Harry Potter and the Cursed Child actor James Le Lacheur has addressed the relationship between Albus and Scorpius in a new interview.
Speaking with BeyondTheBinary.co.uk, the actor, who identifies as non-binary, discussed being cast in The Cursed Child as the character Yann Fredericks and Scorpius’ understudy, and what it’s like being a trans actor in a world of cis roles.
Toward the ends of the interview, James talked about how LGBT and trans people can identify with the Harry Potter series. That’s when they touched on the relationship between Albus and Scorpius:
“It’s interesting how little trans representation or LGBT representation in general there is in the Harry Potter series, aside from Dumbledore. But there’s ambiguity of Scorpius and Albus’ relationship,” they say. “I mean, I think it’s very clear within the show that the creators don’t want it to be affirmative one way or another, which I feel is right.”
Why is it not definitive one way or the other? Their age! “They’re 14 years old and still exploring who they are. It’s up to each individual Scorpius and Albus combination to play it how they feel it should be done. I think everything in the text is wonderfully elastic and can be read in different ways, and you can play with a definite possibility of there being an attraction between Scorpius and Albus, and also between Scorpius and Rose Granger-Weasley.”
James says she knows how she feels “Scoripus ends up, what road I think he’s on.”
The relationship between Albus and Scorpius has been a highly-discussed topic since The Cursed Child play and script book debuted in July. There are certainly hints of intimate feelings towards one another, but there’s a No Homo moment at the end of the play when Scorpius establishes his interest in Rose Granger-Weasley (for no good reason tbh).
As far as I’m aware, this is the first time we’ve seen a member of the cast or crew address the subject — and kind of go out of their way to talk about it. So it’s nice to hear the relationship be acknowledged in an official capacity.
Edit: Lead Scorpius actor Anthony Boyle has different thoughts on Scorpius/Albus. “The friendship’s purely platonic,” he told The Sunday Times in August. “I do think they love one another — that’s evident in what they do and say. But it’s not a sexual or romantic love.” Still, it’s up for each viewer/reader to interpret the relationship, and it’s nice to hear that at least one actor (James) thinks there’s something special there. Thanks to Sarah for the tip!
Here’s a photo from Darren Criss’ visit to The Cursed Child in August. James tweeted a photo of the two on stage:
IT'S HARRY FREAKIN' POTTER. pic.twitter.com/Te3bEHIEPm
— Mx James Le Lacheur (@JamesLeLacheur) August 20, 2016
#SCORBUS forever.
Thanks to Michaela for the tip.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.