Katie Leung appears to be reacting to JK Rowling’s transphobic tweets
Harry Potter star Katie Leung says she was directed by publicists to deny the existence of hate websites about her after she was cast as Cho Chang on the hit series.
The 33-year-old Scottish-born actress of Chinese descent commented on the Chinese Chippy Girl podcast on Monday March 8th.
Katie made her debut as Cho, Harry Potter’s love interest, in the fourth film in the hit franchise, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released in 2005. After her casting was leaked by British tabloids a year earlier, they hate posts about the then 16-year-old actress being posted on Harry Potter fan sites, and an entire website has even been created condemning her casting.
“I thought I Googled at some point and was on this website that was devoted to some kind of Harry Potter fandom, and I remember reading all of the comments. It was a lot of racist stuff,” Leung said on the podcast . “And then someone actually created a website, a hate website – it was like you disagreed with this casting, then hit that button and then it would just be a count of how many people disagree with the casting and you’d just look at a number … I know it’s awful. It’s so awful. “
