Non-binary Jimpa star says John Lithgow’s role in Harry Potter is ‘hurtful’

Aud Mason-Hyde, one of the stars of Jimpa, and the film’s director have described John Lithgow’s casting in the upcoming Harry Potter series as “hurtful”.

Mason-Hyde, who is non-binary, stars as the teenager Frances in their parent Sophie Hyde’s film. Frances, also non-binary, travels with their mum, Hannah (Olivia Colman) to Amsterdam to see their grandfather, Jim/’Jimpa’ (Lithgow) who is gay.

Frances informs Hannah they wish to stay for longer than initially planned in the hopes of connecting with Amsterdam’s queer community. This leads Hannah to look back at her life as well as her relationships. 

Speaking to Out about the film, due to be released in the UK some time in 2026, Mason-Hyde shared how they felt about Lithgow taking the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s remake of the Harry Potter series. The decision has come with some backlash, as has the series as a whole, due to JK Rowling’s views on trans people.

“It was definitely a difficult moment,” the young actor said. And while they didn’t want to offer a take on Lithgow’s reasoning for taking the role, Mason-Hyde said it was “a strange decision, for sure”. They then called it “disconcerting”.

Hyde added: “It’s a very difficult thing. As soon as I heard about Harry Potter, for sure, I contacted John and expressed my feelings about it.” Hyde explained they took issue with it due to Rowling‘s use of her platform against trans people. This she’s made tangible by funding “very harmful” ‘gender-critical’ legal efforts.

Rowling confirmed last year that she had donated to For Women Scotland, the ‘gender-critical’ group that helped to fund a legal case on the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman and sex, resulting in a Supreme Court ruling that the definitions relate to “biological women” and “biological sex”.

“That funding is doing a great deal of harm,” Hyde continued. The Jimpa director and co-writer then said Lithgow is someone who “really believes in trans rights”, adding to the confusion over why he took the Harry Potter role given the association with Rowling.

Rowling is acting as an executive producer on the series despite Lithgow recently saying she’s “not really involved”. Even if she wasn’t, as the author of the source material, Rowling was always going to profit from the series and has made it painfully clear that she wants to use some of her vast wealth to help the ‘gender critical’ movement.

Mason-Hyde praised Lithgow as an “incredibly talented actor” and “a beautiful human” before going on to say: “So there’s an element of this that feels vaguely hurtful.” They then said that it “can’t take away from what we had and the time that we spent together”.

Speaking the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) earlier this month, Lithgow touched on Rowling saying he found her views “inexplicable” given the Harry Potter series is about “acceptance”.

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