Adult Man Auditions to Play Hermione in Harry Potter Show
If you didn’t think the Harry Potter casting call could get any weirder, buckle up. As you probably know by now, Warner Bros. is developing an HBO TV series based on the landmark series of fantasy novels from J.K. Rowling, and a casting call went out in September encouraging aspiring stars to send in audition tapes to play the three lead characters, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. So far, over 30,000 audition tapes have come in, which isn’t surprising considering how beloved Harry Potter is. The casting call said that Warner Bros. was “committed to inclusive, diverse casting” and asked for auditions “without regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated.” Well, they got the diversity they keep insisting they want. According to The Daily Mail, a 43-year-old man auditioned for the role of Hermione, Harry’s female friend who was previously played by Emma Watson. To be fair, the casting call did specify they wanted actors who will be between the ages of 9 and 11 this coming April, but when you go so far as to say the sex or gender identity of the applicant for any role doesn’t matter, you’re asking for a big bowl of crazy.
I know normal people are on this page already – they wouldn’t be normal otherwise – but are the woke loons who think they’re saving the world one gender reassignment at a time starting to understand that this is where their insanity leads? If you don’t find the idea of an adult man auditioning to play a young girl in a children’s show disturbing, there’s something wrong with you. Of course, Warner Bros. was smart enough to toss this audition in the garbage where it belongs. (If Disney had the rights to Harry Potter, this would be a very different story.) But the general Hollywood push towards identity politics and DEI hiring – particularly over things like storytelling and talent – opened the door for something like this to happen; in fact, I’d be very surprised if it hasn’t happened before with other roles and productions, and the producers and studios kept it quiet because they knew how creepy it was. Ultimately, I don’t think this will have much of an impact on the show’s ratings since the guy didn’t get the part. But it’s a reminder of the kind of deviance Hollywood has embraced and welcomed into the mainstream, lest we forget what these people are really like.
It’s also interesting watching the press dance around how disturbing this is. The Daily Mail treats this audition as though it’s normal, calling the freak “the 42-year-old Hermione hopeful” and writing off his rejection by saying he “[failed] at the first hurdle.” The rub is that they clearly know how crazy this is because it’s the headline, the first sentence, and the entire basis for their article; they’re trying to have it both ways, signaling their virtue while using the outlandishness of the audition to attract readers. Even worse is CBR.com, whose piece on the topic does the same thing as The Daily Mail in using the absurdity of the story to get clicks while treating it as if it’s totally normal, but goes even further by calling out J.K. Rowling’s “problematic views on the LGBTQ+ community.”Those “problematic views” involve holding the opinion that biological men should not be allowed in women’s only spaces, like restrooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters, and the like. Well… doesn’t this story suggest she has a point? An adult playing a child character of the opposite sex is crazy, and no normal person would want the other child actors around him. Even just in terms of playing Hermione, aside from the potential physical violence involved depending on the sport, this wouldn’t be much different from a transgender athlete winning a sports trophy in a women’s competition. Rowling’s staunchest critics seem determined to make her argument for her again and again. Thankfully, they’re not getting their way this time.
Let us know what you think of an adult man auditioning to play Hermione on the Harry Potter show in the comments!
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