Helena Bonham Carter defends JK Rowling, says she was ‘hounded’

"It's horrendous, a load of bollocks," the award-winning actress said about the backlash that JK Rowling faced. "I think she has been hounded."

Rowling was slammed by the leftist media in 2020, and even received death threats, for expressing perceived anti-trans sentiments in a series of tweets.

"If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives," she tweeted at the time. "It isn’t hate to speak the truth."

Bonham Carter spoke of her frustration about people being so quick to judge her.

"It's been taken to the extreme, the judgementalism of people," she said. "She's allowed her opinion, particularly if she's suffered abuse," referring to Rowling's revelation that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

"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," Bonham Carter added. "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."

Other stars who have come to Rowling's defense have felt the wrath of trans rights activists since then, such as Harry Potter star Tom Felton, who was attacked for publicly praising her for "bringing joy to so many different generations."

Bonham Carter also used her interview to talk about former co-star Johnny Depp, who was accused of domestic violence in a 2018 op-ed written by his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Following his six-week defamation trial against Heard this year, Bonham Carter says that he has been "completely vindicated."

Depp won his libel lawsuit against Heard and the jury awarded compensatory damages in the amount of $10 million, and punitive damages of $5 million.

In response to a question about whether this recent case represented the "pendulum of #MeToo swinging back," Bonham Carter said that 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," she added.