Emma Watson (24 page)

By this stage in the game, Emma was an old hand at dealing with the critics. ‘I will look back on this part of my life and I know it will be special, but it used to be that, if I ever had a bad review or someone said, “Oh, she is too this,” or “She’s too that,” I got upset about it,’ Emma told
The Times
. ‘Now what I have worked out is that it would actually be physically impossible to be perfect for everyone. Everyone has a distinct idea in their head of what each character is like. So I’ve kind of had to lower my standards. I can’t be perfect for everyone. J. K. thinks I’m perfect, and that’s good enough for me.’

With public interest satisfied as to how the story would be split into two parts, attention now turned to the upcoming conclusion: 15 July 2011 was the date set for the final film’s release. ‘The very last one’s a big old epic, with lots of battles and dragons and goblins,’ director David
Yates told
USA Today
. It’s going to be operatic. And then it’s over.’

The opening weekend for
Deathly Hallows Part 1
proved that, despite any critical misgivings, the public’s appetite for all things Potter was undiminished. The film took more than £6 million on the first day of release in Britain; it then took $61 million on its opening day in America, breaking records on both sides of the Atlantic.
Deathly Hallows Part 1
was set to be the most successful Potter yet.

The juggernaut just seemed to get bigger – indeed,
Guinness World Records
confirmed that the Harry Potter series would be named as the highest-grossing film series of all time in its 2011 edition, beating the James Bond franchise, which had been running for more than 40 years longer than the Potter movies. The first six of the Potter films had earned £3.38 billion; all 22 James Bond movies had made a mere £2.29 billion.

Meanwhile, Emma’s long goodbye to the series was just about to get a little longer. It was revealed that a key sequence at London’s Kings Cross station would have to be reshot. Filmmakers had done the initial shoot in a rush. The sequence included the makeup shots required to make the young stars look older. ‘We had two days at Kings Cross … and we needed so much more time than that,’ she told journalists at a
Hallows
press junket when the news was announced. ‘So we have to reshoot at Christmas. It’s not over yet.’

The scene called for Emma and the other young stars – including Bonnie Wright as Ron’s sister Ginny – to return
to Kings Cross for the film’s epilogue. This time, filming was shifted to Leavesden to avoid the time pressure of filming on location. For Emma, this meant one thing: another trip to the Leavesden wig department to cover up her chic cropped hairstyle. ‘Currently at Leavesden filming reshoots with Dan and Rupert,’ she posted on her Facebook page. ‘Feels strange to be back!’

Despite the anti-climax of having to return to the studios after the high emotion of the ‘final’ day of shooting in the summer, it was perhaps fitting that the epilogue sequence eventually became the true finale to the Potter saga, instead of Emma and her co-stars jumping out of a fireplace, as had previously been the case.

Hermione and Ron are now husband and wife; so are Harry and Ginny. They return to Platform Nine and
Three-Quarters
to see their children off as they journey to Hogwarts. The story – and the filming – had come full circle. ‘For me, it almost felt like a real cycle, because I started on that same platform, at the same age that Lily Potter, the youngest daughter of Ginny and Harry, was, so it’s almost literally like looking back at myself,’ Bonnie Wright told
Total Film
. ‘The three kids who played the children were just … they just epitomised all of us, when we were that age, so it was lovely to look back. They were so excited on the day – it was a massive dream come true and they’d been through such a massive process of auditioning. I think it was probably the most auditions any person has been through to get a part in a film.’

Emma helped choose the three children used in the film along with the other young stars, so they could act like real
families. ‘That was definitely a challenge,’ Emma said. ‘There’s so many challenges in these last two. Pretending that I had kids and acting as if they were my children was the weirdest thing … that I had
children
. So weird. That was a struggle. I was like, “Am I doing this right? How do I …?” It was hard to know how to approach it, so I hope it looks good in the end.’

Bonnie Wright explained, ‘The dynamic is incredibly important to try to portray the idea that they are this family unit, that they’ve spent every living moment together, since they were babies in their hands, to how they are now. It was challenging to get that warmth with someone you’ve barely met and some children don’t want to get close to someone they don’t know. But they understood it was incredibly important to make the scene work, so they were very giving to the situation.’

With the epilogue scenes shot, it really was the end. Immediately, people wanted to know what was next for Emma Watson. ‘I really want to write a novel,’ she told the
Sun
, ideas tumbling out of her. ‘I also want to learn to play the mandolin. I have acting projects coming up and I’m in a fantastic position right now. I realise I’m a pretty lucky person and I’m determined to make the most of life – but also to take a few chances if I can.’

The wish she’d made over Sunday lunch all those years earlier had given her everything and more than she could ever have hoped for. The school-hall audition that Emma had wanted so badly had taken her around the world. And the little girl with the big teeth, big, brown, bushy hair and a very bossy voice – created on a train by J. K.
Rowling – was finally left behind at Leavesden Studios. ‘I love Hermione with all my heart – I don’t think I will ever play a character I identify with so much,’ Emma said. ‘She’s wonderful – smart, brave, determined and loyal. She’s just
it
.’

