John Lithgow interview by Hadley Freeman

[CrossPurposes]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/c977616a-9dca-4304-90ac-ae0b6b35e742?shareToken=c020305c695b3290159c5f3aceaf8452

Meanwhile, Lithgow is still puzzling on something. “No one complained when I agreed to play Dahl, but I’ve received so many messages about JK Rowling. Isn’t that odd?”

It’s because antisemitism isn’t a fashionable cause. So no one gives a shit. In fact many of those claiming to stand for progressive values - which include trans rights, Palestinians etc - don’t give a flying fuck about antisemitism.

Also Dahl is dead and it's nowhere near as satisfying to be a keyboard warrior if you can't ruin a person's life.

And Dahl was male, of course.....

Fantastically insightful article, as always by Hadley.

I just love Lithgow's attitude.

Great interview, thanks for the share token. Refreshing to read an interview with an actor who can actually recognise that acting is exactly that, acting. It doesn’t have to be delivered with a dose of virtue signalling from their perceived moral high ground, especially considering the lives a lot of actors live, they’re hardly in a position to lecture anyone.

Excellent interview. Thanks for sharing.

great article, thanks

Thanks this was really interesting.

It's going to be interesting to see how the actors and crew in the new Harry Potter adaption will be treated, how much will they be targeted by the trans rights activists?

David Tennent must be so pissed off that he's missed out on 8 years of regular high profile work as Snape, he'd never top Alan Rickman, but he would have been a good fit I think.

The new three main young actors might keep their heads down and then, when it's finally finished, say they had no idea of how evil JKR was when they started up, they'll never speak to their parents again, they'll never speak to any of their adult co-stars again as they all have trans kids blood on their hands as they knew.

Such a pity Hadley had to leave the Guardian.

Tennant is far too old for Snape. (So was Alan Rickman, but he had the advantage of being Alan Rickman.)

@Icantstandupforlyingdown

Threats^ - very unsubtly veiled ones - were issued regarding voice actors for the full-cast audiobooks Amazon are doing; so sadly I fear it is inevitable.

^ primarily ones about destroying their livelihood, which worried me enough to contact JKR’s email elves, who passed it on to her legal team to deal with (the latter contacted me to thank me - for a very special moment I thought I was in trouble, no idea what for, but why use logic when blind panic is right there?)

I have long adored John Lithgow and am going to see him in Giant soon. But how on earth did neither Hadley nor John mention him brilliantly playing Roberta Muldoon on The World According to Garp? From memory, Roberta is a trans woman.

Lovely interview otherwise.

Thank you for sharing. What a great article.

There are so many booktubers I follow that have "declined" to read "Dream Count" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that was longlisted for the Women's Prize because of the author's views.

One of them has recently put forward the best books of the last 150 years and one of their picks was Enid Blyton's Five on Treasure Island arguing that although it was not necessarily great writing it would have been instrumental in so many children's childhoods. They obviously then ignore Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. So they can ignore Blyton's racism but can't resist the virtue signalling and repeatedly casting shade at Rowling and Ngozi Adichie. The cognitive dissonance, they must suffer must be astounding as they will be critical of book banning and those that don't want certain books in schools because of the themes and issues they explore.

The Indy has published an interview with the same talking points and quotes, but a headline about "Rowling's anti-trans stance".

Why am I not surprised?!