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For Gledhill, ‘image’ designates an identity over which a star has less control (i.e. than persona) as it results not only from their personal attributes and aspects of the characters they have played in films but also what is circulated in publicity, including what is said in reviews. (Shingler & Smith, 2012, p. 125)

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Edgar Morin, in Les Stars (1957), noted that the star is incarnated in the characters of his or her films but also transcends them (Morin 2005:26). Moreover, these characters transcend the star. Thus, Garbo’s characters become even more fascinating than Garbo herself, yet rely entirely upon the real Garbo, rendering the real Garbo even more fascinating. (Shingler & Smith, 2012, p. 122-123)

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Ellis (1992, p. 614) defines a star as “a performer in a particular medium whose figure enters into subsidiary forms of circulation, and then feeds back into future performances”.

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Ellis (1992, p. 614) defines a star as “a performer in a particular medium whose figure enters into subsidiary forms of circulation, and then feeds back into future performances”.

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Reflection of Watson's activism in the film 

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Reflection of Watson's activism in the film 

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This is a new Belle, much of it by Watson’s design. “I was like, ‘The first shot of the movie cannot be Belle walking out of this quiet little town carrying a basket with a white napkin in it,’ ” she says. “ ‘We need to rev things up!’ ” In the original Disney movie, Belle is an assistant to her inventor father, but here she’s a creator in her own right, developing a “modern washing machine that allows her to sit and read.” Watson worked with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to incorporate pockets in her costume that are “kind of like a tool belt.” Another thing: in the animated version, Belle is on and off horses yet wearing a long dress and silk slippers, which didn’t sit well with Watson. Bloomers were created and Belle’s first pair of riding boots. “The original sketches had her in her ballet shoes,” Watson says, “which are lovely—don’t get me wrong—but she’s not going to be able to do anything terribly useful in ballet shoes in the middle of a French provincial village.”

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Watson wears a gown by Gucci. Model Jordan Robson wears a corset from Angels Costumes; pants by Ariat.

Photograph by Tim Walker. Styled by Jessica Diehl.

Emma Watson and I are standing on the 23rd Street platform of an uptown-bound E train in New York City and we're littering. Literally. And literature-ly. The 26-year-old actress is scattering hardcover copies of Maya Angelou's book Mom & Me & Mom throughout the station-tucking them between pipes, placing them on benches, atop the emergency call box-in hopes that New York commuters will pick them up and put down their smartphones. This display of civil disobedience was conceived by Books on the Underground, a London-based organization that plants books on public transportation for travelers to discover. "We're being ninjas," she says with a conspiratorial grin as she digs in a big black rucksack of books. "If there were anyone to be a ninja for, it'd be Maya Angelou."

Watson is one of the most famous women in the world, the child star who skyrocketed to global fame at the age of 11 playing brainy Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies. Next month, she's back on the big screen as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the big-budget live-action musical-she sings too!-which broke the record for most viewed new movie trailer. (That's 127 million views in its first 24 hours, beating Fifty Shades Darker 's record.) But today she's makeup-free, her hair shoved into a bun, and she's wearing a nondescript dark wool coat over a baggy black sweater, completely blending in with New York's distracted mass-transit masses.

"It's good that we're spreading a little bit of love," she says. As she removes the last book, a train pulls into the station. She hops in, places it on a seat, hops out, and watches from the platform as the doors close and a young man inquisitively picks it up.

Aboveground, over coffee at a nearby café, Watson explains why she thinks reading is "sacred." There's the obvious, professional reason: Harry Potter was a literary sensation before becoming the blockbuster franchise that made her famous and a millionaire many times over. But books are also rooted in her deepest personal experiences. "Books gave me a way to connect with my father," she says. "Some of my most precious and treasured moments . . ." She trails off and, unexpectedly for someone who is known for her composure, tears up. Her parents divorced when she was young. "I just remember him reading to me before bed and how he used to do all the different voices. I grew up on film sets, and books were my connection to the outside world. They were my connection to my friends back at school because if I was reading what they were reading we'd have something in common. Later in life, they became an escape, a means of empowerment, a friend I could rely on."

I first met Watson, Hollywood's latest exception to the rule that all child stars inevitably flame out, during Paris Fashion Week more than a decade ago, when she was still a teenager and filming the fourth of the eight Harry Potter films. It was both a homecoming for the actress-she was born in Paris to British parents, both lawyers, and lived there until she was five-and a symbol of her maturity on-screen. She was there to attend her first-ever fashion show, at Chanel, which was a big deal considering that up until then she had shopped in the bridesmaid section at Harrods or borrowed dresses from her stepmother for movie premieres.

She was a shy teenager, but friendly, intelligent, and down to earth. Watson is described as much the same today: "She's way more like a real person than a movie star," according to Gloria Steinem, who became a friend when Watson reached out to discuss the changing face of feminist activism. (More on that later.) Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who met Watson backstage at a performance of the musical, sums it up: "She played this very smart, conscious, noble wizard-and then somehow we had the good fortune that she became a smart, conscious, noble woman." (They did a video together -Miranda freestyling, Watson beatboxing-to raise awareness for International Women's Day. It got more than six million views.)

Emma and I got to know each other, and I visited her on the sets of the last two Harry Potter films. But as the Potter train pulled into its last station, I noticed the clouds of melancholy forming over her fairy-tale life. "I'd walk down the red carpet and go into the bathroom," she remembers of the last few premieres. "I had on so much makeup and these big, fluffy, full-on dresses. I'd put my hands on the sink and look at myself in the mirror and say, 'Who is this?' I didn't connect with the person who was looking back at me, and that was a very unsettling feeling."

What few people knew when she enrolled at Brown University in 2009 was that she had a desire to give up acting and walk away from Hollywood altogether. "I was finding this fame thing was getting to a point of no return," she remembers. "I sensed if this was something I was ever going to step away from it was now or never." She loved performance and telling stories, but she had to reckon with the consequences of "winning the lottery," as she calls getting the part of Hermione, when she was nine years old and literally still losing baby teeth. As an adult, "it dawned on me that this is what you're really signing up for."

The question most people ask when a celebrity moans about being famous: If you hate the fanfare so much, why keep making movies? Watson asked herself that all the time. "I've been doing this since I was 10 or 11, and I've often thought, I'm so wrong for this job because I'm too serious; I'm a pain in the ass; I'm difficult; I don't fit," she says. "But as I've got older, I've realized, No! Taking on those battles, the smaller ones and the bigger ones, is who I am."

She recently found the courage to say no to selfie-seekers. "For me, it's the difference between being able to have a life and not. If someone takes a photograph of me and posts it, within two seconds they've created a marker of exactly where I am within 10 meters. They can see what I'm wearing and who I'm with. I just can't give that tracking data." Sometimes, she'll decline a photo but offer up an autograph or even a chat-"I'll say, 'I will sit here and answer every single Harry Potter fandom question you have but I just can't do a picture' "-and much of the time people don't bother. "I have to carefully pick and choose my moment to interact," she says. "When am I a celebrity sighting versus when am I going to make someone's freakin' week? Children I don't say no to, for example."

I tell Watson I've watched other actors, like Reese Witherspoon, walk down the street and happily pose with fans-and suddenly it becomes clear that the fans of Sweet Home Alabama are different from Harry Potter fans. For mostly better and occasionally worse, the Potter books and films not only captured the imagination of millions of people but, for many of them, changed their lives. It's something Watson is deeply aware of. "I have met fans that have my face tattooed on their body. I've met people who used the Harry Potter books to get through cancer. I don't know how to explain it, but the Harry Potter phenomenon steps into a different zone. It crosses into obsession. A big part of me coming to terms with it was accepting that this is not your average circumstances." (Since the first movie premiered, in 2001, when Watson was 11, there have been numerous incidents with stalkers.) "People will say to me, 'Have you spoken to Jodie Foster or Natalie Portman? They would have great advice for you on how to grow up in the limelight.' I'm not saying it was in any way easy on them, but with social media it's a whole new world. They've both said technology has changed the game." When she was at Brown, Watson went to a Harvard football game and The Harvard Voice, a student magazine, live-tweeted as its staff stalked her at the stadium. I remember at Watson's 18th-birthday party in London, the photographers outside had a bounty on who could get a picture taken up her skirt. She's not exaggerating her security concerns, either. She purchased her house sight unseen over a Skype call with a real-estate agent because it had a paparazzi-proof entrance. "Privacy for me is not an abstract idea," she says.

