Emma Watson

[sobriquet87]

Here's a great, new interview from Accion Cine-Video magazine:

Her answers about fashion, her acting career, and being a role model are especially good.

How does this film compare to the others? It seems like there will be much more action in this one than in some of the previous ones.
Emma: It’s been very intense. It’s been a difficult shoot, almost every scene has been demanding in one way or another, whether it’s because of the action or because it involves a very intense moment on an emotional level. It’s been great because it’s really made me push myself to the limit and has given me the opportunity to show what I can do, and I’ve truly enjoyed it.

What do you think are the three most memorable moments of these past ten years?
Emma: The Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire was impressive. I’ll always remember that, for the costumes and the whole show. It’s a moment in Hermione’s life in which she breaks out of her shell and becomes a young woman. Another would be auditioning for the role of Hermione and being told that I had gotten the part. We did a screening for the movie in Radio City Hall in New York, to which 5,000 people showed up, and I remember getting up on stage and just seeing everyone with flashes, that was the moment when I knew how big and important the movies and what we’ve done are. I found out how big everything was, so I remember that quite well. I mean, there are many moments to remember… those are just three.

You were only ten years old or so when all of a sudden you became famous, and you’ve been famous since, but you seem to be well-grounded. How have you managed this?
Emma: I think that continuing to assist school has helped a lot because I have a life and friends outside the film industry, which is an industry where there is a lot of craziness, to be honest. [Laughs] And I don’t know, I guess it’s partly my education, partly my parents, and partly my personality. I don’t know, I think it’s been a good thing that we didn’t make these films in Hollywood. We’ve made them in England, we’ve made them in Watford, at the Leavesdon Studios, and we’ve really been in our own little bubble, so in a certain way we’ve had a very normal life, which I think has helped.

Since you started college, coming from the world of cinema, do you think that the way you see yourself has changed?
That’s really interesting. I guess, in a certain way, it gives you perspective on what you do, which helps. Sometimes when you’re in it, everything just seems like a blur, and to be able to get away from it and look at it with a certain perspective from a different, I feel more grounded and with a better perspective on my own life. And yeah, it’s very good.

How is it living in the U.S.? What do you miss from England?
Emma: As funny as this sounds, the weather. I miss the gray skies sometimes. In America I have the feeling that I have to be wearing sunglasses all the time. [Laughs]

And what do you like to do in your spare time, when you’re not acting or studying?
Emma: I like to watch movies, to read, to sleep. Sleep is great. [Laughs] I like to play sports, hang out with my friends, go out to dinner. I love food and cooking.

What’s your culinary specialty?
Emma: Baked beans on toast. I’m very good at that.

Is that a specialty?
Emma: No, not really. [Laughs] But my roasted/grilled peppers are quite good. What else can I make? My mackerel pate is also quite good.

You’ve become a fashion icon. How would you describe your fashion sense?
Emma: I think it’s very simple. I’m not a big fan of jewelry or accessories. I think that’s something very French, actually. My French influence probably has something to do with it. It’s not all defined, I’m still experimenting, but I usually like something classic.

I try not to pay attention to trends for the most part, but rather focus on what I like. I like to show myself, instead of following trends too much, so I’m not a fashion victim, to put it like that. I’m not a rock star, so I don’t try to dress that way. I just simply choose for myself what makes me feel comfortable.

When do you feel the most pretty?
Emma: I feel prettier when I’m wearing something very simple, that has a nice cut and seems sort of underestimated. I think that’s when I feel pretty.

Have you made any contributions to your costumes on Harry Potter?
Emma: Well, I get on great with the [costume director?], we have a very extensive relationship and we both love fashion, so we work together. It’s a collaboration, and it’s very nice.

It must have been incredible for you that Burberry’s sales have skyrocketed since you started working with them. How does that make you feel?
Emma: Yes! It’s a huge compliment! It’s amazing. To be honest, it’s been a big surprise. [Laughs] I’m very amazed that things have worked out that way.

