JK Rowling says that “girls are very apt to romanticise” the antihero, and reveals that she had been forced to pour “cold common sense” on the startling number of readers who fall for the arrogant, unscrupulous bully Draco Malfoy in her Harry Potter books.
“Draco remains a person of dubious morality in the seven published books, and I have often had cause to remark on how unnerved I have been by the number of girls who fell for this particular fictional character,” writes Rowling, with a nod to the actor Tom Felton, “who plays Draco brilliantly in the films and, ironically, is about the nicest person you could meet”.
“Draco,” writes Rowling, “has all the dark glamour of the anti-hero; girls are very apt to romanticise such people. All of this left me in the unenviable position of pouring cold common sense on ardent readers’ daydreams, as I told them, rather severely, that Draco was not concealing a heart of gold under all that sneering and prejudice and that no, he and Harry were not destined to end up best friends.”
And while Rowling dismissed girls' Draco crushes as an "unhealthy fantasy," she admitted there was "some unextinguished good at the heart of Draco." For that, though, Rowing wrote that she pitied him, "just as I feel sorry for Dudley."
Tell me what you think. Do you agree or disagree with Rowling. Let me know in the comments!
