Rowling has pointed out that there is no reason why Hermione should be white.

It’s therefore brilliant that this has happened.” But what shocked me was the way people couldn’t visualise a non-white person as the hero of a story. “I am not as Twitter-familiar as Jo and Jack, so I hadn’t encountered its dark side, which is just awful. Tiffany said he was surprised by the opinions expressed online, but had stopped reading the comments. 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.”ĭumezweni was cast by the play’s director, John Tiffany – known for the productions Black Watch and the musical Once – who has collaborated with Rowling and the playwright Jack Thorne, writer of This Is England and The Last Panthers. While the vast majority of people responded positively to the casting decision, Rowling said: “I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione ‘turned white’ – that is, lost colour from her face after a shock – that she must be a white woman, which I have a great deal of difficulty with. Noma was chosen because she was the best actress for the job.” “But what can you say? That’s the way the world is.

“With my experience of social media, I thought that idiots were going to idiot,” she said in an interview with the Observer. But the Harry Potter creator criticised those who have suggested that Hogwarts’ studious heroine could not be played by the Olivier-award-winning actress Noma Dumezweni. The production, which has broken records by selling 175,000 tickets in 24 hours, is tipped to be the theatrical event of the year.

Harry potter's hermione