“Harry Potter” Alumna Bonnie Wright Slams 'People Who Don't Love People for Who They Are': 'There Are a Lot'
Wright appeared alongside her 'Harry Potter' big brothers James Phelps and Oliver Phelps at MegaCon 2025 in Orlando
Bonnie Wright is speaking out about the importance of community.
The former Harry Potter actress appeared alongside fellow Potter alumni James Phelps and Oliver Phelps on a panel at MegaCon 2025 in Orlando on Sunday, Feb. 9, where they reminisced about the on-set magic and also discussed current goings-on.
“There are a lot of people who don’t love people for who they are at this moment," Wright, 33, said at one point, before later discussing more about the power of community.
After sharing her gratitude for her family and not losing their home in the recent Los Angeles wildfires, she said, "Harry Potter can feel like a community — we're in one now."
"So it's nice to recognize the circles we exist in and how they give you a sense of belonging and purpose, or [help you] feel seen," Wright added.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
While Wright and the Phelps twins, 38, did not discuss J.K. Rowling during the panel, the 59-year-old Harry Potter book series author came under fire in June 2020 when she appeared to support anti-transgender sentiments in a series of tweets. Though she denied her views on feminism are transphobic, she doubled down on her controversial standpoints in a lengthy essay days later.
Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have each spoken out against Rowling's much-criticized remarks regarding the transgender community. Radcliffe, 35, stated definitively in a previous essay for The Trevor Project that "transgender women are women."
The Tony Award winner also told The Atlantic in April 2024 that he hadn't spoken to Rowling in years. (Radcliffe starred as the titular hero in all eight Potter films, based on Rowling's bestselling novels about the fictional boy wizard, from 2001 to 2011.)
"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," Radcliffe said of Rowling and her controversial comments about gender.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Related: J.K. Rowling Says Her New Book About Celeb Deemed Transphobic Was Not Based on What 'Happened to Me'
"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," he added. "But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life."
In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) earlier that month, Rowling shared a then-recent independent review "of the medical evidence for transitioning children."
One follower responded to her on X, "Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology ... safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them ... " (Neither Radcliffe nor Watson, 34, have spoken out about their views on medical transitioning of children.)
"Not safe, I'm afraid," Rowling said. "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."
Read the original article on People