
“I don’t feel quite that kind of urgency of needing to do it. It’s also why I’ve had to really navigate my relationship towards art and acting cause I’m pretty sure that I was using acting as a way of escaping how painful…it wasn’t just the divorce, it was just like the continuing situation of living between two different houses and two different lives and two different sets of values.”
Watson’s comments come just months after she was handed a driving ban for speeding.
Watson, 35, was behind the wheel of a £30,000 Audi S3 when she was captured by a speed camera on a restricted road on the evening of July 31 last year.
She already had nine points on her licence for three previous offences.
Watson was banned for driving for six months and received three points at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court.
She was also ordered to pay a £650 fine, reduced due to her guilty plea, court costs of £120 and a £264 surcharge.