You’ve been working with Dan Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for the past ten years. How have they changed over time? What are the differences with respect to the past?
Emma: Well, it’s funny because they’ve both gone in completely opposite directions. When we started, Rupert was very open, very talkative, sure of himself, whereas Dan was quiet, the shy guy. I remember the first press conference we did, he was overwhelmed by it all, and now they’ve both gone in opposite directions. [Laughs]

Dan, you can’t make him be quiet, he just wants to talk about the movie, he has this incredible energy, he’s a big ball of… telling jokes all the time, he’s a very outgoing guy. Rupert has become really quiet. He’s much more reserved now, which is funny. Really they’ve gone from one extreme to the other, I guess. But they are still both charming, and as people have not changed much, which is good.

Talking about them again, what do they mean for you? Do you feel you are friends, family almost?
Emma: I think we are like a family, yes. I think we’re like brothers and sister.

How do you think Hermione has changed Emma Watson?
Emma: I’m sure that she has, but I’m sure she’s done it unconsciously. In fact, we’re so alike in reality that sometimes it’s difficult to make out what she’s influenced in me and what I’ve influenced in her.

In this last film, you’re sort of this heroine in action. What is the most difficult thing you’ve had to do?
Emma: There’s this really short scene in which I had to get on a broomstick. I had never done it before, and it’s so uncomfortable, that I have no idea how Dan has been able to do it all these years, no idea. I don’t know how anybody can do it, you end up sore. [Laughs] It’s the most painful and uncomfortable experience I’ve had, so probably that’s it. But I guess also a lot of the running scenes, running from a snake or whatever, and I’ve learned throughout filming that I always give everything in the first take.

Were you nervous before the love scene with Ron?
Emma: Yes, I was somewhat nervous. The thing is that I think that David Heyman didn’t want us to be very nervous, so he told us just one day in advance that we were going to be shooting it. He sort of just threw it at us, so we didn’t have much time to think about it, which helped in a certain way, but also caused some panic. But I think it turned out alright in the end.

Now that the saga is finishing, how do you see your future as an actress?
Emma: I guess I just want to continue to make films that are on the same level and have the same quality as Harry Potter. They don’t have to have the same budget or the same number of fans, but if I make them, I’d like to make films that have the same standards, the same quality, and I think that in itself, that is a huge challenge.

What kind of movies do you like to watch?
Well, the thing is that when I’m shooting, especially when I’ve been shooting these films, I find it emotionally draining, so the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is to go home and watch a movie that is emotionally and intellectually demanding. So when I like to relax, I watch Sex and the City, to be quite honest. [Laughs] Or romantic comedies, or Gossip Girl every once in a while. I mean, I watch tons of movies and obviously I watch intellectually stimulating movies as well, but not all the time.

You are a great role model for young girls. How do you feel about that?
Emma: It’d be extremely flattering if I were. I don’t think about it too much. I’m just being myself, and I’m being honest with myself, and if that’s something that people admire, then it’s wonderful and flattering, but I’m not trying to consciously be a role model.

Sandrinha @pottershots.net

 

[YoninahAliza]

Love her feature in Vogue! The photos are stunning! The interview is great!

I don't recognize her in the photos of her on the MWWM set.. A little spoiler (highlight after this part).

What a lucky girl then!

 

[Lacroix]

I don't get the 'for years I was contractually obliged not to cut my hair, not tan' line.
I mean, I know things like this are subjective but it comes across as very 'Woe is me' and over-dramatic

you would think she had been forced to shave her head for the role or have something hideous. In fact, I remember her having highlighted, tousled hair in some of the movies as well as being severely tanned for the OOTP premiere (or whatever the premiere was when she wore the dark blue Chanel couture dress)

 

[simple_elegance]

^^^Her fashion sense is pretty much the same as mine! Except I'm not French...XD

 

[sobriquet87]

@Lacroix: It's not really "woe to me" especially since that's what most teenagers do: they cut their hair and experiment.

Most of Emma's tans during the earlier years are clearly spray tans. It wasn't just her who couldn't tan...the other actors couldn't either.

Emma probably had more restrictions in terms of looks, because she was the main female...and her character's trademark was "bushy, brown hair." So, it makes sense. It doesn't sound like she's complaining...she's just explaining why it was such a liberating experience for her to finally get to make a drastic change to her appearance.

 

[Caroliiine]

^ Emma hasn't had bushy brown hair since the second film. She'd already altered Hermione's look by the third film (with the pink hoodie & highlighted hair & girl power jazz). That's one of the #1 complaints about her portrayal as Hermione.