Watson has a boyfriend, though she adamantly, vehemently refuses to expound on him. (The Internet says he's called Mack, he's handsome, and he works in tech in Silicon Valley.) "I want to be consistent: I can't talk about my boyfriend in an interview and then expect people not to take paparazzi pictures of me walking around outside my home. You can't have it both ways." She sits back and wonders if she should finish this thought, and eventually she does: "I've noticed, in Hollywood, who you're dating gets tied up into your film promotion and becomes part of the performance and the circus. I would hate anyone that I were with to feel like they were in any way part of a show or an act."

Back in college, Watson was like most 20-year-olds, struggling to carve out her own identity, only she did it in front of a rabid fan base and a never-ending celebrity-news cycle. She made international headlines when she chopped Hermione's long locks into a closely shorn pixie. We don't need Sigmund Freud to read into the symbolism of that haircut, and to this day Watson declares, "It's the sexiest I've ever felt."

She got into yoga and meditation; being the Type A person she is, though, she wasn't content just doing it. "Typical Emma," says Harry Potter producer David Heyman, who has remained a close friend. "She had to become a certified meditation teacher."

Watson shied away from doing additional big-budget studio films and instead focused on smaller movies, like Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), and sought out auteur directors, like Sofia Coppola with The Bling Ring (2013) and Darren Aronofsky with Noah (2014). She turned down big offers: from lucrative cosmetics deals to critically acclaimed scripts. (Emma Stone's role in La La Land was reportedly developed for Watson.) "There have been hard moments in my career when I've had an agent or a movie producer say, 'You are making a big mistake,' " Watson says. "But what's the point of achieving great success if you feel like you're losing your freakin' mind? I've had to say, 'Guys, I need to go back to school,' or 'I just need to go home and hang out with my cats.' People have looked at me and been like, 'Is she insane?' But, actually, it's the opposite of insane."

What ultimately helped clarify her purpose was-you guessed it-reading. Last January, Watson started Our Shared Shelf, her bi-monthly online book club. She used Twitter (more than 23 million followers) to crowd-source the name, and chose Gloria Steinem's book My Life on the Road as her first selection.

All About Love: New Visions, by Bell Hooks, was Watson's March 2016 book-club selection. Watson traveled to Berea, Kentucky, near the Appalachian Mountains, to meet Hooks, and the two quickly struck up a friendship based on, in the words of the writer, "the belief in the primacy of a spiritual foundation for life."

"In so many ways she's not like we think of movie stars," Hooks told me. "She's [part of] a very different, new breed who are interested in being whole and having a holistic life, as opposed to being identified with just wealth and fame."

In early 2014, U.N. Women, the United Nations' department of gender equality, contacted Watson about becoming an ambassador. Everything clicked: she could focus the prying eyes of the world onto causes that she was passionate about, namely a new initiative called HeForShe, which aims to get men to co-sign on feminist issues. I was in the audience at the General Assembly on September 20, 2014, when Watson, elegantly and discreetly wrapped in a simple silver-gray Dior coatdress, stepped onto the podium and spoke passionately about women's rights for a little more than 10 minutes. Her battle cry ended with: "I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen, and to ask yourself, If not me, who? If not now, when?"

"I used to be scared of words like 'feminism,' 'patriarchy,' 'imperialist.' But I'm not anymore," Watson says.

"It was not typical for U.N. Women to have a celebrity give a keynote address," says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director of U.N. Women. "We needed a new messenger to break new ground for us. We didn't want to just speak to the converted." Watson blushed at the standing ovation and beamed as then secretary-general Ban Ki-moon became the first person to officially sign on to HeForShe. The U.N. Women Web site crashed in the aftermath of the media blitz that followed-"A good problem to have!," Mlambo-Ngcuka says-and her speech made headline news around the world, from CNN to fashion blogs. Men like Hugh Jackman, Jared Leto, Harry Styles, Russell Crowe, and Eddie Redmayne aligned themselves with HeForShe. Feminists worldwide heralded their newest spokesperson: "For a time, there was a conversation about whether 'feminism' was a good thing or a bad thing," Mlambo-Ngcuka says. Watson's speech "gave us the word back."

The first time Watson saw the final cut of Beauty and the Beast she took along her mother, Jacqueline, and Gloria Steinem to a screening in London. She wanted her mother's approval, but she needed Steinem's. "I couldn't care less if I won an Oscar or not if the movie didn't say something that I felt was important for people to hear," Watson says.

Specifically, she must have wanted assurance that her portrayal of a Disney princess, in the Bill Condon-directed film, didn't conflict with the ideals of a feminist, and who better than Steinem to give that stamp of approval?

She got it.

"It was fascinating that her activism could be so well mirrored by the film," Steinem says, noting that Belle uses-you guessed it, again-reading as a way to expand her world. "It's this love of literature that first bonds the Beauty to the Beast, and also what develops the entire story."

This is a new Belle, much of it by Watson's design. "I was like, 'The first shot of the movie cannot be Belle walking out of this quiet little town carrying a basket with a white napkin in it,' " she says. " 'We need to rev things up!' " In the original Disney movie, Belle is an assistant to her inventor father, but here she's a creator in her own right, developing a "modern washing machine that allows her to sit and read." Watson worked with costume designer Jacqueline Durran to incorporate pockets in her costume that are "kind of like a tool belt." Another thing: in the animated version, Belle is on and off horses yet wearing a long dress and silk slippers, which didn't sit well with Watson. Bloomers were created and Belle's first pair of riding boots. "The original sketches had her in her ballet shoes," Watson says, "which are lovely-don't get me wrong-but she's not going to be able to do anything terribly useful in ballet shoes in the middle of a French provincial village."

Maturing from Hermione to Belle is a true coming-of-age story for her. "When I finished the film, it kind of felt like I had made that transition into being a woman on-screen," she says. Belle is "absolutely a Disney princess, but she's not a passive character-she's in charge of her own destiny." What's more intriguing, however, is how Watson observed a similarly strict code in her real life, too, from what parts she plays to what she reads in bed at night and what clothes she puts on in the morning.

"Emma has an incredible sense of integrity," says Livia Firth, the founder of Eco-Age, a sustainable-fashion consulting firm. "You can't marry activism and then do something in your life that is not in agreement." Firth praises Watson's choice of dress for last year's Met Gala: it was designed by Calvin Klein and made almost entirely from recycled plastic bottles. For her Beauty and the Beast press tour, Watson created a PowerPoint presentation that her stylist sent fashion designers. It included a questionnaire about how their garments are produced, what their impact is on the environment, and the moral reason why she should wear one on the red carpet.

As Steinem honors Watson's high moral standards and relentless activism, I ask her if there's a risk of becoming, well, annoying to the general public. Is she too much of an ethical Goody Two-Shoes? After all, what other starlet assigns fashion designers homework before she wears their clothes? Steinem is not amused. "Let me ask you something: If you did a story on a young male actor who was very private and involved in activism, would you think he was too severe or serious? Why do women always have to be listeners? Emma is interested in the world, she is caring, and though she is active she is also joyous and informed." At this point I'm backpedaling-"I think she's wonderful!"-but Steinem still digs in. "It's possible to be both serious and fun, you know. That response is why men will ask a woman, 'Why don't you just smile, honey?' "

The actor Kevin Kline, who plays Belle's father in Beauty and the Beast, agrees with Steinem. "When someone has a feminist point of view, we tend to think she's no fun at all," he says. "But a feminist can be feminine, delicate, vulnerable, sweet-and still demand to be taken seriously. Emma fits the bill perfectly." A big grin forms on his face as he asks, "Has anyone told you about the dancing scene yet?"

