Noah's girl
I loved the lights, I loved the adrenaline. I even loved learning lines. I was completely obsessive.’
Emma Watson’s passion for acting took hold at just six years old. As a young girl, she attended Stagecoach Theatre Arts School in Oxfordshire, close to where she lived with her mother and younger brother. At nine years old, having only performed in school plays and other amateur productions, her theatre teacher put her forward to audition for the part of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. She won producers over with her confidence, charmed JK Rowling with her very first screen test, and was chosen from thousands of other hopefuls to play the part.
From that moment, her childhood was transformed. From the age of nine to 21, Emma Watson was immersed in the world of Harry Potter and, along with co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, swiftly became one of the most famous young actors in the world.
The experience brought fame and wealth (she now has an estimated fortune of £26m), but it wasn’t without its drawbacks. Emma has revealed that although she loved the acting, she felt ‘isolated’ by all the attention it garnered. When the time came to sign up for the final two instalments of the film, Emma admits that she initially wavered. It meant relinquishing another four years of her life to the franchise. Eventually, however, she realised that she ‘could never let [the role of] Hermione go’ to another actress, and so fulfilled the role to the end, to much critical acclaim.
Her first move post-Potter was to cut her iconic Hermione mane, and in its place came an elfin, Audrey Hepburn-esque style. To Emma, and indeed the rest of the gazing world, it meant a turning point in her life. She was no longer Hermione, and no longer a child, and wanted the world to know it. ‘I felt bold, and it felt empowering because it was my choice,’ she revealed in a recent interview. ‘It felt sexy, too.’
But it wasn’t just the hair that changed; so too did her passion for the acting profession. In one interview she confessed that, ‘I took time to really try and figure out who I was and what I wanted to do. I even considered not being an actress.’ Deciding to continue, she became very careful in choosing her parts. After a small turn as a wardrobe assistant in My Week With Marilyn, her first major roles after Harry Potter were in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and The Bling Ring. In both films she plays young American girls, both sassy, both daring – and both very much unlike Hermione. She has hinted that these choices were deliberate: she wanted to prove her versatility as an actress, and avoid the English-rose-in-a-corset typecasting that often afflicts other British actresses.
Fellow Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has spoken out about how his notoriety lead to a brief struggle with alcohol, but Emma has remained remarkably level-headed throughout her years in the spotlight. She says that this is in part because she was ‘always a very serious child’, and was never tempted by the hedonistic side of fame. ‘The truth is that I’m genuinely a shy, socially awkward, introverted person,’ she has said. ‘At a big party, I’m like Bambi in the headlights.’
Instead, she funnelled her energies elsewhere. Having always loved studying – there are many accounts of the well-worn books piled up in her Harry Potter dressing room – she returned to the prestigious Brown University in the US (she took a break in 2011). She relished reading English (‘diving into these stories and characters has given richness in my own life’) and even spent a transfer year at Oxford University, but found it difficult to sustain both academia and her career.
In a message to her fans at the time, she said: ‘I love Brown and I love studying pretty much more than anything but recently I’ve had so much to juggle that being a student and fulfilling my other commitments has become a little impossible.’ She left full-time education but, not one to give up, studied remotely and is now set to graduate in May.
In the role of Ila in Noah
She has not slowed down in her career, either. Having grown from a pretty girl to a glamorous young woman, she has had the fashion and beauty world clamouring at her door. In addition to acting, she has modelled for Burberry, graced the covers of innumerable magazines and even helped design a younger range of clothes for Fair Trade fashion brand, People Tree. As Sandra Goldbacher, her director in the TV adaptation of Ballet Shoes, said of Emma: ‘She has a piercing, delicate aura that makes you want to gaze and gaze at her.’
Yet she is far more than mere decoration. She has revealed herself to be an engaging and witty young woman in interviews, someone with her own opinions and a robust sense of self-worth rarely seen in former child actors. Her most recent project is the biblical epic Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky. Speaking to The Mail On Sunday’s Event magazine, she said, ‘To be honest, the idea of making a film of Noah seemed really cheesy to me – the dove and the rainbow, the two-by-two… Darren is the lord of darkness and grittiness, and then he explained it to me as this really interesting, post-apocalyptic world – not set in the past, but not set in the future, and not a sandal in sight.’
Intelligent, good-humoured and talented, to boot. There’s no doubt we will be seeing a lot more of Emma.