 

[johnnys_girl09]

^ Emma hasn't had bushy brown hair since the second film. She'd already altered Hermione's look by the third film (with the pink hoodie & highlighted hair & girl power jazz). That's one of the #1 complaints about her portrayal as Hermione.

Took the words out of my mouth! It's strange they put her under such strict restrictions yet failed to keep her hair bushy for the movies.. It should always look like this!

emmawatson.com

 

[Lacroix]

The quote comes across 'woe is me' to me. I think it's mostly the way Vogue presented it with a martyr-type expression on her face and the grave quote, it just made me laugh

And like I said, I understand that it's subject but I still doubt it's common for the majority of teenage girls to want to completely chop their hair off. I get that she found it liberating and more power to her, etc, but she had an amazing opportunity to star in HP - if the small sacrifice was having highlighted, blonde, nicely styled hair and being 'pale' ...bigger picture is all I'm saying

 

[sobriquet87]

^ Emma hasn't had bushy brown hair since the second film. She'd already altered Hermione's look by the third film (with the pink hoodie & highlighted hair & girl power jazz). That's one of the #1 complaints about her portrayal as Hermione.

Emma didn't change Hermione's look. She's not in charge of makeup, hair, or wardrobe.
Plus, a hoodie is a perfectly acceptable item of clothing for a nerd/tomboy.
It's not like they have her in dresses and skirts all the time.
And Hermione IS "girl power jazz." She's bada*s throughout the entire series.

I never understood why one pink, little hoodie bothered people so much.

I've never had any complaints. She's the only Hermione to me.

 

[simple_elegance]

I never understood why one pink, little hoodie bothered people so much.

I've never had any complaints. She's the only Hermione to me.

Good lord, I remember when Azkaban came out and all the Emma haters were bitching and moaning about that outfit. I mean...do you have nothing better to do with your time? Greater picture, people...

The only outfit I had a problem with was that dress for the Yule Ball. It was supposed to be bluuuuuue. If there's one thing they could've gotten right, it was that dress, but they made it something completely different. I dun get it. But oh well...in the grand scheme of things, it's not important.

 

[Alvedansen]

i completely get what she meant when she was explaining her hair. experimenting with your hair doesn't only mean to chop it all off, but i don't know a single young girl who has never had a weird color, cut or highlights. it's normal o try out different looks, it's part of growing up to me, she always had to keep it about the same length, couldn't get highlights/different color without asking the studio, i completely understand how liberating it must have felt to just do what she wanted to do.
i think she loves the HP experience and is very grateful for it, that's what i get from all her interviews, but she was stuck in the same franchise for over 10 years and even in her time-off she had to keep some Hermione characteristics, now she can finally be Emma for 100%.

i don't like Hermiones hair after the second movie either, but that's out of Emma's control and i agree sobriquet, she's the only Hermione to me as well

 

[Alvedansen]

very grainy "HQs"

tlfan.to

 

[loonaka]

wow what kind of outfit is that??

 

[immortalbliss]

Emma was spotted going home from a London nightclub (Mahiki, I think cause she was spotted there) last night.. Photos taken from Daily Mail..

 

[loonaka]

I really like her scarf^^
Thanks for posting

 

[immortalbliss]

Emma's interview in Vogue UK.. From autocomic and cuacuaro at pottershots..

Twenty-year old actress Emma Watson earned that amount or rather neatly, thereabouts, in millions of pounds last year. More in dollars, which will probably be the currency of her next pay cheque. She’s so fragrant and fresh and the antithesis of a ghastly stage brat that it seems uncouth to mention this at all, let alone upfront. But really…Last year’s Vanity Fair placed her at 14 in its table of top earners, ahead of Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz, despite the fact she’s been a student at Brown, the Ivy League college in Providence, RI, for the past year. In audience terms, she is possibly the biggest British star of her generation.

Obviously, being British, she doesn’t arrive for our interview in a limo and furs. The Prius-she has two: one here, one in America- is at home, but she still uses the Tube, and since she designs for People Tree, the ethical clothes range, I think we can take it that mink’s off the menu. More tellingly, though, she slips into a quiet corner of Brown’s Hotel sans entourage- an event so rare in the annals of celebrity-and-journalist encounters that for several minutes I keep my eyes on the door, waiting to see when her minders will sweep in, while she quietly gets on with ordering a mug of hot water.

