Dan is a MovieWeb contributor with bylines at Yahoo, NME, Total Film, The Guardian, Digital Spy, and Little White Lies.
His specialisms are movies, TV series, and celebrities, and he loves nothing more than sitting down for a chat with talent from behind and in front of the camera.
HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series was too significant of an opportunity for John Lithgow to turn down. Best known amongst fans of Dexter (in which he played the Trinity Killer), Shrek (Lord Farquaad), 3rd Rock from the Sun (Dick Solomon), and most recently Conclave (Cardinal Tremblay), the award-winning actor will appear in the J. K. Rowling adaptations as Professor Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, yet the job itself was somewhat marred by controversy surrounding the franchise’s creator.
For the past seven years, author Rowling has fiercely defended women’s rights and earned herself a reputation as anti-transgender. This has paved the way for widespread scrutiny, with Potter stars Miriam Margoyles, Daniel Radcliffe, and Emma Watson all chiming into the conversation. But not everybody has been so quick to jump on the bandwagon, as Jim Broadbent previously called the situation “really sad” and now Lithgow has told Variety at the Rotterdam Film Festival that he even pushed back against those who wanted him to discard the chance to play Dumbledore.
“She has created this amazing canon for young people and it has jumped into the consciousness of the society. It’s about good versus evil, kindness versus cruelty. I find her views ironic and inexplicable. I’ve never met her, she’s not really involved in this production at all. But the people who are, are remarkable.
“It upsets me when people are opposed to me having anything to do with this. But in Potter canon you see no trace of transphobic sensitivity. She’s written this meditation of kindness and acceptance. And Dumbledore is a beautiful role. It was a hard decision. It made me uncomfortable and unhappy that people insisted I walk away from the job. I chose not to do that.”
One attendee at the film festival reportedly called him out for these comments right there and then, claiming “things like these don’t help”, leading the star to add: “I’m perfectly ready for collisions of opinion. I understand it.”
First Photos of John Lithgow’s Wizard Are Dynamite
For anybody out there sitting on the fence about HBO’s ambitious Potter project, which will commit one entire season to each of Rowling’s seven books, the first look at Lithgow in costume might just erase any niggling doubts. Snapped during the filming of a beach scene, his Dumbledore is of course long-bearded and bespectacled, but there’s also a striking dark long coat that separates him from both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon’s incarnations. The gravity this possesses beats the soft pajamariness of the movies any day.
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One element that seems to be bothering fans, though, is the setting of these snaps. At no point in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone does the powerful wizard find himself in the sand dunes. HBO is already putting its marker down, it seems.
Harry Potter Like Adventure Family Fantasy Showrunner Francisca Gardiner Directors Mark Mylod Writers Francesca Gardiner Franchise(s) Harry Potter Cast See All Dominic McLaughlin Harry Potter Janet McTeer Minerva McGonagall John Lithgow Albus Dumbledore Nick Frost Hagrid
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