Noah is on general release from 4 April.
Emma Watson’s passion for acting took hold at just six years old. As a young girl, she attended Stagecoach Theatre Arts School in Oxfordshire, close to where she lived with her mother and younger brother. At nine years old, having only performed in school plays and other amateur productions, her theatre teacher put her forward to audition for the part of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. She won producers over with her confidence, charmed JK Rowling with her very first screen test, and was chosen from thousands of other hopefuls to play the part.
From that moment, her childhood was transformed. From the age of nine to 21, Emma Watson was immersed in the world of Harry Potter and, along with co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, swiftly became one of the most famous young actors in the world.
The experience brought fame and wealth (she now has an estimated fortune of £26m), but it wasn’t without its drawbacks. Emma has revealed that although she loved the acting, she felt ‘isolated’ by all the attention it garnered. When the time came to sign up for the final two instalments of the film, Emma admits that she initially wavered. It meant relinquishing another four years of her life to the franchise. Eventually, however, she realised that she ‘could never let [the role of] Hermione go’ to another actress, and so fulfilled the role to the end, to much critical acclaim.
Her first move post-Potter was to cut her iconic Hermione mane, and in its place came an elfin, Audrey Hepburn-esque style. To Emma, and indeed the rest of the gazing world, it meant a turning point in her life. She was no longer Hermione, and no longer a child, and wanted the world to know it. ‘I felt bold, and it felt empowering because it was my choice,’ she revealed in a recent interview. ‘It felt sexy, too.’
But it wasn’t just the hair that changed; so too did her passion for the acting profession. In one interview she confessed that, ‘I took time to really try and figure out who I was and what I wanted to do. I even considered not being an actress.’ Deciding to continue, she became very careful in choosing her parts. After a small turn as a wardrobe assistant in My Week With Marilyn, her first major roles after Harry Potter were in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and The Bling Ring. In both films she plays young American girls, both sassy, both daring – and both very much unlike Hermione. She has hinted that these choices were deliberate: she wanted to prove her versatility as an actress, and avoid the English-rose-in-a-corset typecasting that often afflicts other British actresses.
Fellow Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has spoken out about how his notoriety lead to a brief struggle with alcohol, but Emma has remained remarkably level-headed throughout her years in the spotlight. She says that this is in part because she was ‘always a very serious child’, and was never tempted by the hedonistic side of fame. ‘The truth is that I’m genuinely a shy, socially awkward, introverted person,’ she has said. ‘At a big party, I’m like Bambi in the headlights.’
Instead, she funnelled her energies elsewhere. Having always loved studying – there are many accounts of the well-worn books piled up in her Harry Potter dressing room – she returned to the prestigious Brown University in the US (she took a break in 2011). She relished reading English (‘diving into these stories and characters has given richness in my own life’) and even spent a transfer year at Oxford University, but found it difficult to sustain both academia and her career.
In a message to her fans at the time, she said: ‘I love Brown and I love studying pretty much more than anything but recently I’ve had so much to juggle that being a student and fulfilling my other commitments has become a little impossible.’ She left full-time education but, not one to give up, studied remotely and is now set to graduate in May.
In the role of Ila in NoahShe has not slowed down in her career, either. Having grown from a pretty girl to a glamorous young woman, she has had the fashion and beauty world clamouring at her door. In addition to acting, she has modelled for Burberry, graced the covers of innumerable magazines and even helped design a younger range of clothes for Fair Trade fashion brand, People Tree. As Sandra Goldbacher, her director in the TV adaptation of Ballet Shoes, said of Emma: ‘She has a piercing, delicate aura that makes you want to gaze and gaze at her.’
Yet she is far more than mere decoration. She has revealed herself to be an engaging and witty young woman in interviews, someone with her own opinions and a robust sense of self-worth rarely seen in former child actors. Her most recent project is the biblical epic Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky. Speaking to The Mail On Sunday’s Event magazine, she said, ‘To be honest, the idea of making a film of Noah seemed really cheesy to me – the dove and the rainbow, the two-by-two… Darren is the lord of darkness and grittiness, and then he explained it to me as this really interesting, post-apocalyptic world – not set in the past, but not set in the future, and not a sandal in sight.’
Intelligent, good-humoured and talented, to boot. There’s no doubt we will be seeing a lot more of Emma.
Noah is on general release from 4 April.