In person, she looks exactly how a student would look if Emma Watson had been cast in the role; tidier than most and a bit earnest. Over-the-knee, flat, beige suede boots by Faith, a burgundy sweater by Marc Jacobs, grey tote bag from Chloe, J Brand jeans, a sweep of mascaras and chipped grey nail varnish. On her wrist sits a dainty 1957 Rolex, given to her by the producers of Harry Potter, with the dates of the tenure (2002-2010) on the back. “They said it suited me,” she gazes at it rapturously. “I love it.” It does suit her - she is dainty.

There’s no hint of that Burberry smoulder. Not much of the hair either. She’s just had it chopped into a Mia Farrow-esque elfin cut that makes her less extraordinarily. pretty but also more interesting, maybe because it emphasizes the child-woman in her. Every so often she runs her hands over it, as if surprised to find most of it has gone. It is, in more ways than the superficial, a bit Peter Pan. In the five ensuing days, she and the haircut have excited 407 comments on the Daily Fail website alone-more than the BP oil spill. Is it, the blogosphere wonders, because she’s experiencing some kind of Britney-styles breakdown, or is it a latest attempt to ditch her goody-two-shoes aura? Thankfully, Emma is blissfully unaware of the analysis that has been brought to hear on her elfin crop because she doesn’t read the tabloids any more. She banned herself from looking or reading any of her coverage because: “ It became weirdly addictive. There’s tons that’s not very nice and I’m very, very self-critical, so it was like a drug for me. I focused on the negative stuff, so I stopped.”

And there, five minutes in, is a hint of Emma stelliness. Or is it focus? Possibly it’s one of those dainty English-rose blends of the two. Did I mention how polite she is? She says thanks you all the time, at the oddest moments. When for instance, we’re discussing the BBC adaptation of Ballet Shoes (in which she starred as, well that ghastly stage brat Pauline) and I mention that Noel Streatfeild is my favorite children’s author, she thanks me. And when I observe how often she brings her father into the conversation, she apologizes. Perhaps it’s nerve. Her voice is higher than I recall (she’s having voice lessons at Brown) and she continually twists herself into knots (physically not verbally; she calls it “pretzels”) in conversation. It’s rather endearing.

She seems to have got the measure of the press at any rate. She posted pictures of her hair on Twitter, she says, to devalue their worth to the paparazzi. That’s smart. So was persuading Warner Bros to timetable the final two Harry Potter around her university schedule. “Don’t get me wrong, I had to beg,” she winces. In fact, it’s more than smart. It takes conviction and a strong will to persuade a Hollywood studio to organize their billion-dollar franchise around freshers’ week, but they living inside what she calls “the Bubble” for such a sustained amount of time- indulged to an extent, but tightly leashed to a demanding contract- is either going to destroy you or make you some kind of superwoman. No wonder she seems so curiously mature, so self-controlled.

She also happens to be a straight-A student who rejected and offer from Cambridge, instead opting for an American university. It’s not a huge leap to picture her on the Harry Potter set curled up with a copy of Jane Eyre or The Remains of the Day (one of her favorite books although she thinks it’s hilariously funny and I’m not sure that’s most people definition), but studying on set can’s have been easy, especially when fellow pupils Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe didn’t as she diplomatically puts it, “enjoy the school side”. Despite their differences, though, rumours of discord among the Holy Trinity on Potter are slightly wide of the mark. According to Grint: “Growing up on the set of HP was an experience not many people could understand. I count on her as a great friend and someone who will always be a part of my life.”

Emma seems happily resigned to her reputation as a bit of a goody-two-shoes. “There’s no point getting drunk when you’ve got 10 hours on set the next day,” she reasons in a clipped voice that’s unpolluted by the mockney adopted by many middle-class teenagers. (Grint and Radcliffe constantly tased her on set for being too posh, she says.) “And I didn’t drink last year at Brown, either, because I was underage (in America) and it would have been disrespectful.” Doesn’t she ever want to go wild? There’s a pause. “It’s not worth it; you can imagine the fallout. I do have two or three people I can let my hair down it, behind closed doors.” I don’t imagine Pete Doherty is among their number. She seems classic eldest-child material. “Yes, straight and boring,” she concepts, apparently untortured by the observation. “But I realized at a very young age that I was responsible for myself.”

