There were plenty of big winners at this year’s BAFTA Awards on Sunday, but the person who seemed to get most of Twitter talking wasn’t even nominated.
Emma Watson, who made a cameo to present the award for Best Outstanding British Film (Kenneth Branaugh’s Belfast won) during the ceremony, managed to do that with a single sentence.
“Our next presenter is Emma Watson,” host Rebel Wilson said shortly before welcoming the Harry Potter star and U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador onstage to present. “She’s proud to call herself a feminist, but we all know she’s a witch.”
Watson’s response as she stood in front of the podium? “I’m here for all of the witches.”
It might seem like a throwaway line, but many people on Twitter took it to mean one thing.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been in the news recently because of comments made about Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, a piece of legislation that will make it easier for transgender people in the country to change the sex listed on their birth certificate. Last week, Rowling tweeted about “the likely negative consequences of this legislation for women and girls,” which prompted renewed accusations of transphobia.
Rowling’s views have been under scrutiny for years now, with a string of transphobic tweets made by the author in 2020 prompting various members of the Harry Potter cast — including Daniel Radcliffe and Watson — to issue public statements.
“Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are,” Watson wrote on Twitter following the author’s tweets. “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”
Watson’s name has been trending on Twitter in the hours since her BAFTAs comments, with over 15,000 tweets at the time of writing.
