Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp’s casting in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

“It’s a very hard thing for me,” Radcliffe told Entertainment Weekly.

The actor was speaking about the uproar over Depp’s casting as the infamous Gillert Grindelwald after allegations of abuse made by his ex-wife Amber Heard. The film’s writer J.K. Rowling, director David Yates, and studio Warner Bros have all issued statements defending the casting.

“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 behaviour 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, ” said Radcliffe.

Radcliffe referred Vincent Crabbe actor Jamie Waylett, who was dropped from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after being arrested for growing 10 marijuana plants in 2009.

The film releases on November 16.