It must have been strange, though, to realize as a teenager that she would never need to work again. She was 17 or 18 when her father sat her down for the “money conversation”. “By the third or fourth film, the money was starting to get…serious,” she says, “I had no idea.” Until then she’d been getting an allowance of 50 pound a month; a sum so modest I want to take her straight home and introduce her to my teenagers. She was completely overwhelmed. “I felt sick, very emotional. It was a real shock,” she explains. Then being focused-cum-steely, she enrolled on a course at Coutts bank to learn how to manage her money. Priuses apart, she hasn’t spent much of it yet. She like Francis Bacon, and paints herself, but hasn’t yet bought any art of her own. (“I hate it when art’s hung on a wall as some sort of status symbol.”) Come to that, she hasn’t bought her Islington flat, either. She’d like to, but the landlord, the Marquis of Northhampton, isn’t selling.

She’s clearly loving being a student and being “normal” and seems to be determinedly grounding herself. Yet, what with her new hair and the chance to perfect the authentic American accent that every British actor needs to succeed nowadays (was that a factor in her decision to go to Brown? She laughs), she’s at a perfect crossroads to launch her adult career. Just as Jodie Foster and Natalie Portman- two child actors turned bona fide film stars she very much admires- did.

Was the haircut a symbolic shearing, I ask, given that the final, final instalment of Harry Potter has now wrapped and she’s out of the Bubble. “For the nine years I was on Harry Potter I was contractually obliged not to cut my hair, not to tan.” No make-up during the shooting schedule, and no ear piercing, except between films, because of continuity. “All the normal things girls do, I couldn’t. So when I got the chance to change my appearance, this [gesturing to the hair] is what I did. I didn’t realize until afterwards how significant it was because, of course, the hair was Hermione’s defining feature.”

She thinks perhaps that’s why she enjoys fashion so much now – “It’s my way of being myself.” She’s certainly making up for lost time: a contract with Storm, camping around at Glastonbury in a Louis Vuitton corset, with a de rigueur rock star (George from One Night Only; she starred in the band’s video for “Say you don’t Want It”. “I hate to disappoint everyone, but we’re not dating,” Emma responds as to their romantic attachment. “He’s in England, I’m in America… There is no one at the moment.”) She also starred with her younger brother, Alex Watson in last year’s Burberry campaign.

“She’s a really hard worker, very ambitious, but in a grounded, humble way – and she’s very appreciative, which is refreshing for the success that she’s had,” says Christopher Bailey, creative director of Burberry, who took her as his date to the Met Ball in New York this year. “There’s no diva in that girl. I like the fact that she has a point of view. She’ll jump into a project and give it her all. And she’s fun.”

 

[immortalbliss]

Continuation of the interview..

In her role as an unofficial ambassador for British designers, Emma is typically head-girlish; she co-hosted a dinner in the spring for young British designers in New York, to which she wore one of Christopher Kane’s teeny embroidered leather-and-lace dresses. “I heard she gave a little squeak of delight when she tried it on,” says Kane. “I was really impressed because, let’s face it, those dresses are hardcore and not everyone gets the point, or, more to the point, can pull them off. Emma reminds me of a young Grace Kelly – clean and sophisticated; and if she’s using a stylist, then Emma’s the one in control.”

Even if she doesn’t quite have Kate Moss’s natural flair in her everyday attire, Emma looks pretty drop-dead gorgeous whenever she’s at a public appearance, striking a perfect balance between edgy and try-hard. But life as a teenager on the red carpet was challenging. “Everyone imagines stylists were on tap from the studio, but we got nothing,” she says. “Sometimes I had two day’s notice before an event and there was nothing appropriate for a 14-year-old to wear. I’d look in my wardrobe and… literally nothing. It was either borrow from my stepmother, or go to the bridesmaid department at Harrods.”

