“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” star Pedro Pascal continues to take a stand against the anti-transgender sentiments of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
Bullies Make Pedro Pascal Sick
In a Vanity Fair cover story about Pascal, the magazine recounted Rowling’s celebration of an April 2025 U.K. Supreme Court ruling stating transgender women are not legally women and transgender men are not legally men. Rowling has been funding anti-trans actions in the U.K. and posted a picture of herself drinking and smoking after the ruling, writing in the caption, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Pascal called it “heinous LOSER behavior” in a comment.
Pascal was not shy about his views prior to Rowling’s post. In February, he posted a picture on Instagram of a sticker reading, “A world without trans people has never existed and never will.” He wrote in a caption, “I can’t think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist.”
Pascal has been a vocal supporter of his sister Lux, who came out as a transgender woman in 2021. Vanity Fair described Pascal as “ferociously protective of his baby sister.” He also has a close friendship with “The Last of Us” co-star Bella Ramsey, who is non-binary and was one of over 400 U.K. celebrities to sign an open letter condemning the U.K. Supreme Court’s April 2025 ruling.
Soon after the U.K. ruling, Pascal attended the London premiere of “Thunderbolts*” wearing a “Protect the Dolls” shirt. Trans women are sometimes referred to as “dolls.”
Javiera Balmaceda, Pascal’s older sister, defended his comment against Rowling in the Vanity Fair story.
“But it is heinous loser behavior,” she said. “And he said that as the older brother to someone saying that our little sister doesn’t exist.”
Pascal admitted that as his comment made headlines, he felt briefly 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?”
But his bigger worry was about whether or not his comment actually helped trans people.
“The one thing that I would say I agonized over a little bit was just, ‘Am I helping? Am I f—ing helping?’” he told Vanity Fair. “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—ing sick.”
Some of Rowling’s fans tried to claim Pascal was bullying the author. They shared a clip of him taking the hand of “The Fantastic Four” co-star Vanessa Kirby on stage at Comic-Con as proof of him being presumptuous with women.
“What happened is we were both incredibly nervous going out in front of thousands of people who love this comic,” Kirby explained to Vanity Fair. “He wanted me to know that we were in this together, and I found it a lovely gesture and was very glad to squeeze his hand back.”
Tickets are on sale now for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” in theaters on July 25, 2025.
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