In the film, there's an over-the-top ball, which required the entire cast and scores of extras to waltz in period costumes for hours and hours. "Ater a long, long day, suddenly Pharrell Williams's song 'Happy' comes on, blasting, and everyone just starts jumping around," Kline recalls. "It became kind of a wrap party, really celebratory. And I asked, 'Who did that?' It was Emma."

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Since her years as Hermione ended, Emma Watson has fought to assert her own identity. Now that she has found her voice-most notably as a U.N. ambassador-she's revamping a classic stereotype, the Disney princess, in Beauty and the Beast, the live-action musical coming out in March.

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Emma Watson's activism was so well mirrored by the film. She assured that her portrayal of a Disney princess didn’t conflict with the ideals of a feminist. Belle is “absolutely a Disney princess, but she’s not a passive character—she’s in charge of her own destiny.”

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Emma Watson? Jennifer Lawrence? These aren't the feminists you're looking for (2014)

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Emma Watson? Jennifer Lawrence? These aren't the feminists you're looking for (2014)

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Roxane Gay writing in The Guardian, expressed her frustration that the idea of women asking for the rights that men already have only sells when delivered "in the right package: a particular kind of beauty, fame, and/or self-deprecating brand of humor." Feminism should not be something that needs a seductive marketing campaign, she said.

Feminism should not be something that needs a seductive marketing campaign. The idea of women moving through the world as freely as men should sell itself.

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ecently, a young woman asked me how we can make feminism more accessible to men. I told her that I don't care about making feminism more accessible to men. In truth, I don't care about making feminism more accessible to anyone.

I care about making the liberties that men enjoy so freely fully accessible to women, and if men or celebrities claiming feminism for themselves has become the spoon full of sugar to make that medicine go down, so be it.

But it irks me that we more easily embrace feminism and feminist messages when delivered in the right package - one that generally includes youth, a particular kind of beauty, fame and/or self-deprecating humour. It frustrates me that the very idea of women enjoying the same inalienable rights as men is so unappealing that we require - even demand - that the person asking for these rights must embody the standards we're supposedly trying to challenge. That we require brand ambassadors and celebrity endorsements to make the world a more equitable place is infuriating.

Around this time last year, as part of an effort to rebrand feminism - a notion that comes up in far too many discussions, as though there might be a magical combination of words and images that will make gender equality more palatable to the masses - Elle UK invited three British ad agencies to develop campaigns to promote feminist messages. I recognized the motivation behind the campaign but I resented the idea that with a better marketing message, the world might get right with feminism. I don't truck in magical thinking.

Celebrities, of course, are often used as part of all vague "rebranding feminist" efforts, and in the last year or so, many famous young women - Jennifer Lawrence, Lena Dunham, Miley Cyrus - have openly claimed feminism. This shouldn't be news, but it is, because all too often famous women - Katy Perry, Shailene Woodley, Kelly Clarkson - denounce feminism because they believe in humanism or they love men or other such reasons that make little sense.

A couple weeks ago, United Nations goodwill ambassador Emma Watson (best known as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies) delivered a passionate speech before the UN that was, for the most part, very well received. Watson announced her "He For She" campaign meant to unite men and women in the feminist movement and help women achieve equality throughout the world. Clearly, the speech and the campaign were both well intentioned: video of her speech went viral and hers was the face that launched a thousand essays and articles about "Emma Watson's feminism". The feminist movement found a new brand, even though Emma Watson wasn't saying anything feminists haven't already said for more than 40 years.

Watson isn't the only face of rebranded and reclaimed feminism. This has been the year when many of us, myself included, have been giddy over Beyoncé boldly declaring herself a feminist. At the MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé stood in front of the word FEMINIST and it felt like a moment. Here was a young, powerful, black woman openly claiming her feminism. Who wouldn't want to be a feminist, too, with Beyoncé as a face of feminism? Unfortunately, Beyoncé will represent the only face of feminism for too many people who will incorrectly assume feminism begins and ends with her. She is one woman - an amazing woman, to be sure - but she is a gateway to feminism, not the movement itself.

Taylor Swift is also openly embracing feminism. In an August interview with the Guardian, Swift said:

As a teenager, I didn't understand that saying you're a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means.

This is the real problem feminism faces. Too many people are willfully ignorant about what the word means and what the movement aims to achieve. But when a pretty young woman has something to say about feminism, all of a sudden, that broad ignorance disappears or is set aside because, at last, we have a more tolerable voice proclaiming the very messages feminism has been trying to impart for so damn long.

When famous men embrace feminism, the public adoration becomes even more feverish because, my goodness, it must mean something so very significant if a man is supportive of gender equality. Just this week, comedian Aziz Ansari appeared on The Late Show and told David Letterman he was a feminist. In his usual charming way, Ansari talked about how his girlfriend showed him to the feminist light and made a good quip about unequal pay. The next day, the video of Ansari's appearance went viral.

We had yet another famous feminist icon to follow, though it seems we haven't yet decided where we want to be led.

There is nothing wrong with celebrities (or men) claiming feminism and talking about feminism. I support anything that broadens the message of gender equality and tempers the stigma of the feminist label. We run into trouble, though, when we celebrate celebrity feminism while avoiding the actual work of feminism.

So long as we continue to stare into the glittery light of the latest celebrity feminist, we avoid looking at the very real inequities that women throughout the world continue to face. We avoid having the difficult conversations about the pay gap and the all-too-often sexist music we listen to and the movies we watch that tell women's stories horribly (if at all) and the limited reproductive freedom women are allowed to exercise and the pervasive sexual harassment and violence too many women face. We avoid having the conversations about the hard work changing this culture will require.

Feminism is, I hope, a way to a better future for everyone who inhabits this world. Feminism should not be something that needs a seductive marketing campaign. The idea of women moving through the world as freely as men should sell itself.

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Jennifer Lawrence? Emma Watson? These aren't the feminists you're looking for | Roxane Gay

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ecently, a young woman asked me how we can make feminism more accessible to men. I told her that I don't care about making feminism more accessible to men. In truth, I don't care about making feminism more accessible to anyone.

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Impact of Emma Watson's Speech on Feminism

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Impact of Emma Watson's Speech on Feminism

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Joanna Robinson writing in Vanity Fair called the speech "impassioned", and stressed the potential of Watson's role in social place;

Watson is potentially in an even better position than many of her peers to do so. Her role as Hermione Granger, the universally adored heroine of the Harry Potter series, gives her an automatic in with male and female millenials. This is a rare case where an actor being conflated with their role might be a good thing. In this way, her widespread influence on young minds (still forming their opinions on gender roles and advocacy) is even stronger than other high-profile defenders of the F-word like Beyoncé.

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Earlier this summer, fresh from college graduation, Emma Watson, was named a U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador. Though the ripples of her involvement over the past few months can be seen online ( crashing the U.N. Web site, using Twitter to denounce a sexist politician in Turkey or respond to the gender politics of the recent celebrity nude photo hack), Watson's power in person is an entirely different matter.

The actress gave an impassioned speech on feminism and gender at the U.N. headquarters in New York this weekend to launch the "HeForShe" campaign which aims to galvanize one billion men and boys as advocates for ending the inequalities that women and girls face globally.

Watson's speech, which was met with a thunderous standing ovation, not only called for action from male allies, but clarified a persistent misconception about feminism in general. She said:

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one? I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.

Watson is pushing back against recent campaigns like Women Against Feminism. As Watson puts it elsewhere in her speech, these campaigns portray the feminist cause as "man-hating." By involving both genders in the HeForShe campaign, Watson hopes to abolish the "us vs. them" mentality.