She tried both, with variable results. Her stepmother, Liz, a former nanny, seems to have rather racy taste in the frock department. “Yeah, she once turned up a my dad’s club in thigh-high boots. He went a bit mad. Her clothes definitely look better on her than they did on me. I’ve grown into them slightly, but I cringe when I look back at some of the things I wore.” In despair, she asked Storm for some help. “And they said, ‘Oh, funny you should say that, because Chanel wants to dress you.’”

Despite the best efforts of her parents, Chris and Jackie (both lawyers, who divorced when she was five and went on to have other partners and children, so that she is now the eldest of a sprawling tribe of seven siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings), Emma’s childhood wasn’t exactly “consistent”, as she puts it. As a teenager, she split her time between her mother’s place in Oxford and her father’s house in Islington, not a million miles from where her flat is now. Alex says theirs was a stimulating environment to grow up in: “Lots of opinions at both sets of parent’s houses. Emma wasn’t any more bratty than any other teenager, but she and mum definitely had lots of debates – that would be a good euphemism.”

Emma’s a bit more forthright: “My mum could be fearsome. She doled out the discipline.” It was Jackie who insisted Emma stay in touch with her friends at The Dragon, a prep school in Oxford, during the eight-month shoots. “Aged 10, I’d be filming all week and then my mum would get me out of bed on Saturday to go to school and I’d be exhausted.” Otherwise, she barely alludes to Jackie, it’s her father who gets a star billing in every other sentence and with whom she and a bunch of half-siblings are about to go to the Seychelles. He is, as she puts it, “up there on a pedestal”.

On reflection, she thinks her parents were “probably too liberal”,which is odd because they sound quite the opposite. For one thing there was precious little telly (“Dad didn’t even like us watching DVDs”), no theatre. Summers were spent at her father’s vineyard in France. Suffice to say, this was not family hanging on to the financial coat-tails of their eldest daughter (“Having a child actor, being pushy stage parents… that definitely wasn’t a dream for them,” says Emma), so at least she didn’t have that responsibility. But she had to grow up quickly, while playing a character with a degree of arrested emotional development (latterly she had to wear a sports bra on set). That’s a weird dichotomy that most parents can’t help you through. I wonder how her brother Alex, who’s two years younger, dealt with her success – she gave her parents some money, to thank them, but what is the protocol with siblings? She says she “looks after” Alex. “You’re going to think I’m delusional, but I don’t think he’s jealous. I think he just misses that I was around so little.”

“It would have been nice to have her around more,“ confirms Alex, now studying for his A-levels at City of London School. “She definitely keeps me in check. But she always wanted and adventure, I think that’s why she’s gone to America.”

She chose Brown over Cambridge, she says, because on a bus one day she was suddenly surrounded by people wanting Hermione’s autograph. “I thought, why am I on the bus? Why don’t I just accept that I’m famous? If I’d gone to Cambridge, I don’t think the press would have necessarily left me alone. And it’s a bit Hogwarts-looking.” Her father thought she was mad, although he was there for her, literally, on her first day. Just as he was there for her the day the producers finally told her she’d been chosen to play Hermione – she has never had an agent; her parents negotiated her contract and for a long time her father was her manager. “Going to Brown was very much ‘Emma’s Project’ as far as my family was concerned,” she grimaces.

So when, on her first day at Brown, some boys did ask for her autograph, she wondered whether she hadn’t made a hideous mistake, especially as they were quite pushy. “In the end I had a breakdown.” Does she mean a hissy fit? “No,” she giggles “More like uncontrollable crying. Everyone looked at me horrified, like, ‘Oh my Gaahd, what’s wrong with her?’” (“Nice accent,” I venture. “Thank You,” she replies.) Needless to say, she pulled herself together and delivered a beautifully honed plea, “I just said, ‘I’m really sorry, but I’m here to study, and I just want to be a student. Would it be OK if I don’t sign, because you’ll be seeing me around all the time anyway?’”

