Hollywood star Keira Knightley was not aware of calls to boycott JK Rowling for her views about transgender people before signing up to voice a character in the forthcoming Harry Potter audiobook series.
“I was not aware of that, no. I’m very sorry,” Knightley remarked on the boycott.
“You know, I think we’re all living in a period of time right now where we’re all going to have to figure out how to live together, aren’t we? And we’ve all got very different opinions. I hope that we can all find respect," the Oscar-nominated actor added.
In the new audiobook series, the “Pride and Prejudice” star, 40, is voicing Dolores Umbridge who served as the secondary antagonist of the fifth novel, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".
In the story, she has been sent to Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic to take power away from Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. The role was played by Imelda Staunton in the film series.
Knightley joins a cast that includes Hugh Laurie as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Matthew Macfadyen as the antagonist Lord Voldemort, Riz Ahmed as Professor Snape, Michelle Gomez as Professor McGonagall, and Cush Jumbo as the narrator.
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In the last five years, Rowling has repeatedly come under fire for comments on gender ideology, with many critics, including stars of the Potter film adaptations, accusing her of transphobia. The author has called for spaces for biological women only, dared Scottish police to arrest her for misgendering trans women and implied that the community harbours sexual predators.
Daniel Radcliffe, who played the titular boy wizard, was the first of the lead trio to speak out against Rowling’s comments on trans issues.
“Transgender women are women,” he said in a 2020 statement released by The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention charity for young LGBT+ people.
He acknowledged that Rowling was “unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken”, but said he felt “compelled to say something at this moment”.
His statement was backed by Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. In 2024, Radcliffe revealed he had not spoken to the author in years.
On the work front, Knightley was last seen in "The Woman in Cabin 10", a 2025 psychological thriller film based on a novel by Ruth Ware.
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