Watson is potentially in an even better position than many of her peers to do so. Her role as Hermione Granger, the universally adored heroine of the Harry Potter series, gives her an automatic in with male and female millenials. This is a rare case where an actor being conflated with their role might be a good thing. In this way, her widespread influence on young minds (still forming their opinions on gender roles and advocacy) is even stronger than other high-profile defenders of the F-word like Beyoncé.

Watson's Harry Potter association also carries with it a disadvantage -- the fear she might not be taken seriously. She addresses this concern in her speech:

You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN. It's a good question and trust me I have been asking myself the same thing. I don't know if I am qualified to be here. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better.

And having seen what I've seen-and given the chance-I feel it is my duty to say something. English statesman Edmund Burke said: "All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing."

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Emma Watson Delivers Game-Changing Speech on Feminism for the U.N.

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The Harry Potter actress received a thunderous standing ovation.

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Emma Watson HeForShe Speech at the United Nations (2014)

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Emma Watson HeForShe Speech at the United Nations (2014)

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In 2014, Watson was named a U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations, a program that actively involves prominent personalities in the fields of arts and sports to promote U.N. programs. Her role is to serve as an advocate for U.N. Women's gender equality campaign known as HeForShe. HeForShe is a program dedicated to improving the status of women and inviting men and boys around the world to stand in solidarity with women and girls as they make that make gender equality a reality.

The speech at the United Nations was part of her official role as U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador. In her moving speech, Emma Watson brought attention to the unfortunate reality that “feminisim” is too often associated with “man hating,” effectively halting the progression of achieving gender equality.

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Emma Watson HeForShe Speech at the United Nations | UN Women 2014

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Watson has leveraged their high profile status to bring women's rights issues to the public eye. She has been celebrated and criticized for her positions; the term "celebrity feminist" is sometimes used to denigrate her credentials or question her authenticity, but there is no doubt that her championship of different causes has shed public light on myriad issues.

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Emma Watson was independent of all other factors and also certainly knew what she wanted to do, what impact does it take

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'The Bling Ring'; Emma Watson: in character, out of control (2013)

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'The Bling Ring'; Emma Watson: in character, out of control (2013)

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The reason why Watson chose the role of film "The Bling Ring' (2013) is noticeable. The role marked a huge departure from Watson’s usual films. But her differences with the character were actually why Watson felt she had to play her.
“When I read the script and I realised that essentially it was a meditation on fame and what it’s become to our society, I had to do it. The character is everything that I felt really strongly against – she’s superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral. She’s all of these things, and I realised that I really hated her,” she added. “How do you play someone that you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be.”
She was confident in what she was doing and recognised what can she get for it.

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For more than a decade, Emma Watson was known to the world as the clean-cut Hermione in the multi-billion-dollar Harry Potter franchise. Now, we're introducing the 22-year-old superstar as you've never seen her before. Watson talks stardom, sex and stalkers with Dylan Jones as well as poses for a stunning photo shoot in character as Nicki, her pole-dancing Valley vixen in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring.

There is a funny, no doubt apocryphal story concerning one of Emma Watson's first classes as a freshman at Brown University in the autumn of 2010. She had decided to move to Brown, in Providence, Rhode Island, in the hope of stepping back from the spotlight caused by the extraordinary amount of attention she had received due to her performances as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series.

In her class, Watson, who was sitting near the front of the room, stuck her hand up to answer - correctly - one of the questions posed by the lecturer. To which a student from the back of the class shouted, in the worst kind of sotto voce, "Ten points for Gryffindor!"

Watson has been living with this since she was ten, almost 13 years ago, and having spent most of her life in the limelight, has developed something of a brilliantly polished protective shield.

Having interviewed dozens of actors and actresses in my time, I have become used to the ways in which they try to act courteous and engaged when all they really want to do is bolt out of the room, back to their trailer, back to their partner, or, in some cases, back to their hotel room in order to spend the rest of the day with their head buried in a bag of cocaine.

Most are polite, and play the "I-win-you-win" game, in which the journalist scurries back to his lair, armed with enough good copy, colour and professionally delivered candour to conjure up a celebrity profile that doesn't read too much like all the other ones about the person they've just met. And usually it works: I've long since stopped being amazed by how easy it is for celebrities to convince journalists that they have made a "connection", hoodwinking them into believing that their relationship has now been re-calibrated to such an extent that they are no longer master and servant.

Actors are usually contractually obliged to promote a film, so if they have been forced to sit down with the Mail On Sunday, the *Independent * or the New York Times, they obviously want to spend as little time doing it as possible. Occasionally, actors have the balls (or the misguided arrogance) to go against the grain and actually treat the interview as an encumbrance. I once interviewed Miranda Richardson in Blakes Hotel, London, for some film she was promoting and she couldn't have been less engaged. Didn't even pretend. Of course I found the whole thing particularly annoying, and said so in print, but in a way I secretly admired her.

Emma Watson has developed her own shield, naturally, although she acts in a completely charming manner, answering questions both on and off the record with deftness, wit and skill. In fact, she is extremely good company - delightful, really - and professional to a fault. It was less like an interview and more like a meeting, and I don't say that disrespectfully. We were there to do a job, a job that she - at least - did faultlessly.

In the flesh, Watson looks a lot younger than she tends to on film, which made me a little disconcerted, as there were moments when shedidn't look that much older than my eldest daughter, but then I would imagine my reaction is not unusual. The way she looks right now gives her an immense amount of power, which is why she is choosing her post- Potter roles incredibly carefully.

The film she is promoting is The Bling Ring, a true-life tale about a gang of audacious, rich, club-hopping, coke-hoovering Valley kids who stole clothes, cash and jewellery from various Hollywood celebrities - including Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan - motivated by little but vanity and celebrity. Shot in a docudrama style by director Sofia Coppola, Watson is the film's principal star, playing Nicki, a teen with an ex- Playboy model mother, played by Leslie Mann. Coming off the back of a decade of Hermione movies, this is a little like Julie Andrews deciding to play a stripper after appearing in The Sound Of Music, or former child star Natalie Portman appearing in a film about a menacing, sexually charged schizophrenic. Oh, hold on, she already did that...

**Emma - frankly, you couldn't have picked a role more at odds with the role you played in Harry Potter. This was obviously a very deliberate and considered strategy...

** Well, yes, she is. It's funny, but I actually fought for the role; I really wanted to play it. First of all, I was a big fan of Sofia's. I'm probably the least obvious choice to play the role, as she's the epitome of everything that I am considered not to be.

We're polar opposites. When I read the script and I realised that essentially it was a meditation on fame and what it's become to our society, I had to do it. The character is everything that I felt really strongly against - she's superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral. She's all of these things, and I realised that I really hated her. How do you play someone that you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be.

**As you say, you couldn't have picked a character that was more different from how people see you. She's sexual, she's subversive and she's involved in criminal behaviour. Were you looking for a part like this?

** No, I just really wanted to work with Sofia. I met with her, then I found out she had a script, then I read it, liked it, and then I found out she was interested in me for Nicki. I never chose the role, I chose the director. That's really how I've approached all of my career choices thus far. Secondly, it wasn't like I needed to go out there and try to find the furthest part from Hermione so I could get away from her, because that seems like a negative place to jump off from; trying to get away from something rather than trying to get towards something. What I'm trying to get towards is that I want to be a character actress. I want to play parts. I want to play roles that transform me. Nicki seemed like an opportunity to do that.

**The character you play was a lap dancer. Was that a stretch for you? Indeed, how much sex is in the film?

** It doesn't really focus on sex. No. The interesting thing about Nicki is that she uses her sexuality to get her to the places she wants to go, but she isn't actually really interested in sex herself. She's interested as using it as a way of manipulating men.

