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As you might expect from someone still actively ensconced in the Harry Potter franchise, once and future Draco Malfoy Tom Felton is still quite deferential to author J.K. Rowling. On Sunday, the actor appeared on the Tony Awards red carpet in his first public appearance since announcing his Broadway debut in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child. With some fans critical of any association with Rowling and her brand, Felton was inevitably asked about the “controversy” surrounding the author (i.e., her transphobia). He told Variety the controversy doesn’t impact him, and in fact, he’s not much “attuned” to it at all. However, he said he likes to remind himself that he’s been lucky enough to travel the world, and “I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter. She’s responsible for that, so I’m incredibly grateful.”
This echoes comments Felton previously made in 2022, when he told The Independent he didn’t “know enough about the specifics of what anyone said.” (For him to claim that he’s still not “attuned” to her transphobic activities, even three years later, seems highly doubtful.) While he described himself to The Times that year as someone who doesn’t “pick sides,” he added that though he’d only had a few meetings with Rowling she was always “lovely” and he is “grateful” for “her positive work in that field and as a person.”
This is a different tack than the one taken by the film series’ three main leads, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, who all spoke in support of the transgender community amid Rowling’s descent into trans-exclusionary radical feminism. The Daily Mail reported a rumor (which you can obviously take with a big grain of salt) that Felton had endeared himself to Rowling by refraining from criticism: “Everyone knows that Tom has Jo’s blessing,” a “source” told the outlet. “While others turned their backs on her, he treated her with dignity even if he disagreed with her. And now it seems he will be the one original cast member who will be involved with the new production.” He wouldn’t be acting in the upcoming HBO series, but the source claimed there was “talk of getting him involved in creating behind-the-scenes content for HBO which could form part of a documentary about the making of the TV show.”
True or not, Felton has apparently managed to stay in the good graces of all the franchise’s power players, including Rowling’s nemeses on the other side of the transphobia debate. “My old school chum, Potter, [Daniel] Radcliffe, has done quite a bit of Broadway, so he’s holding my hand and certainly helping me through all the things that are hard to learn,” Felton revealed to People at the Tonys. “But from what I gather, it’s an amazing community of people. The fans are really, really gracious and excited. So I’m just thrilled to be part of it.”
