Evanna Lynch, Luna Lovegood Actress, New Tone Deaf Interview

[RAMROD 105,059]

On her support to Imperialism:

On the first day of rehearsals of her new plays, the cast shared their own backgrounds and views. Lynch had always subconsciously considered nationalists the “good guys”, she tells me when we meet in the theatre’s bar. “I’d had this nice chat with one of the cast – he was so friendly. And then when it got to his turn to share about himself, he said he was a unionist, Protestant, and that he would have seen some of the political figures on the republican side as the devil. I immediately had this sense of ‘Ahh! I thought you were one of us!’ I was sort of holding on to this righteous republican angle, but I live in London. I’m enjoying the benefits of the British Empire, I love my life here, so I think it was right that I’ve been challenged.”

 

Her thoughts on Cancel Culture:

“During the height of the Troubles, the way of dealing with it was to kind of shut down people who disagree with you,” she says. “And I do see a parallel in today’s whole cancel culture thing. I just don’t feel comfortable with this idea that if you don’t like what people are saying, you silence them. I do think the next step is violence, really. I think it’s a similar mindset.”

 

 

On her support to J.K. Rowling and her TERF stance:

In 2020, the Potter creator JK Rowling tweeted an article referring to “people who menstruate” and said: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” 

Three days later, after an intervention by Harry himself, Daniel Radcliffe, Lynch posted a lengthy response. “I won’t be helping to marginalise trans women and men further,” she wrote, adding: “I think it’s irresponsible to discuss such a delicate topic over Twitter through fragmented thoughts and I wish Jo wouldn’t … That said, as a friend and admirer of Jo I can’t forget what a generous and loving person she is.” Headlines accused her and fellow castmates of being “Wizards of Woke” responsible for a “great betrayal”. Meanwhile, fans lashed out at Lynch for trying to posit any defence of Rowling at all. The actress soon closed her Twitter account.

I ask Lynch, as someone who loves people on both sides of the gender debate, if she is any wiser on how to bring the two together. She takes a big intake of breath.

“I was very naive when I was dragged into that conversation,” she says. “I didn’t even know there were two sides. I had a view of, like, good and bad. I do have compassion for both sides of the argument. I know what it was like to be a teenager who hated my body so much I wanted to crawl out of my skin, so I have great compassion for trans people and I don’t want to add to their pain.

“I do also think it’s important that JK Rowling has been amplifying the voices of detransitioners. I had this impulse to go, ‘Let’s all just stop talking about it’, and I think probably I’m a bit braver now about having uncomfortable conversations.”

She says she was shocked by the backlash against Rowling “especially when she wrote her essay [revealing experiences in her unhappy first marriage]. I just felt that her character has always been to advocate for the most vulnerable members of society. The problem is that there’s a disagreement over who’s the most vulnerable. I do wish people would just give her more grace and listen to her.” 

Lynch, who sent Rowling a copy of her 2021 memoir, says she will “always defend her character” and would happily work on Potter projects again: “These books formed me and JK Rowling inspired me. She inspires me still.”

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/harry-potters-evanna-lynch-jk-rowling-has-always-advocated-vulnerable/

[ProfessionalClown 10,640]

Idk much bout fish n chip country to understand her views on the British thing tbh

[Mitchey 875]

Big yikes. Come on, Luna. A disagreement on who the most vulnerable are in our society? Trans people are murdered DAILY by people who would praise Rowling’s stance. And it’s because that rhetoric is DANGEROUS. 

[Future Lovers 6,552]

As unfortunate it as it is, I can't help but feel she's very much a product of her environment. That isn't an excuse, but it certainly makes this unsurprising.

I can't claim to know a ton about British culture, but I've been told by my friends of mine who live in the UK and even seen it for myself since so many of these topics became commonplace on social media that by and large it's a culture that hasn't yet made significant progress on these specific social issues. I mean the support for JKR over there is quite substantial to the point that I'd say you'd be more likely to find a supporter of her's on the street than a dissenter. 

It's an ignorance that's pretty widespread there. It's been observed by several commentators that transphobia and TERFism is unusually high in the UK compared to other western countries to the point that other European nations have specifically called them out. 

Their media skews conservative, their politicians can't seem to make a firm stance on trans rights no matter which party they belong to, and the public generally speaking seems to be undereducated on the facts of the transgender conversation (though in fairness, this also applies to many other countries). 

This is why I'm hardly ever shocked when a story breaks of someone from the cast taking these stances. It's what they know, and unfortunately they're not going to find many opportunities for education easily at home. It's no surprise that the ones who're most adamantly against JKR are the ones who've most broken out just being a British centric celebrity. 

To learn, they'd have to look further and reach out beyond what's immediately in front of them, but they'd have to first become aware of how limited their perspectives are and I'm not sure what's going to make that happen. 

It's sad, and I hope that this issue in particular begins to see improvement in the United Kingdom. 

[Head Empty 24,326]

One thing I agree on is that silencing the "opposing party" is a bad move. Conversations on difficult subjects shouldn't turn into polarizing monologues. It completely blocks the possibility of creating understanding on either side of the conversation.

To me it seems Evanna isn't informed about the intricacies of the subject. Her thoughts seem scattered, which makes sense because J.K. has ment a lot to her personally. 

[nATAH 43,529]

[alsemanche 92,076]

Yikes @ all of this 

[Ziggy 10,782]

Sounds like she just doesn’t want to really think someone is bad tbh and that’s about it Lmao so she’ll “both sides” something as a way of pretending something is more complex and thus warrants a caution of opinion so she doesn’t have to claim a specific stance. Ofc no choice is still a choice and you wind up with these very bizarre responses. Her initial JKR response was a better example of that done well bc now it’s just defending one side bc you believe it needs its views amplified more than the other bc you perceive one to have its views more loudly proclaimed. So you wind up defending the thing you didn’t really want to defend in the first place necessarily. It’s very passive. But also makes sense when you remember she got a lot of **** from TERFy potterheads for her original response