She's quite cold. She's very focused on where she wants to get herself, in terms of her career, in terms of being famous. It's purely a tool. I did learn to pole dance for the film, and I have a small pole-dancing scene, but it's not a performance for anyone else, it's just me messing around with my friends. I'm not standing on a bar top.

**I assume this isn't the sort of thing you get up to at home...

** Yes. I learnt. I took lessons. When I was preparing for the role I was studying at Oxford, actually [at Worcester College, where she went for a year during her course at Brown]. So I had this surreal experience where I was studying the modernists, writing about Virginia Woolf on Friday night and then driving up to London to take pole-dancing classes on Saturday morning. It was surreal. I went with a friend of mine; she sweetly agreed to come along with me. I was incredibly ungraceful at first. The upper-body strength and the core strength that you need to do it gracefully is crazy I take my hat off to the women who can do it.

You have to be incredibly strong.

**A lot of people have been expecting you to...

** ...do a period drama. I know, everyone wants me to do an English period drama and fit myself into a Jane Austen character or a corset, or a BBC or a Downton Abbey thing. If there was anything that I didn't want to do, that was exactly it. Really, I was open-minded about doing anything, but the one thing I knew I didn't want to do was get myself into a corset because I was worried I'd never get out again. I knew that it would be a really comfortable thing to do, but I felt coming straight out of Harry Potter, I had to dive into something really different. I knew that the first few choices I made post- Potter would give people a steer as to what I might do in the future, so I was pretty specific about no corsets.

This has been a really big departure for me; it's a really big character. The fun thing for me was that I showed my audition tape to my friends. Half of them had their jaw drop, and the rest were just hysterical, laughing, because it was so different. That's so exciting for me, becauseit meant I really was acting.

**You have been cocooned for so much of your life, it must have been difficult, nigh impossible, for you to rebel in any way.

So in some respects you have had your teenage years torn from you... Have you had a rebellious phase? Have you had the opportunity to do all those things: drinking; drugs; sex?

** The honest answer is I genuinely haven't really had a rebellious phase. I think it's just because of the way I was brought up. I think it's because I left home when I was ten years old. We went away for two months, we travelled all around England; we went to Newcastle and Durham and Scotland, all over. I was travelling; I was away from home. My parents didn't chaperone me. I think that was a key difference between me and Dan [Radcliffe] and Rupert [Grint]. I didn't have my parents with me; I didn't have a family member.

My parents both worked full time and they didn't want to do that, which I respect. They both really are driven in their careers and as [they] are divorced, if my mum had gone travelling with me, she wouldn't have been there for my brother. It wasn't really a possibility. This is a long-winded way of saying that I was responsible for myself, and being responsible for myself, I knew I was my own backstop. I think I was too afraid. I remember the first day that I got the part, the newspapers were filled with: OK, these are the three chosen kids, let's look at the track records of other child stars and let's see how they fared. There was story after story of drugs, alcohol problems, whatever. I think I was terrified to try drugs, because I had been conditioned to believe that this would be my downfall, if I tried drugs. It seemed like such an obvious thing not to do, not to go down that route. There were just so many examples, example after example after example. I think I was afraid. It just didn't seem like a clever idea to experiment too much when I'd read all these stories as a kid about child actors who went crazy over drugs and alcohol. But I suppose the real answer is that I have just never been very curious about them.

**But you were given this golden ticket with enormous freedom. Where does your self-restraint come from?

** It's really hard to say. I guess what really forms you as a person, is what you do within your family to receive love or attention. In my family, what you had to do to receive attention was to have good conversation at the dinner table or for me to do well at school, and those were really my focuses because that was what was valued the most. I don't think my dad really knew what to do with me, as a daughter. He treated me like a boy; my brother and I were treated the same. He didn't do kid stuff. There were no kid's menus, you weren't allowed to order off the kid's menu at dinner, we had to try something from the adult menu. We'd play tennis, and he'd smack the ball as hard at me as he did with anyone else he played.

As my parents were divorced and they both worked full time, I had to grow up quickly. I guess it made me quite a serious young person.

**How have your ambitions changed since you became successful?

** I think when I was younger I wasn't really sure if I wanted to act, so I played around with a few different ideas. I wasn't sure whether I might want to write or whether I might want to do something in fashion. I wasn't really focused in the same way that Dan was from the get go. His parents [worked in the industry], he went to the theatre, he watched films, he was absolutely set from the beginning: "I'm going to be an actor."

We had maybe four tapes in the whole of our house. My father doesn't watch films, and I'd been taken to the theatre maybe twice on a school trip. I'd always enjoyed acting in school plays, but that just wasn't an ambition that I really thought about. I guess how I've changed is that coming out of Potter I've become more focused. I've zoned in on what I actually want to do, which is act. Recently, particularly with my work for Lancôme, a lot of journalists ask, "Don't you want to design a fashion line or your own perfume?" I've kind of stepped away because I don't want any other distraction.

**Surely it couldn't have taken very long for you to realise that after the success of the Potter films, you could turn your hand to anything. If you had said I want to play Godzilla, someone would have found the money to do it.

** I don't think I do feel like that. I feel like I still have to earn the respect of the directors that I respect to play certain roles. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you have to understand, we made these films in this weird bubble. Leavesden Studios is an aircraft hanger [near] Watford. It's only after the films ended and I remember taking a trip out to LA and my agent saying, "You should really take some meetings, you should go and meet people." It was only then that it really dawned on me, and it was quite overwhelming when it did, but every single studio head of every big studio in Hollywood gave up their time and came and met me personally. You're looking at me sceptically, but I really didn't understand that I had that kind of power. I genuinely didn't. I think my parents were very focused on keeping me down to earth. The biggest compliment I've ever had, getting ready for a premiere or whatever, is that I scrub up all right. I don't know. I didn't fully understand what it all meant. I really didn't have any perspective of it. I was actually just incredibly naive about the whole thing.

**One of the interesting things about your success is the fact people say you've been able to handle the amount of fame and attention, and appear to handle it incredibly well. There must have been moments where you could have freaked out.

** I used to get really frustrated by the child-star stigma that I would get when I spoke to journalists, and I think it's because I lived this very sheltered life, where I'd have a chauffeur come and pick me up to take me to the studios. I'd only see this very specific group of people who I was doing these films with. I'd get back in my car and go home and do the same thing the next day. It was really only once Harry Potter ended and I went to university that it hit me how unusual a position I was in, how different my life could have been.

I found my first couple of years outside of Potter pretty difficult. I struggled to adjust to life outside in a way that I wasn't anticipating.

**Did you have stalkers?

** Yes. I do have people who show up from time to time in different parts of the world. I've never really known how to respond; I've never really known if I should be afraid or not. This is how I put it into perspective: thousands of women all over the world have to deal with feeling afraid when they walk home from the Tube, on their way to work, when they go out for a drink. Feeling not safe isn't something that is singular to me or my experience as a woman, and I don't think any of these people mean me any harm.

They just tend to be people caught up, who don't really realise what they are doing, and I think it is very important that I don't allow it to isolate me further, to be another reason why I shouldn't go out and meet people or walk down the street. Weird guys sometimes take it too far, and that is it. I just keep a friend with me. I don't have a full-time security guard or anything like that. Even at university I went everywhere completely alone, which looking back was probably a pretty ambitious thing that I tried to do there, but somehow I got away with it. There were times when I did feel stressed and anxious and could probably have done with a bit more support. At the same time I would rather make my own mistakes and learn what I need. I think it is so easy when you get famous to just disengage from having a life and that can make some things really dangerous.

**Is there someone whose career you look at and think: "I would like to do my career like that"?

** There are, but it is difficult to find someone who has had a comparative experience to mine. It was eight films that were filmed back-to-back in one franchise. People have in the past compared me to Natalie Portman, and I have said that I would like to emulate her career but really she did a few things in and out.