She threw herself into Project Emma wholeheartedly, dorm and all. “I didn’t spend all that time furiously studying and go all the ways to the States so I couldn’t have the full experience, sharing a bathroom with seven others….and it was hell, actually. I’m a really light sleeper. One morning I was walking down the corridor from the bathroom in just a towel and I thought I must be mad, anyone could Tweet up my towel. But no one did. Not even when I had my birthday party; 100 people came and not one person put a picture on Facebook.” How finely tuned is her radar to sycophancy? “Not bad, but in the end you have to trust people or you’ll end up bloody lonely. I’d rather get stung than keep everyone at arm’s length and as it turned out, I didn’t have any problem after that first day.” See: steely, polite- and deadly effective.

Madison, her best friend at Brown, reckons she’s handled her fame intelligently. “I’m sure it was difficult to make that leap from the Bubble, but she’s always been very cool and relaxed and incredibly friendly. Brown was probably the best place she could have come. The students here aren’t that fazed by famous people.” Even so, she notes, when Emma played Irina in the drama department’s production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters last summer, the queues to get in were slightly longer than they might have been.

Ironically, acting is the domain in which Emma feels least secure. “When I think about going out there and competing against actresses who’ve formally trained for the last 10 years, I get paranoid.” Even though she has producers begging her to suggest roles she’s be interested in developing, she’s re-entering the waters tentatively. Her next confirmed project is a small but significant part in the indie film My Week With Marilyn, in which she will play a wardrobe assistant who worked with Monroe during the make of The Prince and the Showgirl, and which stars Michelle Williams, Dominic Cooper, Eddie Redmayne and Kenneth Branagh. But she’s not without ambition. When I ask who else she might like to work with, she sends me a long list of directors and actors she admires, including names like Cary Fukunaga, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, James Franco and-natually- Meryl Streep. Emilia Fox, who co-starred with her in Ballet Shoes, thinks she’ll be fine, she’ll find her way to the role academically if need be. “Not having acting training added to her humility,” says Fox. “She seemed very observant of the actors on set [such as Eileen Atkins and Richard Griffiths], and showed a total commitment to playing Pauline’s flaws as well as her charm. Unsurprisingly she was thoroughly prepared and professional. But she was also immediately warm.”

I wonder if the insecurity doesn’t stem from the serendipity of all her success; after all, what would have happened if she hadn’t been in school the day the HP casting agents came scouting? The eyes widen incredulously. “That was never going to happen. I sooo wanted to be Hermione. Even if I’d been ill, even if I was dying, I would have found a way to go to school that day.”

 

[immortalbliss]

Sorry for all the repeated postings.. Emma's feature in Marie Claire has just been previewed on marie claire website.. Information and photos from the website, cover from their facebook account as posted by tarsha in the magazines forum.. There is also a video but I don't know how to post it here..

Enchanting Emma Watson

She's the highest-earning girl in Hollywood — and possibly the most grounded, sweet, normal, and adorable. Are we missing anything?

When Emma Watson arrived at Brown University last year, students reacted with giddy excitement—a bona fide movie star living in their midst!—that was tempered by a genuine desire to respect her privacy.

But her fellow freshmen grew up watching the Harry Potter movies, which starred Watson as Harry's pal Hermione Granger, and sometimes they simply couldn't restrain themselves.

In one class, the professor asked students a question, and Watson raised her hand. Just like the fiercely smart, overachieving, always-right Hermione, Watson gave the correct answer.

From the back of the room, one of her classmates called out, "Score 20 points for Gryffindor!"

At Brown, Watson wasn't playing for Gryffindor—the fictional house where Harry and Hermione lived at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—but she has found a real home. When we met for breakfast shortly before Watson began her sophomore year this past fall, she was eager to return to college life.

"The first year at Brown was about finding my feet," she said. "I found a great group of girlfriends, and now that I know how things work and what the professors expect, I'm really excited about going back for my second year, because I feel this time I can relax and enjoy it."

Watson is deeply grateful for the way she's been treated by her peers. "Brown has a real sense of community, and people are very protective of me," she said. "They really look out for me; they want me to feel like I'm part of it. I threw my 20th birthday party at Brown, and I didn't even have to say to anyone not to put pictures on Facebook. Not a single picture went up. That was when I knew I'd found a solid group of friends, and I felt like I belonged."

