Like most people, I don’t think I could put a price on my friendships. These are people I’ve grown up alongside, who’ve seen me at my best and worst, and who I’d go to the ends of the Earth for. But, apparently, film icon John Lithgow prioritizes a hefty payday over his friends.
In an interview with Variety, Lithgow outlines a bizarre incident involving his casting in HBO’s Harry Potter remake show. This remake is proving to be a hot potato on all fronts, though primarily because J.K. Rowling just personally funded a successful legal battle to strip rights from and enforce discrimination against trans people in the United Kingdom.
Every actor clambering aboard HBO’s Hogwarts Express will be fully aware of this, especially as their social medias are now full of heartbroken fans pleading for them not to align themselves with Rowling. However, Lithgow has at least made his position clear: he doesn’t care.
“A very good friend who is the mother of a trans child” sent him an open letter pleading with him to walk away from Rowling. The letter praises Lithgow for his career-long “love and acceptance of the LGBTQ community”, pointing out that he said “Nobody in society should have to hide who they are, or feel like they’re second class citizens in any way”, and underlining that he scored an Oscar nomination in 1982 for playing a trans character.
The letter ends with a plea for Lithgow to “stand with trans young people” as the community “could use your now more than ever.” So, on one hand, you have your good friend’s emotional letter to you outlining how this would make you a massive hypocrite and urging you to do well, and on the other, you have a big HBO payday.
Lithgow told Variety the letter “was the canary in the coal mine”. But even if that bird chirped and flapped around a little, it was soon a rotting yellow lump on the cage floor. Lithgow’s takeaway was apparently… nothing: “I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’ I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her.”
Needless to say, fans of Lithgow are disgusted, with most wondering why he’d burn decades of goodwill for a payday that’ll make no material difference to his day-to-day life:
John Lithgow took the time to come straight out and say that he cares more about his last big paycheck than the harm caused by further enriching and empowering a well-known public bigot. https://t.co/q5hhH6tWnZ
— Gentleman Doofus (@GentleDoofus) April 28, 2025
John Lithgow, coming off a popular award winning film, getting ready to do the last role of his career by tarnishing his reputation to be in a mid remake TV series produced by a psycho for a paycheck he won’t live to fully enjoy anyway: pic.twitter.com/1R3ZcHedv4 https://t.co/gKICaio1Sk
— ₮ł₥Ø₮ⱧɎ (@TimothyYBarrett) April 28, 2025
JK Rowling makes it abundantly clear what she does with her money. It's all she talks about it. You can't feign ignorance about something like this and brush it off like it's all so silly. To know the facts and take that paycheck? No different than blood money.
— Brandon Streussnig (@BrndnStrssng) April 28, 2025
It’s deeply depressing to see an actor I deeply respected fritter away his reputation like this. But hey, Lithgow “just” has a net worth of around $50 million, so maybe the Rowling paycheque will mean he can finally afford that ivory backscratcher he’s been coveting all this time. What Rowling is doing with her money is evil but, as far as Lithgow is concerned, evil clearly pays.
Published: Apr 28, 2025 03:17 am