Emma Watson and her Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 crew have already racked in $25 million dollars and it hasn’t even opened yet.
Emma plays Hermoine Granger in the landmark series and she’s grown up before our eyes. Now as the last Harry Potter is ready to be released, Emma is ready to move on with her career.
Emma sat down with GlobalGrind and discussed her future. As it turns out, she’s ready to be a warrior princess!
Check out what’s next for Emma Watson and be sure to go see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in theaters everywhere Friday.
Throughout the series, all the characters go through tests of bravery. It’s an ongoing theme. In your own life, what story can you tell us where you had to put your own bravery to the test?
That’s a great question. I feel like young girls are told this whole idea that they have to be this kind of princess and be all delicate and fragile and that’s bullshit. I identify much more with the idea of being a warrior and being a fighter. If I was going to be a princess, I would be a warrior princess, definitely. I think women are scared of feeling powerful and strong and brave sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid.
It’s not the absence of fear it’s overcoming it and sometimes you just have to blast through and have faith, I guess. The last movie that I made, in Pittsburgh The Perks Of Being A WallFlower, I was terrified. My first day I was so nervous, doing a different accent, being on a new set in a foreign country and a crew and cast I didn’t know. There’s a scene where I have to mimic Susan Sarandon and I’m standing in a corset in front of all these extras trying to do this dance and I felt ridiculous. It’s funny coming out of this, I’m constantly doing things that are new so that takes bravery I guess, but I think it’s just have faith in yourself and believe in yourself.
[pagebreak]
You’ve been playing this role for half of your life, how do you feel you’ve changed most personally over the last 10 years.
It’s hard to say because obviously (your changes are) just a part of growing up, so it’s hard to say what isn’t (part of) that natural process. I went from being a 9-year-old girl to having a job and I’ve learned how to be an actress and how films are made and how to do interviews (laughs).
I’ve always had quite a strong sense of who I am, but it’s nice coming through this and feeling like I still managed to maintain my sense of identity away from something that could have potentially overwhelmed, so I guess I’m glad that I had that. I was quite a stubborn young girl I guess.
What’s your taste in music and now that you know American students very well, are American tastes and British tastes very different?
They are and they aren’t. I’ve found so much music that I like that a lot of my American friends know about and we bridge gaps. I don’t think there’s too much difference in taste in terms of my own taste. I was very influenced by my parents. My dad collects records and so when I was growing up he gave me Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega. A lot of blues, like John Berry. My mom would play The Pretenders, Elvis, the Land of Ten Thousand Maniacs. And my brother has been getting me into a little classic rock, I’ve been listening to Tom Perry, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, White Stripes. And I also love to dance so I’ll listen to Lady Gaga or Rihanna and everyone. I love Lykke Li, I think she’s great. I listened to her entire album the other day. Everything really. I’ve been listening to classical music recently and I love, love music. I think I drive my friends crazy (with how) I always have music playing. My de-stressing thing is to just put my iPod headphones in and just walk and listen to music, that’s what I need to do when I need to zone out.
[pagebreak]
Was there a moment that made you realize that you’re one of the most recognizable faces in the world and how are you handling the fame?
It was when I was in a shanty town in Bangladesh and a boy stopped me on the street and said, ‘You’re the girl from Harry Potter’ and there’s nowhere in the world I can go almost it feels that isn’t somehow touched by this film franchise. It reaches the farthest, farthest corners of the Earth where you’d least expect places. I was like, ‘Wow I really can’t go anywhere!’
You just have to accept it. I came to terms with it. I feel fortunate that I’ve never really known what it’s like to have total freedom. It’s not as though I had it and then all of a sudden it got taken away from me, it’s something I grew up knowing and a process that happened gradually. I haven’t had anything else and in a way I guess that’s a blessing.
