Posted in: HBO, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: harry potter, jk rowling, opinion, Pedro Pascal

JK Rowling's Message For Pedro Pascal Doesn't Make A Lot of Sense

Author JK Rowling offered a confusing response to Pedro Pascal, who called her out for her efforts against the transgender community.

Author JK Rowling has been successful at two things lately. Not making life any easier for the transgender community and guaranteeing that anyone and everyone hired for the cast of HBO's upcoming "Harry Potter" series adaptation gets asked for their thoughts on what she's been posting. One person who hasn't been silent on the matter is Pedro Pascal (The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Game of Thrones), who made his feelings known when Rowling took to social media to celebrate the UK high court's decision not to legally recognize transgender women as women. Responding in the comments section of an Instagram post calling for a boycott of Rowling's work over her actions, Pascal (whose younger sister came out as transgender in 2021) wrote, "Awful disgusting SHIT is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behavior."

Shortly after, Pascal addressed his response in an interview with Vanity Fair and how the attention he received for it left him feeling like "that kid that got sent to the principal's office a lot for behavioral issues in public schools in Texas, feeling scared and thinking, 'What'd I do?'" The actor admitted that he was worried that instead of helping, he may have made matters worse. "The one thing that I would say I agonized over a little bit was just, 'Am I helping? Am I fucking helping?'" Pascal shared. "It's a situation that deserves the utmost elegance so that something can actually happen, and people will actually be protected. Listen, I want to protect the people I love. But it goes beyond that. Bullies make me fucking sick." Well, Rowling has responded and it was… confusing.

"Can't say I feel very shut down, but keep at it, Pedro. God loves a trier," Rowling wrote in response to Pascal's comments, including a screenshot of an image of Pascal and a headline from the Gayety that read: "Pedro Pascal Shuts Down Rowling, Defends Trans Rights, and Reflects on Fame at 50." Wow. So, based on that, Pascal must've said in the article that he "shut down" Rowling. Except, he didn't. The person who dropped that "shut down" part in the headline was most likely the writer, Josh Azevedo – not The Mandalorian and The Last of Us actor. It seems Rowling may have gotten a bit confused in the midst of not being bothered by Pascal's comments. Also, whether Pascal has social media or not, it just seems kinda weird to talk snarky-tough directly to someone and then not tag them.

Hopefully, Rowling will be able to carve out some social media time to push back on all of those "just lovely" followers in the thread of her post who have been wishing "wonderful things" for Pascal – like deportation. And we can't wait for Rowling to use her social media might to push for abortion rights. Because if the author's looking for an important issue for women that men have involved themselves way too much in, it's a woman's right to make decisions for her own body. Being able to say that you're okay with fighting against transgender rights and against a woman's right to choose, and how that somehow makes sense, is a fantasy story even the author can't spin.

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