#‘Harry Potter’ star Robbie Coltrane defends J.K. Rowling’s transgender remarks

Enlarge Image

Robbie Coltrane says critics are “just hanging around waiting to be offended” by J.K. Rowling.
Getty Images; FilmMagic

Robbie Coltrane, who starred as the hairy Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” film franchise, has come out swinging in defense of J.K. Rowling.

The actor told Radio Times that people expressing outrage about the author’s controversial comments about the transgender community “just hang around waiting to be offended.”

Rowling, 55, ignited ongoing allegations of transphobia in June after taking issue with an article that used the phrase “people who menstruate,” inspiring in a thread of incendiary tweets in which the Hogwarts honcho argued, “If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.”

Coltrane doubled down on his defense of Rowling, the Independent reported, saying “I don’t think what she said was offensive really. I don’t know why but there’s a whole Twitter generation of people who hang around waiting to be offended. They wouldn’t have won the war, would they?”

The 70-year-old actor then admitted he sounds “like a grumpy old man, but you just think, ‘Oh, get over yourself. Wise up, stand up straight and carry on,’ ” Coltrane said before shutting down the topic.

He said he didn’t want to comment any further “because of all the hate mail and all that s - - t — which I don’t need at my time of life.”

Coltrane’s comments are making international headlines on the day Rowling published her book titled “Troubled Blood,” about a male serial killer who dresses in women’s clothing while going on bloody murder sprees.

On Monday, social-media warriors roasted Rowling, declaring her “dead” and pushing #RIPJKRowling to the top of the Twitter trending charts.

“In memory of jk rowling. she ain’t dead, but she killed her own career by proudly hating trans people & no one would really miss her that much anyway,” wrote one Twitter user.

Others spoke out explaining why some consider the storyline to be offensive.

“JK Rowling’s new book’s about a ‘transvestite serial killer,’ ” one outraged tweeter posted. “Meanwhile over in the real world the number of trans people killed in Brazil has risen by 70% this past year, young trans women are left to burn in cars and men who kill us (for being trans) are pardoned and sent home.”