What did Pedro Pascal say? Actor doubles down on JK Rowling criticism over trans rights opinion

Chilean-American actor José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, commonly known as Pedro Pascal, rose to prominence after starring as Javier Pena in the Netflix original series Narcos and as Oberyn Martell in HBO's Game of Thrones. Pascal, with whom Hollywood's most filmmakers want to collaborate due to his diverse acting skills, has recently come forward to defend the rights of trans people.

According to NBC News, the 50-year-old Pedro Pascal slammed the Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, for her gender-critical opinions earlier this year in April 2025. The GOT actor, who played one of the leads alongside Chris Evans and Dakota Johnson in Celine Song's latest romantic drama film, Materialists, which was released earlier this month on June 13, 2025, hit hard at Rowling in the comments section of an Instagram video posted by Palestinian-American activist Tariq Raouf.

Raouf, who is also a freelance writer, shared a video on Instagram in April in which the activist severely criticized the renowned Harry Potter author for celebrating and supporting the United Kingdom Supreme Court's ruling, which determined that Britain's Equality Act states women as those who are born female biologically.

The 59-year-old British author, Rowling, even took to X (formerly Twitter) and shared a picture of herself while holding a drink and a cigar. She captioned the picture:

"I love it when a plan comes together. #SupremeCourt #WomensRights"

Pedro Pascal, who garnered massive praise for his performance in HBO's highly-rated post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of US, which is based on Naughty Dog's immensely popular video game of the same name, took to the comments section of activist Raouf's post from his official Instagram handle of over 11 million followers and referred J. K. Rowling's actions as:

"Heinous LOSER behavior"

While some people tried to portray Pedro Pascal's comments on Rowling's actions as a man trying to silence a woman, his older sister, Javiera Balmaceda, backed him up, stating that he was right about what he said regarding the British author, as it is "heinous loser behavior." Balmaceda, clarifying why he said that, added:

"And he (Pedro) said that as the older brother to someone saying that our little sister (Lux) doesn’t exist."

As the whole matter eventually turned into a full-length story, as per Vanity Fair, Pedro, for a moment, felt like:

"That kid that got sent to the principal’s office a lot for behavioral issues in public schools in Texas feeling scared and thinking, What’d I do?"

However, the Gladiator II actor was worried about something else. While Pedro Pascal indirectly referred to Rowling as a "bully," he said:

"The one thing that I would say I agonized over a little bit was just, ‘Am I helping? Am I fucking helping?’ It’s a situation that deserves the utmost elegance so that something can actually happen, and people will actually be protected. Listen, I want to protect the people I love. But it goes beyond that. Bullies make me f*cking sick."

While Pedro Pascal slammed J.K. Rowling, activist Tariq Raouf asked the public to boycott the Harry Potter franchise

Pedro Pascal's sister, Lux, who is a trans actress, is widely regarded for her advocacy of transgender rights. While Pedro has always been supportive of his transgender sister, he made it a point to call out Rowling's critical gender opinions.

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On the other hand, while Tariq Raouf referred to the British author as a "villain," the Palestinian-American activist encouraged the public in his Instagram video to boycott the Harry Potter franchise and everything that is related to it. Raouf said:

"She’s so cocky about getting the same royalties ... whether you burn or read a Harry Potter book. So I think it has become our mission to — as the general public — to make sure that every single thing that’s ‘Harry Potter’-related fails."

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