Keira Knightley “Not Aware” Of Boycott When She Joined New ‘Potter’ Audiobook

Keira Knightley has apologised after learning about the Harry Potter boycott, saying she was “not aware” of the campaign when she signed on to play Professor Umbridge in the upcoming audio book adaptation of the Potter books.

Knightley is part of a 200-strong cast of voice actors on the seven-part Audible project, which includes notable names such as Kit Harington, Hugh Laurie, Simon Pegg, and James McAvoy, to name a few.

In a recent interview with Decider, Knightley has said that she didn’t know about calls to boycott the Harry Potter franchise, a movement that’s emerged in response to author JK Rowling’s transphobic views.

“I was not aware of that, no,” she said, before adding, “I’m very sorry.

“I think we’re all living in a period of time right now where we’re all going to have to figure out how to live together, aren’t we?” she said. “And we’ve all got very different opinions. I hope that we can all find respect.”

Her response and apology fall pretty flat considering Rowling has been vocally anti-trans for a little over five years now, with former fans encouraging others to boycott Rowling’s work for nearly just as long. This year has seen a wave of new Harry Potter ventures, including a HBO television series and a new video game, all of which Rowling is involved in producing.

“A lost cause” claim former friends

The boycott isn’t simply a moral one- with a net worth reportedly sitting at around £820 million, equivalent to than $1 billion AUD, Rowling regularly contributes her own money towards transphobic advocacy. She’s previously donated tens of thousands of pounds to For Women Scotland, helping to fund a legal case on the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman and sex, resulting in the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year defining women as based on their biological sex assigned at birth.

In May, Rowling launched The JK Rowling Women’s Fund to support individuals and organisations facing legal action for “protecting their sex-based rights”, which she’s financing with her own fortune.

Former friends of Rowling’s have said that the once-beloved author has been “radicalised by TERFS”, with Stephen Fry saying in June that she now appeared to be a “lost cause”.

Only last month, Rowling publicly responded to Harry Potter star Emma Watson’s comments that she still held love for the author, and would never be able to “cancel” her despite her transphobic views.

In an extensive post to X, Rowling claimed that Watson was too privileged to be well informed about trans rights, writing that she “has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is.”

She went on to list some transphobic dogwhistle scenarios where cis women are allegedly placed in dangerous situations by the presence of a trans woman, such as bathrooms, pools, and rape crisis centres.

“I wasn’t a multimillionaire at fourteen,” Rowling wrote. “I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.”

“The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me – a change of tack I suspect she’s adopted because she’s noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was – I might never have been this honest.”