Leave it to the actor who played Hermoine Granger — the great liberator of elves — to stand up for everyone’s rights.
A snippet from an interview Emma Watson did with author and activist Paris Lees in 2019 for British Vogue has been making the rounds online, with many people praising the Harry Potter star for her remarks on transgender issues.
In the viral clip, Paris, who is trans, asks Emma if she would feel comfortable with her using a public women’s toilet.
“Oh my god, of course,” Emma says with zero hesitation.
Paris then asks the Little Women star what she would say to those who would feel uncomfortable with sharing a public toilet with Paris.
“That’s another human being,” Emma says.
“I understand fearing what you don’t know,” Emma continued. “I understand kind of being like, ‘I don’t really understand this, I’ve never met someone [trans].’ But go ... go learn, go speak ... go look into the whites of someone’s eyes that’s had this experience and tell me after you’ve done that … there’s any part of you that feels it’s OK to make that person not feel included.”
In a full video of Emma’s interview with Paris, the actor elaborates on how she feels that “making people feel not included” is “such a painful, awful thing to do.”
“It has such big effects,” she said. “I guess what I would ask them is, ’Have you ever felt that you weren’t included? Have you ever felt yourself not welcome somewhere?”
The short clip of Emma, which was first shared on TikTok before moving to Twitter, has caused the actor’s name to trend on the social media platform since the weekend.
Emma’s 2019 comments may have found renewed resonance online due to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s beliefs about the trans community, which she has been consistently sharing publicly since 2019 when she expressed support for Maya Forstater — a researcher who lost her job after tweeting about sex and gender, which were initially condemned by a court as “incompatible with human dignity.” On appeal, a High Court judge ruled that the tribunal “erred in law” and ordered a new tribunal to take up the matter.
Emma’s British Vogue interview with Paris was originally published around the same time Rowling initially showed support for Forstater.
Since Rowling initially made her opinions public, many former and present Harry Potter stars have spoken out against her including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) and Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect Maya Forstater’s appeal.