JK Rowling calls people who don't like seeing a black Hermione "bunch of racists"
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling continues to call them as she sees them -- especially when it comes to critics on social media.
When Noma Dumezweni was announced as the actress tapped to play grown-up Hermione Granger in the stage production "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," some fans were less than pleased -- but it wasn't anything for which Rowling wasn't prepared.
"With my experience of social media, I thought that idiots were going to idiot," Rowling said in an interview with the Observer. "But what can you say? That's the way the world is. Noma was chosen because she was the best actress for the job."
That didn't mean that the level of passion of the responses didn't get her attention -- and Rowling has never been shy about engaging critics online, especially when they try to use her own writing against her.
"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, which I have a great deal of difficulty with," Rowling said. "But I decided not to get too agitated about it and simply state quite firmly that Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm."
The play's director, John Tiffany, admits he wasn't quite as prepared for the avalanche of responses. "I am not as Twitter-familiar as Jo and Jack, so I hadn't encountered its dark side, which is just awful," he said. "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."