When you’re a 79-year-old, multi-award-winning actor, you don’t pay much attention when the cancel culture comes knocking at your door. 

Actor John Lithgow, famed for his roles in “The World According to Garp” and “Terms of Endearment,” isn’t falling for the made-up controversy about his decision to play Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming Max series based on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter serial. The British author has raised hackles with her frank criticism of the transgender community over the past several years.

When asked whether the left-wing criticism of Ms. Rowling made him consider rejecting the classic role, Mr. Lithgow said: “Oh, heavens no.”

“I thought, why is this a factor at all? I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it,” he told the Times of London. “I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her and I’m curious to talk to her.” 

“It’s so interesting to me at this moment in my life, when I’ve always loved entertaining kids, that I should be engaged with these writers — J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl — who are geniuses at entertaining kids but have had crises among adults,” Mr. Lithgow added.

In his later years, Dahl espoused antisemetic sentiments, saying in 1983, that “there is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. … Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

Blowback for the “3rd Rock From the Sun” actor for his refusal to kowtow to Harry Potter’s adversaries has been fierce. Ms. Rowling — who has said, “No child is ‘born in the wrong body,'” and declared that adults are the ones promoting transgender ideology — has been deemed a TERF, or trans-exclusionary radical feminist. 

Mr. Lithgow said he first became aware of the coming storm when a friend, the mother of a transgender child, sent him the link to an article titled, “An Open Letter to John Lithgow: Please Walk Away from Harry Potter.” 

“Thanks to Rowling’s actions, Harry Potter as a franchise has become synonymous with transphobia. As someone who grew up with the series and adored it, it’s heartbreaking to admit, but it’s true,” the article stated. 

“That’s why I’m writing to you today, asking for you to walk away from your role in Harry Potter. Your name lends credence to the adaptation, and by extension, it helps to grow J.K. Rowling’s platform to further her crusade against trans people’s rights. Stepping away would send a message to trans young people that they matter more than a fantasy franchise,” the letter, which has no author byline but is signed “a fan,” said.

In another twist of irony, the letter points out that Mr. Lithgow played Roberta Muldoon, a trans woman character, in 1982’s “Garp,” saying he “decided to underplay everything [and] make her a perfectly normal person.” He also played a gay man in “Love is Strange” in 2014, and starred as the eponymous main character in “Jimpa,” the story of a gay grandfather to a nonbinary grandchild, in 2025.

Mr. Lithgow’s innocuous claim that he doesn’t see what all the fuss is about prompted a scathing piece in the far-left Deadline.com, which could hardly contain its ire in an epic 59-word lead that featured not one but two dependent clauses. 

“Despite the ire toward and denouncement of J.K. Rowling from such colleagues like Nicola Coughlan, Pedro Pascal and David Tennant, and amid the rise of anti-trans rhetoric from the presidential administration, John Lithgow is befuddled at how the author’s sentiments factor into his decision to step into the role of Albus Dumbledore in HBO‘s forthcoming Harry Potter serialized adaptation,” the article on the site said.

Still, Mr. Lithgow sees the role as a fitting end to his lengthy career, and he’s well aware that Richard Harris died while portraying the wizard in the films, and that his replacement, Michael Gambon, died not long after hanging up his crooked staff.

“It was a big decision because it’s probably the last major role I’ll play. It’s an eight-year commitment so I was just thinking about mortality and that this is a very good winding-down role,” Mr. Lithgow said.