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Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15
April 1990) is an English actress. She rose to
prominence by playing Hermione Granger in the Harry
Potter film series, a string of movie adaptations of the
eponymous bestselling fantasy books by British author J.
K. Rowling.
Originally, a child actor in minor school plays, Watson
was cast for this role when she was eleven years old,
beating thousands of other candidates. From 2001 to
2007, she starred in five Harry Potter film installments
alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. She will
return for the final two installments, Half-Blood
Prince, due to be released in 2008, and Deathly Hallows.
Watson's work in the Harry Potter series has amassed a
combined £10 million ($20.3 million) as of 2007. In
2007, she was ranked number 98 in the FHM "100
Sexiest Women in the World" list.
Early years: Watson was born in Paris, France, to
Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, English lawyers who
are now divorced. She lived in Paris until the age of
five. Watson moved with her mother and brother to
Oxford, England, after her parents' divorce.
From the age of 3, Watson had expressed the desire to
become an actress. By age 10, she had starred in several
school plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The
Happy Prince. She also entered the Daisy Pratt Poetry
Competition in which, at the age of seven, she won first
place for her year.
Hermione Granger casting: In 1999, casting began
for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United
States), the film adaptation of the bestselling Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. The
producers were looking for a young girl to play the lead
role of Hermione Granger. Impressed with her school play
performances, Watson's Oxford theatre teacher passed her
name to casting agents and she was taken into serious
consideration.
Following the literary depiction of
Hermione, the producers sought a "bossy" and
"self-confident" character, and found that she
fitted this description perfectly. Watson outperformed
thousands of other girls who had applied. After eight
auditions, producer David Heyman told Watson and her
cast-mates, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, that they
had been cast for the roles of Hermione Granger, Harry
Potter and Ron Weasley. Author J. K. Rowling was said to
be supportive of Watson from her first screen test.
Harry Potter years (2001–present): Watson was
eleven years old when Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone was released. In her first major interview, with
the BBC in 2001, Watson said she particularly enjoyed
doing the film's stunts, especially the scene when her
character is attacked by a troll and has to dart under
sinks and run through the legs of bigger actors.[8]
Later, she added that her parents did their best to make
her feel comfortable, and that her biggest thrill was
getting to know her adult co-stars, including Maggie
Smith, Alan Rickman, and Robbie Coltrane.
A year later, Watson again starred as Hermione in Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second
installment of the Harry Potter film series. Now twelve
years old, she said that success had not changed her,
and that she was happy to know the filming process
instead of being new to everything as she had been in
the first film. In a 2007 interview, Watson added that
during the production of both films she lost several
baby teeth, and had to wear dentures to avoid continuity
issues.
In 2004, Prisoner of Azkaban was released, part three of
the Harry Potter film series. Watson was appreciative of
the more assertive role Hermione played in this film,
calling her "charismatic" and "a
fantastic role to play". Among others, she enjoyed
filming the scene where Hermione punches Harry's nemesis
Draco Malfoy (played by Tom Felton), and another where
she angrily storms out of class when she becomes
frustrated with Divination professor Sybill Trelawney,
played by Emma Thompson.
She thought that Thompson's performance
as Trelawney was "absolutely hilarious".
Watson found comfort in the fact that many of the crew
who had filmed Philosopher's Stone were also filming
Prisoner of Azkaban. Then 14 years old she found that,
like fellow Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, teenage
years were just as difficult as for anyone. Later that
year, Watson joined Pierce Brosnan, Chamber of Secrets
co-star Kenneth Branagh, and Samantha Morton on a panel
to select the 2004 teen-aged filmmakers' "First
Light" for the Film Award ceremony in Leicester
Square in London.
Goblet of Fire was released in 2005; Watson again
reprised her role as Hermione Granger. Watson called
director Mike Newell "fantastic", and quickly
shot down rumours that she and her cast-mates Radcliffe
and Grint could be replaced in the following movies. For
Watson, much of the humour of the film sprung from the
tension between the three lead characters as they
mature. She said, "I loved all the arguing... I
think it's much more realistic that they would argue and
that there would be problems. So I thought it was great
fun. And it makes for a lot of humorous relief from this
quite dark book."
In addition, she was revealed as a
Ron-Hermione shipper, saying "Hermione and Ron just
need to get it together! It just needs to happen and
they just need to get on with it." Later that year,
Watson became the youngest person to appear on the cover
of Teen Vogue magazine, until the subsequent appearance
of American actress Willa Holland. In 2006, Watson
played Hermione in The Queen's Handbag, a special
mini-episode of Harry Potter in celebration of Queen
Elizabeth II's 80th birthday.
In the 2007 film Order of the Phoenix, Watson returned
as Hermione Granger for the fifth time in seven years.
She was appreciative of director David Yates, saying he
was "quiet, very calm, very thoughtful, very
sensitive." She said that her favourite scenes of
the film were the two Wizard duels in which Hermione is
a participant, especially when she practices combat
magic with Grint's character Ron Weasley. When Ron
patronises her, her spell blows him into a wall. Watson
said, "It was a real 'girl power' moment, of which
there are many in this film." She was impressed
with newcomers Evanna Lynch and Imelda Staunton, who
play Luna Lovegood and the villain Dolores Umbridge, and
also reinforced the notion that her character Hermione
should romance Ron Weasley.
Watson was a target of some friendly
ridicule on set because of her straight-A GCSE exam
results. Watson was unnerved by the climax scene which
features flashback clips from earlier Harry Potter
movies: "It's just like having your baby pictures
blown up on a 20-foot screen and placed in 37
countries... You see yourself and you say, 'God, who is
that girl?' "
Celebrity: In 2007, Helen Barlow of The Sydney
Morning Herald said that Watson was no longer perceived
as a child actor, but as a sensual young woman who
dressed up and appeared on newspaper covers. Watson
herself toned down this impression, saying "I love
dressing up, but it doesn't rule or dictate my
life." She was voted number 98 in the FHM "100
Sexiest Women in the World" 2007 list; Watson said
this was "the weirdest thing ever... I was like,
'Good God!' But I suppose it is a compliment for me and
Hermione."