H
arry Potter filming may well have finished, but Emma’s acting career definitely hadn’t. Despite the hints she’d dropped in previous years – and despite the knowledge that she need never work again – Emma threw herself into a fresh film project.

Speculation had been buzzing about the first post-Potter film choice Emma would make. As a result, she’d already been linked to several upcoming films. One story had her agreeing to appear in the coming-of-age drama
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
. Then she was being linked to sci-fi franchise-in-the-making
Incarceron
alongside
Twilight
star Taylor Lautner. There was even talk of Emma’s reuniting with that other
Twilight
star Robert Pattinson – who had played Cedric Diggory in Potter – in a remake of the 2005 art-house comedy
Dark Arc
.

In the end, a very different project caught her eye. She’d
been given a script to read while on a trip to France. ‘I was coming back from a photoshoot in Paris on the train,’ she explained during press interviews for
Deathly Hallows
. ‘I was exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was read a script. My agent called me up and said, “
Please
just read the script, you won’t regret it.” I so didn’t want to, but the minute I opened it up I couldn’t put it down. The part was small but really interesting and had a really good character arc; and it was well formed, even though the character only had a few scenes. I called back and said, “You’re right … I love it.”’

The script was for a film called
My Week with Marilyn
. It was based on a book and a published diary recalling the late Colin Clark’s memories of acting as a ‘gofer’ on the 1957 film
The Prince and the Showgirl
, starring Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. The first book was
The Prince, the Showgirl and Me
; it was followed by
My Week with Marilyn
, which purported to fill in what happened to Clark during nine days unaccounted for in the original publication. Clark’s brother – the famed politician and diarist Lord (Alan) Clark – had suggested that the diaries had been fabricated, something Colin Clark denied before his death in 2002.

The project had several connections to Emma’s previous projects – unsurprising, as she’d already worked with the cream of film and television talent.
My Week with Marilyn
’s director, Simon Curtis, had made the BBC’s 1999 adaptation of
David Copperfield
, which had featured a very young Daniel Radcliffe. Curtis had also worked on the BBC’s
Cranford
, written by
Ballet
Shoes
scriptwriter Heidi Thomas. Kenneth Branagh – Gilderoy Lockhart himself – had been cast as Laurence Olivier. ‘I don’t play Marilyn: Michelle Williams plays Marilyn,’ Emma said. ‘That woman’s got serious guts to do that. The film is about Colin Clark, who was a runner on one of her movies, and they had this kind of … thing. But at the beginning of the movie he falls for the wardrobe assistant –
moi
– then he runs off with Marilyn and dumps me for a while. He gets older and wiser, comes back and begs for forgiveness.’

Emma’s character – the wardrobe assistant Lucy – is described by Clark as ‘one of the prettiest little girls I have ever seen in my life … slim as a wand, curly brown hair, huge brown eyes and a wide cheeky grin.’

The curly brown hair was clearly an issue for the
post-haircut
Emma. ‘I had to wear a wig,’ she sighed. ‘I tried up until the last minute to convince Simon Curtis that she had short hair – but he said it was too sophisticated. So I had to wear a wig.’

Emma clearly created a strong impression on Curtis as he made his feature-film debut. ‘It’s great to have given Emma her first job after Harry Potter,’ he told the
Daily Mail
. ‘She’s a proper actress.’

The real-life Colin and Lucy had carried out their romance on the set of
The Prince and the Showgirl
at Pinewood Studios – the very place where
My Week with Marilyn
was being made. The film was being produced by the Weinstein Company, and studio boss Harvey Weinstein was clearly an Emma fan too. ‘For ten years, she has been this schoolgirl in the Harry Potter films and now you see
her as a woman for the first time,’ he told show-business journalist Baz Bamigboye. ‘She has an elegance about her – she looks like [1960s model] Jean Shrimpton. Plus, she has a gift for comedy and drama, and we’re just starting to see her range. I feel we’re going to work together a lot in the future.’

Emma’s post-Potter life was clearly proving to be a busy one: as well as finishing her studies at Brown, there would be the international round of promotional activities for
Deathly Hallows Part 2
. She was also drafted in to promote the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of
Part 1
by making a video asking fans to vote for what artwork they thought should grace the covers. Meanwhile,
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
began to move slowly from the backburner to the front as Emma’s connection with the project pushed it closer to actually being made. The film was based on the book of the same name written by Stephen Chbosky. The story is told through a series of letters written by a shy but intelligent teenager called Charlie, observing but not truly participating in life at his high school. The book’s tales of teen sex, teen drugs and teen suicide struck a chord with – unsurprisingly – a young audience when it was published in 1999. Just to shore up the book’s teen-cool credentials, it was published by MTV Books.