My experience was back-to-back, eight movies, blockbusters, all encompassing, and it is difficult to find anyone who has had anything quite like that. I really admire Cate Blanchett, I like the choices she has made. Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, those kind of actresses.

**Tabloid journalists always assume that you are surrounded by gold-diggers, and that you must find it difficult to find a man. So how does it work, what are the mechanics of you choosing a man?

** It is a particular context. Generally people I have dated have been friends of friends, or people that I have been in a class with. Someone that I have met under circumstances in which we are equals, so the fame thing doesn't enter the situation. In a classroom it is really just about who has the right answer or who has an interesting discussion point, and in those kinds of conversations and situations everyone is equal. I think that is one of the reasons I like being at university so much. There is no special treatment for me when I sit down in an exam, and the fact that I have done eight Harry Potter films doesn't really come into play.

The worst date I've ever been on was a guy who told me he couldn't be friends with fat people or anyone who was unattractive and I realised pretty quickly that he was a nutter and I had to get out as quickly as I could. The very worst men are those that say, "Are you the girl from Harry Potter?"

I have had my heart broken, though, twice, and I have slapped someone. I was very young. I wouldn't do it again. I'm sorry.

I guess I have developed an instinct for people that aren't fazed by my situation. You either have chemistry or you don't. It becomes much more interpersonal, the relationship you have with that person you either find that you are clicking with them or not.

**When did you first start understanding the amounts of money you were earning?

** My dad told me when I turned 18. I haven't done anything decadent or mad with my money. You look pleadingly at me, you are like, "Please tell me you have done something, please tell me you are not all boring and responsible." But I haven't just bought Mexico or flown from pole to pole and back again; the truth is, I rent a house in London. It was the house I fell in love with and they would not sell it to me. I rented in New York when I was there. I bought a Toyota Prius and I bought myself a laptop. That's kind of it.

**Have you developed extravagant taste?

** The thing is, I am a young person and there are expensive things I can buy but a lot of them are for older women. If I'm a 20-yearold wearing Salvatore Ferragamo from head to toe, I look pretty odd. So I still buy a lot of High Street clothes, not because I choose to buy something cheap, but because I want to look like a young person, I want to look like I am 20. So I am wearing Topshop jeans and a Whistles T-shirt and my little biker boots. My coat is expensive, and I do love beautiful things, don't get me wrong; I can appreciate something that is well crafted and beautiful. I have a weakness for Smythson diaries, I like my Soho planner. My friends are all at university, right? So it instantly makes me different if I trot up with a whatever. Know what I mean? It doesn't help me out on my real agenda, which is to maintain normal friendships with the people I grew up with and want to be around.

**Your mother says you have grit and determination, and that's obvious from talking to you, yet you seem to go out of your way to be... normal, centred, un-extraordinary...

** It is very humbling studying somewhere like Oxford or Brown, and being in a classroom with people I know are much smarter than I am. So I would never think I was entitled to that type of position of privilege or power without having really earned it. I feel like an imposter just being an actress. Just like someone could find me out at any moment. I never studied acting. I am embarrassed that I go to meetings and directors reference films and I haven't seen any of them. I am still just catching up on one particular thing I am interested in. I really believe that you have to earn things. I don't feel comfortable unless I have worked really hard. I worked hard to get Hermione, and my mum has a video I did for the first audition and she has me doing the same take over and over, like 27 times from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon and I was just relentless. I wasn't sure I wanted to act, but I was sure I wanted this part.

**What is the worst thing that's been said about you in the press?

** Will Self said that I would always be to him a nice, middle-class girl but, to be honest, I would rather someone really just detest [me] and think I am horribly boring and stuck up and I don't deserve to be where I am and I have been really lucky and whatever else they want to say, than say that I was nice. I feel like, you know when you go on a terrible date with someone you don't really like, you say it was nice. I would rather people really liked me or really didn't like me, anything other than just being average.

**I don't think you should feel aggrieved about anything Will Self says.

** He just talked about me like I was this tiny, white, fragile, breakable, china doll that didn't really have anything to say, which was wrong because I had talked to him about a lot of things. British men can have a great sense of chivalry and often have great manners. But not all of them... Arrogance and vanity are the worst male characteristics.
The Bling Ring is out on 5 July.

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Emma Watson: in character, out of control

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For more than a decade, Emma Watson was known to the world as the clean-cut Hermione in the multi-billion-dollar Harry Potter franchise. Now, we're introducing the 22-year-old superstar as you've never seen her before. Watson talks stardom, sex and stalkers with Dylan Jones as well as poses for a stunning photo shoot in character as Nicki, her pole-dancing Valley vixen in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011)

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011)

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)

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Watson shied away from doing additional big-budget studio films and seeking out auteur directors, instead she focused on smaller movies, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) was the first step.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

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Emma Watson: How I learned to love the Hermione in me (2016)

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Emma Watson: How I learned to love the Hermione in me (2016)

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Watson said, "At first I was really trying to say, 'I'm not like Hermione. I'm into fashion and I'm much cooler than she is,' and then I came to a place of acceptance. Actually, we do have a lot in common. There are obviously differences, but there are a lot of ways that I'm very similar. And I stopped fighting that!"

"The character of Hermione gave me permission to be who I was."

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Harry Potter star Emma Watson on how she learned to love Hermione Granger and herself | Radio Times

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“The character of Hermione gave me permission to be who I was,” says the Harry Potter star

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The interview about Emma Watson viewed herself as similar with Hermione (2009)

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The interview about Emma Watson viewed herself as similar with Hermione (2009)

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“I just felt like that part belonged to me,” Watson shared with Interview Magazine. “I know that sounds crazy, but from that first audition, I always knew. At the beginning, they were casting the other characters as well—but I always knew I was going out for Hermione. She came so naturally to me. Maybe so much of myself at the time was similar to her.”

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Emma Watson didn’t have to dream about living in the magic kingdom of Harry Potter. She grew up there, plucked from school at the age of 9 to be cast as the female lead in one of the most successful movie franchises in history. As the series starts to reach its end, the most magical transformation h…

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Watson reflects on wanting to quit the ‘Harry Potter’ movies; 10 Questions | TIME (2010)

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Watson reflects on wanting to quit the ‘Harry Potter’ movies; 10 Questions | TIME (2010)

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Watson thought she would find it very difficult to watch the movies being made without her being part of them. Because she grew up making them, they’re like part of— being part of that film franchise feels like part of her identity. So she returned to the film,  and she was certainly sure what she had decided was the right decision. Moreover, Watson decided to do the schooling, and she was able to find more freedom in her life, while pursuing her education.

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Emma Watson On Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 | 10 Questions | TIME

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Emma Watson: 'There Are Too Many Stupid Girls' (2007)

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Emma Watson: 'There Are Too Many Stupid Girls' (2007)

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In a 2007 interview with Parade (via People), Watson said, “I find it’s so much pressure to be beautiful. Hermione doesn’t care what she looks like. She’s a complete tomboy”.
Since Hermione was so much different from the other celebrities at the time, she offered an ideal role model to young girls. Watson said. “Hermione’s not scared to be clever. I think sometimes really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and that’s bad.”

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If Emma Watson ever decides to give up acting, she might try politics - she's so outspoken.

Take the subject of her Harry Potter alter ego, Hermione Granger, and how she serves as a role model for young girls.

"There are too many stupid girls in the media," Watson, 17, tells magazine in this weekend's issue. "Hermione's not scared to be clever. I think sometimes really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and that's bad."

Likening certain aspects of her personality to Hermione's, Watson says, "I'm a bit of a feminist. I'm very competitive and challenging."

The actress, who stars in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, would also prefer to be known for her brains than her looks. "When I was 9 or 10, I would get really upset when they tried to make me look geeky, but now I absolutely love it. I find it's so much pressure to be beautiful. Hermione doesn't care what she looks like. She's a complete tomboy."

As for her own role models, Watson looks to her family. "I have a really secure network of family and friends. ... My parents are both lawyers, and they have no interest in being part of this industry."