When Watson took GCSEs in 10 subjects, achieving
straight As, it inspired comparisons to Hermione, who
has been consistently written as a straight-A student by
author J. K. Rowling. In response, Watson said:
"There are too many stupid girls in the media.
Hermione’s not scared to be clever. I think sometimes
really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and
that’s bad. 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.”
She admitted that there is quite a lot of herself in the
confident and bookish Hermione: "I'm a bit of a
feminist. I'm very competitive and challenging".
Watson's work in the Harry Potter series has amassed her
a combined £10 million ($20.3 million). Watson
acknowledged that she will never have to work again for
money, but she has declined quitting school and becoming
a full-time actress because "learning keeps [her]
motivated."
On July 9, 2007, Watson and fellow Harry Potter co-stars
Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint left imprints of their
hands, feet, and wands in front of Grauman's Chinese
Theater in Hollywood.
Future plans: Despite rumours alleging that she
refused to appear in the last two Harry Potter
installments, her commitment to the final two films was
confirmed in March 2007 by Warner Brothers. She said,
"I could never let [the role of] Hermione go –
she is my hero! I love her too much and love what
playing her has meant to me. I am excited and honoured
to be finishing what I started and playing her in all
seven of the films." Later, she explained that
people underestimated the scope of this decision, as she
was aware that filming would dominate her life for the
next three to four years, but in the end "the
pluses outweighed the minuses."
On July 19, 2007, Watson announced her involvement in
her first non-Harry Potter project, The Tale of
Despereaux, an animated film to be released in 2008. She
will voice the character of Princess Pea. In August, it
was announced that she would also star in the BBC's
adaptation of Ballet Shoes, where she will play Pauline
Fossil, the eldest of the three Fossil sisters around
whom the story revolves; the role will require Watson to
bleach her hair white-blonde.
Professional relationships: Over the years,
Watson has formed a strong platonic bond with fellow
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.
She described it as an "unique support system"
because "you can’t really explain to someone
[other than Radcliffe and Grint] what this experience is
like"; whilst Radcliffe and Grint used to tease her
when they were younger, they are now protective of their
female cast-mate. Watson maintains that there were never
any romantic feelings involved. Asked how she copes with
her success and fame, Watson also credited her family as
a source of support.
In an interview with German broadsheet newspaper Die
Welt (2007), Watson addressed how awkward she felt
having to kiss Grint's character in the seventh film.
Despite being a Hermione-Ron shipper herself, she said
she "would rather not think about it now",
adding that while Grint was "very nice" and
"many girls like him", he was definitely not
her type. Commenting on Radcliffe's widely publicised
nude scenes in the theatre piece Equus, she not did
categorically rule out nude scenes herself, but
immediately added that "you will never see me naked
without any reason".
Beyond her peers Radcliffe and Grint, Watson takes pride
in having good relationships with the adult Harry Potter
actors, including Helena Bonham Carter (villain
Bellatrix Lestrange) who was "so much fun",
Emma Thompson (Divination teacher Sybill Trelawney),
Maggie Smith (Transfiguration teacher Minerva
McGonagall) "who always gives me chocolates at
Christmas", and Robbie Coltrane (gamekeeper Rubeus
Hagrid), who "is always telling us completely dirty
and inappropriate jokes that we are far too young to be
hearing, but we love, of course". She added that in
the end, every Harry Potter actor is "a bit of a
family for us as well". In a 2007 interview with
YOU Magazine, Watson was appreciative of J. K. Rowling's
contribution to the film series: "she has been
really lovely and very supportive of the films – she
comes on set and she is in e-mail contact with a lot of
us. She just said to me, 'You are Hermione, you have
completely become her,' which was just so nice and so
generous of her".
Personal life: Watson has a younger brother
Alexander, who is three years her junior, and one of her
grandmothers is French. After their divorce, her
biological mother and father both had children with
other partners. As of 2007, Watson is the eldest of an
extended family of seven children including, besides her
full-brother Alex, two half-brothers by her mother's new
partner who "regularly stay with [her]", and
two-year-old identical twin girls and a three-year-old
son from her biological father's new marriage.
After moving to Oxford with her mother and brother,
Watson attended The Dragon School, a private preparatory
school, until June 2003 and then moved to Headington
School, a private all-girls school, also in Oxford. In
2003, she described having "a good time as a
teenager" despite all the stardom, and did not have
the feeling of having lost her youth. However, she says
that getting spotted by tourists and being a regular
target for Internet impersonators get on her nerves once
in a while.
While on the film sets, Watson and her peers were
tutored for about four hours of lessons per day, but
despite the focus on filming, Watson's academic
achievements were good. In June 2006, she took GCSE
examinations in 10 subjects, achieving eight A* and two
A grades. The following year she received straight As in
her AS levels in English, Geography, History of Art and
Art.
On her official homepage, Watson states her interests as
dancing, singing, field hockey, tennis and art. She has
a cat called "Bubbles", admires Johnny Depp
and Julia Roberts and lists France as her favourite
holiday destination. She says her greatest wish is
"to have two friends, which[sic] stay - people with
you can always be together and who don't scoot, because
you are a film star."
Watson admitted resenting some of her celebrity status
in an October 2006 interview with The Times, saying it
was partly responsible for her being single: "Guys
are either intimidated by me, or they have defences up,
or they like to take the piss out of me." |
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