Brian Cox doubles down on defense of J.K. Rowling

Brian Cox may be getting a little too cozy inhabiting the psyche of his Succession character, Logan Roy. In comments that Logan and the rest of his socially inept brood would probably consider “feminist,” Cox has once again spoken out in support of J.K. Rowling and her rampant transphobia.

“I don’t like the way she’s been treated, actually. I think she’s entitled to her opinion, she’s entitled to say what she feels,” Cox said in a recent interview on the BBC news show Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg (via Entertainment Weekly).

He continued: “As a woman, she’s very much entitled to say what she feels about her own body. There’s nobody better to say that, as a woman. So, I do feel that people have been a bit high and mighty about their own attitude toward J.K. Rowling, quite frankly.”

This is not the first time Cox has publicly defended the dubiously canceled celebrity (she’s still a millionaire, people). In an appearance on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored earlier this year, the actor called the backlash against Rowling “deeply unjust,” before adding: “I am not religious but there is a thing in the Bible where it says, ‘Let he or she without sin cast the first stone’ and there seems to be a lot of casting of stones. And it is like a virus.”

Cox, to his credit, seems to stand apart from Rowling on the actual issue at hand. Elsewhere in the BBC interview, Cox voiced his support for Scotland’s recently passed Gender Recognition Reform bill, which allows trans people to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) without a medical diagnosis (via The Scotsman). “I’m very, very proud of Scotland for doing the gender identification Act, because I think that’s long needed and it’s a debate that has to happen,” he said.

We would never tell you how to run your business, Brian, but one tiny note: defending famous friends who have made it abundantly clear where they stand on this “debate?” Not a great look.