“I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it,” pondered the 79-year-old star.

“I suppose at a certain point Ill meet her.”

Frazer Harrison/WireImage

“That was the canary in the coal mine,” Lithgow said.

John Lithgow in 2025 in London; J.K. Rowling in 2022 in London

John Lithgow in April and J.K. Rowling in 2022.Credit:Neil Mockford/WireImage; Mike Marsland/WireImage

I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’

I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it.

As for whether the criticism has soured the role for him, Lithgow replied, Oh, heavens no.

John Lithgow attends the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California

John Lithgow in February.Frazer Harrison/WireImage

RUPERT GRINT as Ron Weasley, DANIEL RADCLIFFE as Harry Potter, and EMMA WATSON as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

Director Chris Columbus attends the 2021 SFFILM Awards Night Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 Lord Voldemort

John Lithgow attends the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California; Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

John Lithgow in March; Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore for ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ (2007).Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Murray Close/Warner Bros