With her parents divorced, Watson - the eldest of seven siblings - lives with her mother in Oxford, where she goes to an all-girls school.

Addressing the lingering matter of why she was the the final holdout when it came to signing on for the final Potter movies, Watson says, "People can't understand why I don't want to be a full-time actress, but school life keeps me in touch with my friends. It keeps me in touch with reality."

She adds: "Let's be honest: I have enough money never to have to work again, but I would never want that. Learning keeps me motivated."

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Emma Watson: 'There Are Too Many Stupid Girls'

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If Emma Watson ever decides to give up acting, she might try politics - she's so outspoken. Take the subject of her Harry Potter alter ego, Hermione Granger, and how she serves as a role model for young girls. "There are too many stupid girls in the media," Watson, 17, tells magazine in this weekend's issue.

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Watson wanted to quit the movie because she wanted to be free from the role. Since the audience wished Watson to be perfected as Hermione, she felt structured and wanted to be free from the act.

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Hermione Granger is an admirable character who is close to perfect. While no character can be perfect, she comes pretty close. She is portrayed as wise beyond her years, always keeping calm and being the voice of reason. Hermione is a strong, intelligent, and progressive female character. People associate Watson with her character because that’s the version of her that they grew up to know. Whether she’d admit it or not, Emma Watson has lived her life as many imagine that Hermione would have. And Watson, as Hermione, was being an ideal model for young girls.

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Emma Watson's Harry Potter ordeal (2010)

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Emma Watson's Harry Potter ordeal (2010)

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In this article, Watson said she was not sure she wanted to be controlled continuously by a plot in which she had to behave and look like an old-fashioned schoolgirl, saying, "I have such a structure when I'm working on Potter. I get told what time I get picked up. I get told what time I can eat, when I have time to go to the bathroom. Every single second of my day is not in my power". She felt it hard to fit into people's expectations of Hermione's portrayal.

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Harry Potter and Philosopher's stone (2001)

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Harry Potter and Philosopher's stone (2001)

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It was Watson's debut screen performance. She took the role of Hermione Granger. The film was the highest-grossing film of 2001,  breaking records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

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Watson was hesitant to decide to continue her role for the following installments. She was considerably ambivalent to sign on, but eventually decided to go with Hermione

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

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The interview about how Watson views Hermione; "Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson" (2004),

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The interview about how Watson views Hermione; "Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson" (2004),

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Watson was appreciative of the more assertive role Hermione played, calling her "charismatic" and "a fantastic role to play". She said Hermione in third one is "girl power" and "feisty", mentioning she feels quite close to Hermione.

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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the three leads at the heart of the Harry Potter series, return in the third instalment, The Prisoner Of Azkaban.
What was it like seeing your faces on the big screen?
RG: Yeah, it's really weird seeing yourself on the big screen - it's quite scary - but I've sort of got used to it now, it's quite cool.

DR: I've never really liked watching myself that much. I saw the film with some of my friends and I was sitting in the front row of the cinema, and the last frame of the film is one of my face, and it looked like I was about to eat the front row of the audience. It's kind of scary and a bit surreal, but I think we've all gotten used to it now.
How different was it working with Alfonso Cuarón compared to Chris Columbus?
DR: Everything we learned with Chris over two years - which was a lot - we now get a chance to put it into practice with another director. That was a challenge in itself, because we had to get used to someone else's style, but it has helped us a lot to evolve or develop just making the transition.

RG: Yeah, it was a bit weird when we found out there was going to be a new director - we'd gotten really close to Chris, I was really used to him. But Alfonso was wicked, we had a really good time.
This time around we see you in jeans, more ordinary clothes. Were you relieved to be out of the school uniforms? How do you see your lives beyond the Harry Potter movies? What's it like being the cleverest witch, and do you think that girls are cleverer than boys in real life anyway?
EW: Oh, definitely! I love playing Hermione, she is so charismatic. She's a fantastic role to play, especially in this third one. It's my favourite book, my favourite script. She's taken two films of people being rude to her, being nasty to her, and either pretending that she didn't hear or just saying "forget about it". But in this one it's a real turning point for her because she says "That's it, I'm not taking this any more!" She punches Malfoy, she storms out on teachers. She's rock and roll, she's girl power, she's feisty in this one.
Are you enjoying making these films and everything that goes with them as much as you first did. And secondly, if you could influence the way your characters ended up at the end of this adventure, how would you have them end?
DR. My favourite part of the whole process, including the interviews, the premieres, whatever, is always the work, actually making the films. People say it's work, but it's not really work, is it? I really enjoy it. It's challenging for me, but it's fun, I really enjoy doing it.

I'm going to be really unpopular for saying this about Harry Potter but I always have had this suspicion, that with everything going on in his life, I think he might die. I have a theory - because Harry and Voldemort have got the same core in them: you see that connection between them in the fourth book - I think that the only way that Voldemort can die is if Harry dies as well. I'll probably turn out to be completely and utterly wrong.

EW: I feel quite close to Hermione - I feel very protective of her when I read the books, so I hope she ends up doing something that she loves, I hope she ends up being happy.

With Ron?

EW: Maybe!? Maybe... if that makes her happy...

RG: I'd like Ron to turn a bit evil. That'd be cool - I just want to play an evil person.
Is there anything about filming you don't like?
RG: I had a rat in this film. When we were in Scotland he peed on me. That wasn't really nice.
Alfonso asked you to write an essay about your characters' evolution. What did you write? David Heyman [the producer] has said that you might end up too old for the parts one day. Would you mind, or would you want to get on with your lives and do other films?
DR: Whatever happens happens. I love doing the films, but I am interested in going on to do other films at some point. When that will be, I don't know.. Each one takes about a year to film, then about six months after that until it comes out, so there's a while until I have to think about doing a fifth one yet. I'm not going to lie and say it'd be completely easy, and that I'd be happy someone else playing the part - it would be extremely strange having played it for what would be four films. If it happened it would be something I'd have to get used to.

Also, people do play people younger than they are in real life. I'm going to be 15 in a couple of months, and Harry is 14 now, so I don't think it would make that much difference, really.

RG: I'd like to go on. I really do enjoy Ron, it's a really good experience.

EW: We only started the fourth one two weeks ago. Every film takes a year to do, and these are big projects, and I think it's hard for all three of us to look anywhere beyond that. I'm not sure yet.
What does growing up to be an adult mean to you? Were you intimidated with working with such an amazing cast? How do you feel about being big movie stars, and what do you do with all the money you earn? Are you happy to be associated with Harry Potter for the rest of your career?
DR: That's a cheerful thought... The stupidest thing I could possibly do would be to be angry at being thought of as Harry Potter, because it has given me so many amazing opportunities. Hopefully I'll be able to go onto other things, play different characters, and hopefully people will like it. Ideally, the first thing I do after Harry Potter will be different from the character of Harry, but the ideal part for every actor is different from the last part he did, so we'll see what happens.
How has doing the Potter movies over the last four years influenced the way you've grown up?
DR: I think we're maturing the same way that any other teenager goes from 13 to 14. I don't think there's that much difference. Obviously we are on a film set a lot of the time, but I don't think we've lost anything from that. I'm having a great time, and I don't think that it is going to hurt me in the long run or anything.
Emma, have you lost your youth?
EW: I haven't lost my youth! I've known Rupert and Dan since the beginning of this, and I think that they are exactly the same as when we started. I hope that I am too.
Rupert, how is life between the movies? Fairly normal?
Pretty normal. Life is the same as it was before, but I just get recognised sometimes, which is really hard to get used to. Apart from that, I've missed a lot of school, which has been a bonus...

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BBC - Films - Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint

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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the three leads at the heart of the Harry Potter series, return in the third instalment, The Prisoner Of Azkaban. What was it like seeing your faces on the big screen?

