Helena Bonham Carter has come to the defense of JK Rowling and Johnny Depp in a recent interview.
Bonham Carter criticized how Rowling has been “hounded”, citing that she is “allowed her opinion.”
The Harry Potter author has become an increasingly controversial figure in recent years due to her views on transgender rights.
The star also spoke of how her Alice in Wonderland co-star Johnny Depp was now “completely vindicated.”
This is following his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard earlier this year.
Bonham Carter herself is best known for her work on the Harry Potter franchise.
Her other roles include her work on Sweeney Todd, Fight Club and Les Miserables.
However, her criticism of cancel culture will certainly raise some eyebrows…
Read on to see the star’s full comments.
Now, of course, we all know the woman behind the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
What started out as a mere musing while stuck on a delayed train in London, 1990, led to a young JK Rowling conjuring up the magical story of Harry Potter.
It’s become a huge success.
Thirty years since it’s creation, over 500 million copies of the book franchise have been sold worldwide in eighty different languages.
Making it one of the best-selling book series of all time.
Rowling famously struggled with marriage and money issues in the 4 years she spent working on the first Harry Potter book. In 1994, she found herself as a newly-divorced single mom living out of her sister’s spare room in the Scottish city of Edinburgh.
And, unbelievably, her idea was turned down by several different publishers…
Who reportedly found the idea to be “too long-winded for children.”
Even her literary agent allegedly warned her, “You do realize, you will never make a fortune out of writing children’s books?”
But, regardless of her personal struggles, she continued working on her vision, frequently taking to small coffee shops across Edinburgh to complete her debut book.
And out it came …
500 copies of the debut Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone finally hit the shelves in bookstores across the United Kingdom.
The book was an instant success.
The adventures of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were quick to capture a vast and loyal fanbase, with children and adults alike being instantly captivated by the novel.
And, in the years following from The Philosopher’s Stone…
Rowling went on to release 6 more books that detailed Harry’s fight against the notorious Lord Voldemort, which only made her unique take on the fantasy world of magic even more known and loved across the world.
We became Harry Potter obsessed.
So, of course, it didn’t take long for the movie adaptations to come along.
The final chapter of the Harry Potter franchise, The Deathly Hallows, was released back in 2007…
And fans were finally able to discover the fate of Harry Potter and the rest of the wizarding community.
Something which Rowling has claimed she knew from the very beginning.
Including the collaboration on the 2-part play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the hugely successful blockbuster, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
But in recent years, many have deemed the author to be extremely problematic.
Rowling cause huge controversy on Twitter after she penned what many perceived as a transphobic commentary.
Even former Harry Potter actors such as Rupert Grint chimed in and stood against what Rowling had said…
Backing both Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, Grint said he fully supports the Trans community.
Writing: “Trans women are women. Trans men are men.”
The Harry Potter reunion, called Return to Hogwarts, saw Radcliffe, Grint, Watson, and a host of other cast members come together on the twentieth anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
However, there was one particular person missing from the show…
But the star has revealed the real reason…
“I was asked to be on that and I decided I didn’t want to do it. It was about the films more than the books,” she said.
“Quite rightly, that was what the anniversary was about. I was asked to do it and I decided not to,” Rowling claimed.
Since then, Rowling received a lot of heat from her no longer fans on Twitter.
But her response revealed that she is not bothered about losing fans…
One user tweeted: “How do you sleep at night knowing you’ve lost a whole audience from buying your books?”
Rowling responded to the tweet, and said: “I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”
Rowling’s response has caused quite the outrage online with one user calling her “JK SAVAGE.”
Many were quick to support Rowling in the comments, stating the impact the Harry Potter series had on them, their children, or their students as young readers.
“I was a school governor in the mid 2000’s getting boys to read was a MASSIVE pedagogical issue to which there was no solution and then along came the wonderful @jk_rowling,” one user tweeted.
However, there were a few who couldn’t help but look past the transphobic comment she previously made.
“You singled out and vilified an extremely vulnerable minority group,” journalist Walker Bragman tweeted in response to the comment. “I can’t help but think about kids who are struggling with their identity and just want acceptance. You, with your massive platform, have made it harder for them. And that sucks.”
But the latest news comes from a former Harry Potter star…
Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in the franchise’s movies, has come to Rowling’s defense.
The fifty-six-year-old actress said she thought the attacks on Rowling were “horrendous.”
As per The Independent, she said: “I think [Rowling] has been hounded.
“It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse.
“Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain.”
“You don’t all have to agree on everything,” she continued.
“That would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
When asked about her younger Harry Potter co-stars who had criticized Rowling, Bonham Carter also had something to say…
“Personally, I feel they should let her have her opinions, but I think they’re very aware of protecting their own fan base and their generation,” she said, as per People.
The Crown star went on to discuss her close friend, and godfather to her children, Johnny Depp’s position in the wake of his defamation trial against Amber Heard.
“Oh, I think he’s completely vindicated,” Bonham Carter admitted.”I think he’s fine now. Totally fine.”
Bonham Carter also had a lot to say about the “pendulum of #MeToo swinging back”…
She added: “My view is that [Heard] got on that pendulum. That’s the problem with these things – that people will jump on the bandwagon because it’s the trend and to be the poster girl for it.”
