Helena Bonham Carter, an English actress, is speaking out against cancel culture, particularly concerning her frequent co-star Johnny Depp and novelist J.K. Rowling.
Carter, 56, spoke with The Times about Depp and Rowling being hated by the people and the media.
“I hate cancel culture. It has become quite hysterical and there’s a kind of witch-hunt and a lack of understanding,” Carter said.
Following his defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard, in which a Virginia jury awarded him $10 million, the actress stated Depp was “completely vindicated.” Carter appeared in seven films with Depp, who is the godfather of Carter’s children with her ex, filmmaker Tim Burton.
The interviewer asked if the trial was indicative of the “pendulum of #MeToo swinging back,” to which Carter replied that she thinks “(Heard) got on that pendulum. That’s the problem with these things – that people will jump on the bandwagon because it’s the trend and to be the poster girl for it.”
Carter stated that the tremendous pushback against Rowling is due in part to the millionaire “Harry Potter” author’s celebrity. She believes the outrage “wouldn’t be as great” if Rowling hadn’t been “the most phenomenal success.”
“I think there’s a lot of envy unfortunately and the need to tear people down that motors a lot of this canceling,” the “Sweeney Todd” star said. “It’s horrendous, a load of bollocks. I think she has been hounded. It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people.”
“She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse,” Carter continued. “Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain. You don’t all have to agree on everything — that would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
The actress’s comments contradict most of the “Harry Potter” cast members. Many of them came out against Rowling, stating they support transgender individuals while also condemning the franchise’s author for believing in women’s biological reality.
Recently, actor Daniel Radcliffe stated that it was critical to join in on the transgender debate and take sides against Rowling.
“The reason I was felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing ‘Potter,’ I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that,” the 33-year-old actor told IndieWire.
“And so seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way,” Radcliffe said.