It is officially monsoon season, so it’s no wonder why Broadway star and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Jinkx Monsoon is unleashing a deluge on Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
In a new clip from her upcoming interview with Ziwe, Monsoon answers a tongue-in-cheek question about whether or not Rowling would “make a good Roxy Hart in Chicago” by pointing out why she feels the author’s transphobic comments over the years feel deeply hypocritical.
Putting on a drunk affectation, Monsoon started off her answer by pretending she didn’t know Rowling and actively using the wrong pronouns for her. “Who is Jake? Who is he? Jake Hay Rowling?” she said, clutching a rocks glass. When Ziwe pointed out that Rowling is a “she,” Monsoon quickly quipped, “Oh, dear. That is not a feminine name in the slightest.”
The performer then went on to use her faux-confusion as a jumping off point, saying that Rowling intentionally misled readers about her own gender at the outset of her career. “I know that oftentimes, female authors use initials so that people assume it’s a male writer,” Monsoon explained, before adding with a smirk, “I have to presume that J.K. Rowling was unsatisfied with the way that the world saw her, and then she transitioned herself into a new personality so that the world would perceive her the way she wanted to be perceived.”
In past interviews, Rowling has revealed that she wrote under a pen name (her real name is Joanne) because her publishers wanted to “disguise” her gender so the book would “appeal to boys and girls.” It’s worth noting Rowling also writes her ongoing Cormoran Strike crime series under the male pseudonym Robert Galbraith. In an FAQ on Galbraith’s website, Rowling says that she writes under a male nom de plume simply because she “wanted to take my writing persona as far away as possible from me.”
Rowling has made headlines over the last few years for her transphobic comments online, and for actively campaigning against reformational laws in the U.K. that would allow transgender people to change their legal gender. When the U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the legal definition of a woman only applied to those whose biological sex was female, Rowling posted a controversial photo of herself drinking a cocktail and smoking a cigar in celebration. “I love it when a plan comes together,” she wrote.
Monsoon, meanwhile, is currently transitioning between two massive theater projects. After playing the role of Ruth in the Tony-nominated Pirates! A Penzance Musical, Monsoon is gearing up to star as Mary Todd Lincoln in the Tony-winning play Oh, Mary! Monsoon takes over the role from Tituss Burgess starting on Monday (Aug. 4).
Watch the clip from Jinkx’s interview with Ziwe below: