Los Angeles, Jan 14 (PTI) Daniel Radcliffe has broken hissilence on Johnny Depp's casting in "Fantastic Beasts 2",saying he understands the reason for the fans' frustrationover the actor's association with the film franchise.
Depp's former wife Amber Heard had accused the actor ofdomestic violence.
Radcliffe, who grew up onscreen as J K Rowling's boywizard Harry Potter, said although he is grateful to the teamfor giving him "a great start in life and an amazing job", hebelieves Depp's behaviour is being tolerated because he is arenowned name in the showbiz.
"I can see why people are frustrated with the responsethat they were given from that... I'm not saying anything thatanybody hasn't already said - and this is a weird analogy todraw — (but) in the NFL, there are lots of players arrestedfor smoking weed and there is other people's behaviour thatgoes way beyond that and it's tolerated because they're veryfamous players," Radcliffe told Entertainment Weekly.
Radcliffe made an indirect reference to the case of JamieWaylett, the actor who played Vincent Crabbe in the first sixPotter films but was fired after being charged for possessionof cannabis in 2009.
"I suppose the thing I was struck by was, we did have aguy who was reprimanded for weed on the (original Potter)film, essentially, so obviously what Johnny has been accusedof is much greater than that," he added.
The 28-year-old actor's comments come after Rowlingshared her response to a fan on social media, who questionedthe author's agreement to let Depp be a part of the film.
She wrote back saying although she understood the concernof Harry Potter fans regarding their choice to continue withDepp in the role, the directors, along with her were"genuinely happy" to have him on board the project.
Rowling added both she and David Yates had considered thepossibility of recasting the role for "Fantastic Beasts: TheCrimes Of Grindlewald". PTI RB RDSRDS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.