Emma Watson Says There’s ‘No World in Which I Could Ever Cancel’ J.K. Rowling: ‘No One Is Disposable’

Emma Watson is opening up about her complicated relationship with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

In Watson's lengthy interview with Jay Shetty on the Sept. 24 episode of The Jay Shetty Podcast, the actress addressed the state of her relationship with Rowling, 60, who previously said Watson and her Potter costar Daniel Radcliffe can "save their apologies" for publicly opposing her anti-transgender comments.

"I really don't believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, mean that I can't and don't treasure Jo and the person that I, that I had personal experiences with," Watson, 35, said. "I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don't get to keep and cherish I to come back to our earlier thing. Like I just don't think these things are either or."

"I think it's my deepest wish that I, I hope people who don't agree with my opinion will love me and I hope I can keep loving people who I don't necessarily share the same opinion with," she added. "I guess where I've landed it, it's not so much what we say or what we believe, it's how we say it. I just see this world right now where we seem to giving permission to this throwing out of people, or that people are disposable. I will always think that's wrong."

"I just believe that no one is disposable," continued Watson. "And everyone as far as possible, whatever the conversation is, should and can be treated with, at the very least, dignity and respect." 

Watson famously costarred with Radcliffe, 36, and Rupert Grint as the lead three characters in the movie adaptations of Rowling's Harry Potter novels, released between 2001 and 2011. Rowling has attracted considerable controversy in recent years for making anti-transgender comments, as well as her support for others with transphobic views.

Back in 2020, both Watson and Radcliffe publicly expressed support for the transgender community in response to an essay that Rowling shared that criticized transgender rights.

As Shetty noted during the podcast, Rowling also implied in a March 2025 X post that her disagreements with Watson and Radcliffe have negatively impacted her impression of the Potter films. 

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"I think the thing I'm most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible," Watson told Shetty of the situation. When Shetty asked if Watson is "open for that dialogue" with Rowling, the actress agreed, though she said she does not "want to say anything that continues to weaponize a really toxic debate and conversation, which is why I don't comment or continue to comment."

Watson also noted Rowling's "kindness and words of encouragement and steadfastness" toward her in the past, noting that she received an opportunity that "barely exists in the history of English literature" to portray a character like Harry Potter's Hermione Granger through Rowling's series. "There is just no world in which I could ever cancel her out for, or cancel that out, for anything. It has to remain true — it is true," she added.

"I can love her, I can know she loved me, I can be grateful to her, I can know the things that she said are true, and there can be this whole other thing," Watson said. "My job feels like to just hold all of it, but the bigger thing is just what she's done will never be taken away from me."