Daniel Radcliffe has been left "really sad" by J.K. Rowling's comments about the trans community

He told The Atlantic: "It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic."

Daniel acknowledged the author - who has hasn't spoken to directly since the row began - had played a key role in the path his life has taken, but insisted that doesn't mean he "owes" his beliefs to her.

He said: "Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn't mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life."

Last month, in response to the publication of the Cass review - which claimed, among other recommendations, there was no good evidence to promote puberty-blocking treatments for trans-identifying young people - Rowling insisted she wouldn't forgive stars who had spoken out against her, including Daniel and his Harry Potter co-stars.

When one fan said they were "just waiting for Dan and Emma [Watson" to offer a "very public apology" knowing they'd be safe in the knowledge the author would forgive them, she wrote: "Not safe I'm afraid. Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces,"

In response, Daniel has now said: "I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that."

The 'Kill Your Darlings' actor has long been a supporter of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide-prevention hotline and crisis-intervention resource, and he felt he had to speak out against Rowling in the wake of her initial tweets in 2020 when she questioned the use of the phrase "people who menstruate" in place of "women".

He said: "I'd worked with the Trevor Project for 12 years and it would have seemed like, I don't know, immense cowardice to me to not say something.

"I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments.

"And to say that if those are Jo's views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise."