Emma Watson (19 page)

Sadly, there was one incident that did put a damper on her university experience – but it didn’t come about as a result of fellow Brown students. In October 2009, Emma travelled to Massachusetts to visited Harvard – one of the universities on her original list – to watch a
Brown-versus-Harvard
American football match. The student magazine the
Harvard Voice
got wind of Emma’s visit and blogged that they would be ‘live-tweetin’ the game and possibly stalking Emma Watson, so keep your eyes peeled for that, too!’

As the game continued, so did the tweets. ‘Let’s go Hermione! Lolz,’ read one. ‘In enemy territory. Lookin for a certain witch,’ said another and, ‘WATSON FOUND. i repeat WATSON FOUND.’

Emma ended up leaving the game early, reportedly upset by the ‘stalking’ that occurred. She needed help from security guards to make her retreat. The
Harvard Voice
website later posted a picture of Emma, claiming their stalking mission had been a success and was initially bullish in the face of criticism of what they had done. ‘There seems to be much ado about nothing over this photo and liveblog,’ the
Voice
said. ‘Understand that these live tweets were made to be intentionally outrageous and overblown.’

But in the face of severe criticism,
Voice
editor Alicia
Ramos had to release a sort-of apology to Emma – it was all ‘a joke’. ‘The presence of a luminary on campus inevitably creates much speculation and excitement, certainly without the help of an intentionally facetious liveblog,’ she said. ‘The
Voice
denies any efforts to “orchestrate” a mass mob of gawkers. In fact, the bloggers were never certain whether or not Watson was actually present and never once caught a glimpse of her. The blog was meant as an intentionally sensationalist parody for which no real action was taken. The
Voice
apologizes for any misunderstanding that the live blog may have caused and for any discomfort Miss Watson may have felt due to the post.’

Several weeks later, Emma was back in Britain after the first term had ended. She posted a video on her website. Despite what had happened, Emma seemed happy with life in America; the video also signalled the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga: ‘I’ve just returned from Brown where I’ve had the most amazing first term and now I’m back filming over the Christmas Holidays. I’ve loved being in the States but it’s so nice to be back at home with family and friends for Christmas. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I wish you a very Merry Christmas …’

T
he mammoth shoot for both parts of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
had started in February 2009 and would continue until the early summer of 2010. Emma’s involvement had been negotiated to work around her education. ‘I had to beg,’ she told
Vogue
, in case anyone thought that she had turned into a diva. The
Deathly Hallows
shoot was one of the few times that there would be any claims made that Emma’s behaviour on set was anything but totally professional. The respected
Chicago Sun-Times
ran a story claiming that Emma had always been the most ‘testy’ of the young Potter stars and that this time around she was being ‘more of a pain than usual’. A ‘source’ said, ‘Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and the rest of the cast “are a dream to work with”, but Emma is even more moody than usual … She’s always complaining, showing up late and has upset both cast and
crew members with her rudeness … She’s really become a big diva … Everyone’s sick of it.’

Perhaps the source of these claims would be traced back to the gruelling nature of the
Deathly Hallows
shoot. Compared with filming the other movies, the marathon schedule was a test for all concerned, particularly its young stars. Director David Yates pushed for truth and realism – and pushed hard. No matter how tired, wet or dirty Emma, Daniel and Rupert got, Yates wanted them to dig deep. Emma admitted that some days she was in tears. ‘I was begging with him some days. He said, “It’s so much better, you guys look so much more vulnerable. You are heroes but at the same time you’re these bedraggled, unlikely heroes.” It works, but there were days where I just wanted to kill him.’

‘Filming the last two films back to back has been a very long schedule,’ producer David Heyman admitted to the
Sunday Times
on the Leavesden Studios set, sounding almost guilty about what he had put Emma and the others through. ‘I’m sure they feel jaded. It’s true that Harry Potter has taken up half their lives. We’ve tried to do our best for them in terms of their pastoral care. We had a school set up here, but Emma was the only one to do A levels and go to university. Doing this must leave a taint, sure.’

Emma would later admit that the strangeness of life at Leavesden and the way her life had unfolded was actually one of the best aspects of her childhood. ‘There’s certainly been times where I’ve thought, This is weird … a
very
weird experience,’ she told Radio 4’s Mark Lawson in
2009. ‘I’m very well aware that my childhood has not been normal or conventional in any way at all. But actually I like that. The three of us have been incredibly lucky with the people we’ve been surrounded by. They really have kept us sane and treated us like kids and not movie stars, which sometimes can happen, perhaps more in the States. We’re not part of Hollywood. We grew up in Watford in an air hangar, and that keeps you pretty grounded.’

David Heyman agreed: ‘The three of them are at their most relaxed here on set. Now they are so famous it is often easier for them to be here than anywhere else. Not coming here any more will, I’m sure, be like a bereavement in a way. Being so rich and famous makes them different from other people their age. They haven’t had much of a normal life. It’s hard for them to go out and they haven’t been at school like most of their peer group. I’m sure it’s sometimes hard, but they have managed brilliantly.’

The theme and feeling of ‘bereavement’ described by Heyman would occur again and again as the end of filming drew nearer with every working day. ‘I feel like someone’s dying,’ Emma told London’s
Evening Standard
. ‘I know that sounds like an exaggeration but I really do. Everything is so linked to my life and growing up. But, at the same time, it will be exciting. It puts a pretty nice punctuation mark on my adolescence. I feel grown up now. None of us could say that we predicted this kind of love and recognition. It’s just incredible. I’m just so unbelievably proud to have been part of this. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.’

But she probably didn’t feel quite so lucky while doing
some of the things required of her during the
Deathly Hallows
marathon. She would spend long periods wet – very, very wet. ‘I hate to sound whiny, but it’s horrible,’ she told
SFX
magazine, describing the long days she spent filming the destruction of a Horcrux – an object created by dark magic that contains a piece of a wizard’s soul. In this case, it was in water. ‘This has definitely been the most intense, gruelling period of filmmaking I’ve ever done.’

One scene in particular – which ended up in
Deathly Hallows Part 2
– would be highlighted by Emma as the most difficult of her entire career: ‘We get dropped by a dragon into the lake and I think it was January or February. The lake wasn’t heated, and, because we had to get changed as part of the next scene, we couldn’t wear anything underneath. I was lucky. I had my bottom half with some thermals on, but I was like, “This must be a joke.” It was so cold. I think Rupert thought at one point that his heart had stopped beating. I hate being cold more than anything, so that was my most memorable day. I was like, “I can’t wait for this to be over!” We spent pretty much the whole of
Part 2
soaking wet.’

There would be weeks spent running – very competitively – through Swinley Forest in Surrey as the film’s lengthy chase sequences were put together. The three young stars raced each other as they were tracked by a camera attached to a zip wire to give a real sense of pace and threat. Director David Yates recalled, ‘They ran like maniacs. Dan wants to run faster than Emma … Emma wants to run faster than Dan … And Rupert just wants to be anywhere just to keep up with the pair of them.’

Shooting the films so closely together was, Emma said, like being in the army. ‘It’s not very often that, in the middle of the filmmaking process, you stop yourself and go, “This is going to be awesome” and I’ve done that on a number of occasions,’ she told the ComingSoon movie website. ‘We’ve done this amazing scene in the forest where we’re getting chased by the Snatchers, and I’ve never done anything like it, nothing even close. I’ve never really done any serious stunts or any real action, and it’s so exciting and just really dynamic. Because all of us are now finished with school and we’re all just totally focused on this finale. It’s out of Hogwarts, it’s just about the three of us. It’s going to be … well, I hope it’s going to be brilliant and it feels totally different. I feel like I’m on a different film.’

Then there were long, improvised sequences as Hermione is tortured by Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, played with typical mad goth enthusiasm by Helena Bonham Carter. Emma, keen to make the scenes as realistic possible, asked production staff to source some documentaries where real-life victims of torture described how they felt while the terrible act was being carried out. ‘It was quite horrible to do, but it was a real challenge. I think as Bellatrix, she [Bonham Carter] is just terrifying because she looks so unhinged, she looks so crazy. I don’t think she actually enjoyed doing it. I guess it showed that I was doing a good job that she felt uncomfortable.’

Director David Yates would leave his camera running for up to five minutes as Emma and Bonham Carter tried different ways of building up the tension between their characters, as Bellatrix tries to find out how the trio
managed to get their hands on the Gryffindor sword. ‘Emma wanted to do research, she was really keen to get it right,’ said David Yates. ‘The first time we did it, I yell, “Cut!” Emma said, “You cut too early! You cut too early!” She was getting to this intense point. And I said, “Well, it was getting scary, Ems!” And she said, “No, no, no, no, let me try, let me try.” There were one or two moments that were really powerful, where Emma was able to just let go a little bit and forget for a moment that she was acting. And the screams were quite horrible to listen to. It was a very odd energy in the room. She was kind of exploring and exorcising demons really, and serving the scene doing that.’

There was one other strange element to put in the mix during the filming of the sequence – the reaction that the sight of one striking-looking woman torturing another had on male onlookers. ‘It was really funny because Helena and I were very much [saying] this is going to be terrifying, were planning how to make it as horrible as possible,’ Emma said. ‘And most of the blokes on set were just being a bit pervy about it to be honest. Very unprofessional. We were very unimpressed.’

Emma later described the sequences as ‘the weirdest thing ever. It was like having an out-of-body experience. It’s the most intense thing I’ve ever done. It felt like an eternity. It felt like forever.’

The significance was not lost on David Yates: ‘I felt in that moment, and in that day and in that room, she kind of crossed the line as an actress. She discovered something within herself that will make her a great actor.’

Emma was full of praise for the director: ‘He was very good. He’s very calm, which is great for me, because there are days when I just panicked, I mean really just … “David, I don’t know how to do this!” I didn’t know how to
act
… I’ve never been tortured before, I have no idea how to pull that off. There was some really hard stuff to do, like what it’s like to erase your parents’ memories and walk out the door. I think for me, I have quite an academic, like a “heady” approach, I guess, to the way that I act, and us just talking through what it meant, what does it mean for her? How does it relate to her past? What does she think about this? Having the time to be very clear in my head about what exactly everything was allowed me to give a really good performance. He’s very patient, which is so nice. I never felt like I was being hurried, so that was nice. He’s very good like that, he’s very gentle.’

There would be other moments of on-set torture for Emma too. They would involve the two actors she had known since they were all children, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. She would have to deliver an onscreen kiss. Not with one of them, but with both of them. ‘I have to think myself back a couple of years, because Hermione’s never had a boyfriend, never been kissed by a boy,’ Emma reasoned.

But the more she thought about it, the more the prospect began to loom large in the shooting schedule. It would be ‘like incest’, she said. ‘I had to kiss what feels like my two brothers – I mean, that was pretty bad,’ she told the Scholastic website. ‘I would definitely count that as an embarrassing, awkward moment. Neither of them were
bad kissers – that’s not the point – but it definitely was pretty awkward.’

First up were Emma and Rupert – the pair steeled themselves for the awkward moment they knew was coming. ‘Kissing Rupert’s going to be
sooo
awkward,’ Emma told the
Mail on Sunday
. ‘I’m trying not to think about it … it’s all part of the job I guess. Don’t tell him I said that. Rupert’s lovely. Girls would probably give their left arm to be in my position, so I’m certainly not complaining.’

The two young actors agreed to make the best of it and get it done as quickly as possible. They also both agreed to brush their teeth beforehand. Emma revealed, ‘I was like, “Do I use tongue? Do I not use tongue? Do I cover my teeth? What do I do? Do I go first?” Oh my God!’

The scene took six takes. ‘We were determined to get it right the first time,’ said Grint. ‘But our first try was a disaster because we both felt so self-conscious and we couldn’t stop laughing.’

The laughter wasn’t the only thing that was a touch infectious when the scene was filmed: so was Rupert Grint. ‘It was quite scary when they first told me I had swine flu,’ he explained to the
Daily Telegraph
. ‘After what’s been in the press and stuff, I thought, Am I going to die? But it was just like any other flu I’ve had before. I just had a sore throat,’ he said.

Journalists had been asking Emma about ‘The Kiss’ since the
Deathly Hallows
book was first published in the summer of 2007. Though she understood there was a lot riding on the scene, she took the opportunity when asked about it to take a gentle but well-aimed potshot at another
film series that was currently filling cinemas. ‘I suppose I understand. This kiss between Ron and Hermione is highly anticipated, it’s been building up for eight films now,’ she explained to
Empire
magazine. ‘And Harry Potter … it’s not
Twilight
, you know. We’re not selling sex. So, whenever there is a hint of that, everybody gets terribly excited. In fact, it was horribly awkward; we couldn’t stop laughing. The nicest thing about it was, before we did it, we turned to each other and were like, “God, this is going to be awful, isn’t it?” But hopefully it will look good.’

When it came to kissing Daniel – ‘I’d already kissed Rupert … at that point I was in my stride’ – there would be an added awkwardness: they’d both be half-naked and covered in silver paint. ‘It was the weirdest thing ever,’ Emma said. ‘And they only told us about the silver body paint the day before. They were like, “Oh, and, PS, we hope you don’t mind but we’d like you both to be topless and covered in silver paint.” I was like, “Oookay,” if it wasn’t weird enough before. So, yeah, it was bizarre. Luckily, Dan is very funny and talkative and we could just have a laugh about it. Kissing Rupert, he’s slightly more quiet so I was like, “Oh, God, what’s he thinking?” Whereas the whole time with Dan I knew
exactly
what he was thinking, so that helped.’

The scene – a vision designed to put doubt into the mind of Ron about what was going on behind his back – was described as ‘very sexy and very intriguing’ by director David Yates. Daniel Radcliffe was certainly intrigued at how intensely Emma ‘attacked’ the scene. ‘I always thought it was going to be this soft sensual sort of moment,
and suddenly there was this vigorous kissing happening to me,’ Radcliffe told ITV1’s
Daybreak
programme. ‘She is a bit of an animal … But then, I’m not complaining. There are tens of thousands of men that would cut off limbs to be in that position. Rupert actually had to leave the set, because he was laughing that much.’