This sense of comfort is particularly welcome as Watson adjusts to the end of the Potter saga, a job that defined her life for a decade. After the November release of the seventh movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, the series will conclude next July with the release of the eighth and final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. When Watson finished shooting last June, she was left with a welter of powerful feelings. "My last day was pretty emotional," she admitted. "It was sad; it's the end of an era. What an amazing learning experience! I gave everything I could to that role, and I got so much from it."

Now that it's over, Watson is reveling in the freedom to make changes—starting with a radical haircut that left her nervously fingering the feathery ends of the new pixie style that was inspired by such icons as Mia Farrow, Edie Sedgwick, Jean Seberg, and Audrey Hepburn.

"I've wanted to do it since I was about 16, and when Harry Potter ended in June, I just needed a change," Watson said. "It was quite symbolic for me. It's very short; it was buzzed at the back and on the sides. And it's really liberating that I can walk out without thinking about it."

With her transformation from bushy-haired Hermione—whose thick tresses were augmented with hair extensions—to a gamine look far better suited to her delicate features, Watson also announced her intention to grow and evolve instead of hanging on to her youthful image as one of the pint-size wizards who captivated people's imaginations all over the world.

The highest-grossing film series in history, the Potter movies were so successful that the seven J.K. Rowling books were expanded into eight major feature films. "It wasn't like I made one movie; it was working consistently for 10 years. There was no reprieve," Watson said. "But I'm glad I saw it through to the end; I played that character from the start, and I wanted to finish what I started. It felt very satisfying that I had completed Hermione's journey."

Watson's parallel journey was less dramatic than some of Hermione's death-defying escapades, but the actress has also lived an extraordinary adventure during the last decade. Her own choices—like those of Hermione—have been dictated by a highly disciplined intelligence, an intense commitment to achieving her objectives, and an iron will.

Watson's passion for performing was originally ignited by a poetry recital competition. "I loved finding out the real meaning of all the words, and how I could say them, and what I could do with my voice, and how I could get the audience to hang on my every word," she explained. "I just got really into it."

She was 7 years old when she read the first Harry Potter book, and she was in the middle of reading the third one when she auditioned for the first movie. "Playing Hermione just came so naturally; I had a real affinity for her," she said. "I felt like I knew exactly who she was. Like me, she's very loyal and determined, she's very intelligent, and she has a lot of guy friends, as I do. Her eagerness to please and to have the right answer is definitely like me. I'm a perfectionist, so my bossiness definitely comes out."

But her decision to go after the role was as audacious as her chances were unlikely, given her lack of acting experience. Even as a 9-year-old, however, Watson manifested a near-obsessive commitment to her goal. "I started working on the audition at 9 in the morning and didn't stop until 5 in the evening," she recalled. "The tape was just me doing the same thing hundreds of times over, until I got it exactly right. I was just amazed at my stamina. The grown-ups said, 'We had to stop you; you wanted to keep going.' I've always been like that; I give 100 percent. I can't do it any other way."

Watson's parents, who divorced when she was very young, are both lawyers—her father is a telecommunications attorney, and her mother is a solicitor—but their little girl made it clear they were not to stand in her way. "I would never have forgiven my parents if they had made me turn down that opportunity," she said. "I just loved performing. It just made me feel alive. It's scary, but that's part of it. I think it's important to have that extra adrenaline. It gives you that extra zing."

Despite the temptations of Hollywood and a complicated family with assorted full, half-, and stepsiblings, Watson seems the polar opposite of wild-child stars who generate lurid headlines. She appears to have spent her entire adolescence as a classic good girl, unremittingly hard-working and conscientious.

"I do things in my own way, but I've never felt any need to rebel," she said. "To be honest, I've always had far too much freedom. I had a job when I was 10. I started living on my own when I was 17 or 18. I've earned my own money; I've traveled the world. What would I rebel against? I've had so much freedom, sometimes it was hard. My parents wanted to protect me, but they had no idea how to. I had to learn as I went and make my own mistakes. I went from being totally unknown and never acting professionally to being in a major movie and being very famous. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have any time to work things out. It's been pretty scary at times."

Read the rest of Marie Claire's exclusive interview with the star in our December 2010 issue, on newsstands November 16.

 

[Prairie]

Kino Park Russia November 2010



scanned by me

 

[Melly5525]

The Marie Claire cover is lovely, love the dress and the spread is great too, Im finally sold on her pixie cute