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

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Watson was nominated for five awards for her performance in Philosopher's Stone, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress. It shows that Emma Watson played 'Hermione' perfectly.

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The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20140903210759/http://www.youngartistawards.org/noms23A.htm

Twenty-Third Annual Young Artist Awards 2002

The Young Artist Awards Foundation on Sunday, April 7th, 2002 announced the following nominees and winners

Studio City, California
at it's annual banquet ceremony.

The Young Artist Foundation congratulates all
Nominees and Special Awards recipients

Winners highlighted in red.

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A FEATURE FILM
Leading Young Actor

BLUE STEEL RELEASING
COLUMBIA PICTURES
MIRAMAX
DREAMWORKS
WARNER BROTHERS
WARNER BROTHERS

SCARLETT JOHANSSON HAYDEN PANETTIEREEMMA WATSON

"AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY" (TIE) "JOE SOMEBODY""HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE"

PARAMOUNT CLASSICS
20TH CENTURY FOX
WARNER BROTHERS

MIKA BOOREM
IRENE GOROVAIA
ALAKINA MANN
(picture) ALEXA VEGABROOKE ANNE SMITH MAE WHITMAN

WARNER BROTHERS
TOUCHSTONE
MIRAMAX
WALT DISNEY
MIRAMAX
PARAMOUNT CLASSICS

MIRAMAX
LIONS GATE FILMS
WARNER BROTHERS
TOUCHSTONE
TOUCHSTONE

KELLY ENDRESZ-BANLAKI
SKYE McCOLE BARTUSIAK
STEFFANI BRASS
BRITTANY TIPLADYDAKOTA FANNING

PARAMOUNT CLASSICS
SONY PICTURES
GOLD CIRCLE FILMS
NEW LINE CINEMA
WARNER BROTHERS

DISNEY CHANNEL
LIFETIME
SHOWTIME

GAVIN FINK (picture) ANDREW VAN HISE ADAM SCHURMAN

"PRANCER RETURNS" "TWO FOR ONE" "SONS OF MISTLETOE"

USA
PAX
CBS

UNITED GENERAL
USA
SHOWTIME

DAVID GALLAGHER
ERIC IAN GOLDBERG  (picture) TYLER HYNES ROBERT ILER ALEX WRATHELL

WB
CBS
HALLMARK CHANNEL
HBO
CBC/COCHRAN ENTERTAINMENT

ASHLEY LYN CAFAGNA
LINDSAY FELTON
ELLEN PAGE
BRITTANY SNOW
KIRSTEN STORMS

CBS
NICKELODEON
CBC/COCHRAN ENTERTAINMENT
CBS
NBC

JARED DAPERIS
SCOTTY LEVENWORTH
JESSE McCARTNEY

PAX
ABC
ABC

KEIKO AGENA ALEXIS BLEDEL CHEA COURTNEY MacKENZIE ROSMAN KARLE WARREN

WB
WB
NBC
WB
CBS

MARC DONATO
BOBBY EDNER
MARC JOHN JEFFRIES
J.B. GAYNOR ERIC KNUDSEN JESSE PLEMONS SHAWN PYFROM COREY SEVIER

PAX
WB
CBS
ABC
CBS
CBS
LIFETIME
PAX

DAVEIGH CHASE
JAMIE LAUREN
ASHLEY EDNER
HALLEE HIRSH
JAMIE RENEE SMITH  CASSIE STEELE

"TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL"
"THE PRACTICE"
"7TH HEAVEN"
"ER"
"ER"  "RELIC HUNTER"

CBS
ABC
WB
NBC
NBC
PARAMOUNT

MATT ADAMS
TIMMY FITZPATRICK (Picture) MITCH HOLLEMAN STEVEN ANTHONY LAWRENCE TYLER POSEY CRAIG LAMAR TRAYLOR

NOGGIN
FOX
WB
DISNEY CHANNEL
PAX
FOX

JENNA MORRISON
BROOKE ANNE SMITH MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG

NICKELODEON
FOX
FOX

MYLES JEFFREY
DEMETRIUS JOYETTE
AUSTIN MAJORS  (picture) LOGAN O'BRIEN SULLIVAN SAWYER KENDALL SCHMIDT ERIK PER SULLIVAN HAYDEN TANK

NBC
PAX
ABC
ABC
CBS
WB
FOX
HBO

TAYLOR ATELIAN
KYE McCOLE BARTUSIAK
BILLI BRUNO
ASHLEY EDNER  PARKER McKENNA POSEY BRITTANY TIPLADY

ABC
CBS
ABC
USA
ABC
FOX

BEST ENSEMBLE IN A TV SERIES (Comedy or Drama)

"THE BROTHERS GARCIA"  (NICKELODEON) ALVIN ALVAREZ, BOBBY GONZALES, JEFFREY LICON, VANEZA LEZA PITYNSKI"DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION"  (CTV/EPITOME PICTURES) SARAH BARRABLE-TISHAURE, SHANE KIPPEL, LAUREN COLLINS, MIRIAM McDONALD, MELLISA McINTYRE, RYAN COOLEY, CHRISTINA SCHMIDT, JAKE GOLDSBIE, CASSIE STEELE, AUBREY GRAHAM, DANIEL CLARK "LIZZIE McGUIRE" (DISNEY CHANNEL) HILARY DUFF, LALAINE, ADAM LAMBERG, JAKE THOMAS, ASHLIE BRILLAULT"MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE" (FOX) FRANKIE MUNIZ, JUSTIN BERFIELD, ERIK PER SULLIVAN, CRAIG LAMAR TRAYLOR

BEST ENSEMBLE IN A FEATURE FILM

"AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY"  (PARAMOUNT CLASSICS) SCARLETT JOHANSSON, MAE WHITMAN, KELLY ENDRESZ-BANLAKI "HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE" (WARNER BROTHERS) RUPERT GRINT, EMMA WATSON, TOM FELTON"THE SHIPPING NEWS" (MIRAMAX) ALYSSA GAINER, KAITLYN GAINER, LAUREN GAINER, KYLE TIMOTHY SMITH, ANDREW FOWLER, WILL McALLISTER

BEST FAMILY TV DRAMA SERIES

BEST FAMILY TV COMEDY SERIES

BEST FAMILY FEATURE FILM - DRAMA

BEST FAMILY FEATURE FILM - COMEDY

BEST FAMILY FEATURE FILM - ANIMATION

WALT DISNEY
NICKELODEON
WALT DISNEY
DREAMWORKS

SPECIAL AWARDS

click  pictures :: links :: flags

OUTSTANDING YOUNG PEFORMERIN LIVE THEATERCHRISTOPHER MASSEY (click for picture) from the Los Angeles production of Disney's "THE LION KING"




© Disney Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz









OUTSTANDING YOUNG VOICEOVERARIA NOELLE CURZON  the voice of 'Ducky' in Universal's "The Land Before Time" (1997-2001)













OUTSTANDING YOUNG PERFORMER IN ANATIONAL COMMERCIAL FEATURING YOUTHTYLER PATRICK JONES  Hallmark Greeting Cards














THE JACKIE COOGAN AWARDOUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO YOUTHTHROUGH MOTION PICTURES"TIR NAN OG"  short film directed by:Danica DeCosto starring: Sarah Swanberg

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The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20140903210759/http://www.youngartistawards.org/noms23A.htm BEST PERFORMANCE IN A FEATURE FILM Leading Young Actor BLUE STEEL RELEASING COLUMBIA PICTURES MIRAMAX DREAMWORKS WARNER BROTHERS WARNER BROTHERS SCARLETT JOHANSSON HAYDEN PANETTIEREEMMA WATSON "AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY" (TIE) "JOE SOMEBODY""HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE" PARAMOUNT CLASSICS 20TH CENTURY FOX WARNER BROTHERS MIKA BOOREM

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

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The second instalment of the series. Reviewers praised the lead actors' performances.

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Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress and activist

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Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress and activist