Daniel Radcliffe opens up about Johnny Depp's 'Fantastic Beasts' casting

Daniel Radcliffe has opened up for the first time about Johnny Depp's 'Fantastic Beasts' casting.

The casting of Depp as Grindelwald in J.K. Rowling's movie has drawn an immense amount of backlash ever since it was announced.

Fans have been very critical of the casting, considering that the actor was accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

"It's a very hard thing for me," the 'Harry Potter' star told Entertainment Weekly.

He expressed gratitude to the Potter producers who "gave me a great start in life and an amazing job."

"I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given from that . I'm not saying anything that anybody hasn't already said - and this is a weird analogy to draw - [but] in the NFL, there are lots of players arrested for smoking weed and there is other people's behavior that goes way beyond that and it's tolerated because they're very famous players. I suppose the thing I was struck by was, we did have a guy who was reprimanded for weed on the [original Potter] film, essentially, so obviously what Johnny has been accused of is much greater than that."

Rowling published a statement on her website in November, saying that she is not only comfortable with Depp's casting "but genuinely happy" to have him starring in the franchise.