John Lithgow on Dumbledore Role Amid Rowling Controversy

0:00Stay tapped into pop culture in two minutes or less with entertainment and celebrity news today. John Lithgow has been cast as Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, but he almost walked away from the role. The main issue stemmed from backlash over author JK Rowling's views on transgender rights since she is also an executive producer on the show. Lithgow's recent part in the film Jimpa, where he plays the grandfather of a trans child, fueled much of the criticism. People questioned how he could join a project tied to Rowling after that empathetic performance. His co-star in Jimpa, Odd Mason Hyde, who plays the non-binary grandchild, described the casting news as disconcerting. Even so, the film's director Sophie Hyde praised Lithgow's deep humanity in his work. In a recent New York Times interview, Lithgow revealed the pressure nearly pushed him to quit, but he chose to stay. He accepts that questions about this will follow him in every future interview. Lithgow enjoys tackling complex, controversial figures, like his current Broadway role as Roll Doll.

1:05For him, acting means diving into all sides of human experience to build understanding.