J.K. Rowling Calls Out Racism Over Dumezweni’s Casting In Cursed Child

J.K. Rowling and director John Tiffany fire back at the racism that continues to circulate after Noma Dumezweni’s casting in Cursed Child.

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Controversy has followed the much-anticipated Harry Potter and the Cursed Child since the role of Hermione Granger was filled by one Noma Dumezweni, an award-winning actress whose skin color has prompted more talk than her professional achievements and merit. The fact that a black woman will be portraying Hermione onstage has thrown the internet into a frenzy and, while much of the response has been resoundingly positive, there’s still a flipside to the coin.

J.K. Rowling acknowledged this in a recent interview with The Guardian.

"“I thought that idiots were going to idiot. But what can you say? That’s the way the world is. Noma was chosen because she was the best actress for the job.”"

But of course, when racism rears its ugly head, those spewing it will not be deterred. Rowling elaborated, “I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione ‘turned white’—that is, lost color from her face after a shock—that she must be a white woman.”

The detail Rowling is referring to occurs in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry and Hermione use the Time-Turner to go back to save Sirius and Buckbeak. It’s a rather obscure and definitely weak reference that you’d likely only notice if you were really looking for evidence to prove Hermione’s race, and it’s hardly proof at all.

And so we see that it is indeed plain racism that is fueling complaints of Dumezweni’s casting. You can attempt to source Hermione’s whiteness all you like, but what does it matter? In a world where characters are whitewashed in media—see: well-deserved flops such as Prince of Persia, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Dragonball: Evolution, and even beloved classics like West Side Story and Breakfast at Tiffany’s—why shouldn’t we turn the tables? Laurence Olivier may have been a seasoned Shakespearean, but that doesn’t mean he should have been cast as Othello in the 1965 film of the same name, and things haven’t progressed too much since. Representation is vital, and Cursed Child has become one of its stepping stones.

Rowling went on to shrug off the complaints, and continues to support Dumezweni with great enthusiasm. Since the casting news hit the internet and was met with a myriad of reactions from celebration to curiosity to contempt, Rowling has pointed out more than once that there’s no reason Hermione has to be canonically white, as her race is never specified in the text.

Now, I’ll be honest: Do I think JKR intended Hermione to be any race but white? No, I don’t, but authorial intent often takes a backseat to reader interpretation, and she’s been fully supportive of Noma Dumezweni since her casting announcement. As has director John Tiffany, who cast her in the first place, and who is more surprised than Rowling at the ensuing racism.

"“I am not as Twitter-familiar as Jo and Jack [Thorne, the Cursed Child playwright], so I hadn’t encountered its dark side, which is just awful. But what shocked me was the way people couldn’t visualize a non-white person as the hero of a story. It’s therefore brilliant that this has happened.”"

I hate to break it to you, Mr. Tiffany, but this isn’t just the dark side of the internet—it’s a constant state of the world we live in. White people may be shocked and often ignorant of how prevalent racism still is, but our complete personal inexperience with the negative impacts of racism doesn’t change the fact that racism is a continuing, damaging social structure. As Tiffany said, this is partly why Dumezweni’s casting is brilliant—because it expands representation in a widely beloved series, and can help pave the way for more representation in media.

Next: Rowling, Actors Tease How Great Cursed Child Is

As Corny Collins says in Hairspray, “Isn’t this where it’s all heading, anyway? Now you can fight it, or you can rock out to it!”

Time to apply that musical’s lesson in morality, kids. Dumezweni scored the role of Hermione for a reason, and if you’re not too busy with any racist hang-ups, you can rock out to her performance come July. I might not be able to sit in the audience myself but while I read my copy of the script, I’ll be envisioning Dumezweni as Hermione on every page.