Charlie has only two real friends at school, Patrick and Sam (Samantha). Emma was being lined up to play the part of Sam. Chbosky was going to direct too and he was all too aware of how important casting was. ‘Everyone has their own version of what the book is,’ he told Shooting Stars
website. ‘Their own version of what Charlie looks like, and Sam looks like, and Patrick, what he looks and sounds like. That’s what I love about books so much. It involves the reader so deeply. So all the movie can ultimately be is my version of it, you know, and I hope that people who love the book can get a little bit more insight. Because it is the book, but there are certain little differences that I hope they find interesting.’

Summit Entertainment – the company behind the
Twilight
series – came on board to produce the film and Emma’s co-star was named as Logan Lerman, best known for the fantasy movie
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
. As ever, there was a connection with Emma’s previous life:
Percy Jackson
had been directed by Chris Columbus. On 10 February 2011, Emma ended the speculation by confirming on Facebook and Twitter that she was committed to appearing in the film. ‘Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that the rumours are true – I’m going to be playing Sam in
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
opposite Logan Lerman.’

Emma’s commitment to the project was likely to have been a major factor in its coming to fruition. What’s more, the drugs, sex and suicide to be found in the source material were the key indicator to how her career was going to be heading: after the period-piece glam of
My Week with Marilyn
, this was a deliberate move towards edgier, indie-film territory. There would not be so much as a trace of Hermione in
Wallflower
’s Sam.

Alongside all this activity, there were Emma’s continuing fashion interests. In December 2010, she announced a
linkup
with Italian designer Alberta Ferretti to produce a new line of organic and Fair Trade clothing. ‘She wrote to me and said, “I saw what you did with People Tree and I think it’s a great idea and will you do something with me?”’

The collection featured polka dots, checks and a
self-explanatory
item called the Emma Blazer. The clothes would have a ‘classic, Jane Birkin vibe’, Emma said,
name-checking
the 1960s actress and singer who shot to fame gasping and moaning her way through the 1969 hit record ‘Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus’.

Emma’s approach to her fashion collaborations was a disarmingly simple one: ‘I will work for anyone for free if they are prepared to make their clothing Fair Trade organic,’ she said.

In January 2011, she unveiled the second instalment of her People Tree collection. The label clearly valued Emma’s input and involvement: founder Safia Minney and Misato, one of the label’s key designers, flew out to America to work with her on the designs while she was studying at Brown. ‘Together, we decided on all the colours, fabrics, shapes and craft skills,’ Emma said. ‘Most of all, we took care to design a really wearable collection that truly celebrates the traditional skills of People Tree’s Fair Trade groups around the world. Fashion is a great way to empower people and give them skills. Rather than give cash to charity, you can help people by buying the clothes they make and supporting things they take pride in. I think young people like me are becoming increasingly aware of the humanitarian issues surrounding fast fashion and want to make good choices, but there aren’t many options out there.’

Emma was front and centre in the photographs to illustrate the collection, too, wearing a thigh-high dress and brown boots while posing in a field next to an old motorbike.

There was more lucrative fashion news involving Emma in the spring of 2011: it was claimed she was about to sign a six-figure deal to become the latest ambassador for French makeup firm Lancôme. It’s believed the campaign would be shot by Emma’s favourite fashion photographer Mario Testino. ‘It’s so exciting,’ she said. ‘I can’t wait to start shooting. Although I don’t wear much makeup, I’m a big fan of Lancôme products, especially their mascara.’

With university, film projects, two fashion collections and a major makeup deal pending, there was only one word for Emma’s lifestyle: workaholic. ‘I am always working, I am addicted to work,’ she said. ‘My head needs to rest. I don’t have an ordinary day because I’m trapped between two different lives. One day I’m filming, the next I’m off to college, the next day I’m home, then I’m designing clothes. There are no typical days for me.’

But whatever she does – film, fashion or education – there is one thing that Emma will never be able to get away from: all roads will always lead back to Hermione Granger. ‘A lot of my getting this part was serendipity,’ she admitted to Sky News. ‘It happened when I was very young. It was one role and it transformed the whole of my life. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is what’s going to make me happy. I want to be able to explore a few other things.’

On 7 July 2011, 21 year old Emma Watson stood on a purpose-built stage in London’s Trafalgar Square wearing a pale blue Oscar de la Renta ball gown. Around her was
a sea of fans who’d camped out for days to stake their claims on the best spots for the final Potter premiere. Sections of the crowd were chanting her name. Accompanying Emma on the stage were the main players in the Harry Potter saga, including producer David Heyman, final director David Yates, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and J.K. Rowling. Looking out across the sea of faces, Emma Watson was feeling emotional.

Things had not gone entirely smoothly for Emma on the run up to the release of the final film. Headlines in late April had claimed she was quitting her course at Brown University because of bullying. The story that fellow students had quoted lines at her from the Potter films during classes was cited as one of the incidents that had pushed her out. Emma took to the Internet – a sure sign that something had really gotten to her – to set the record straight. ‘Dear all,’ she wrote in a message posted during the Royal Wedding on 29 April, a move perhaps designed to keep the rebuttal low-key. ‘I felt the need to let you all know the reason I took a semester off from Brown had nothing to do with bullying as the media have been suggesting recently. I have never been bullied in my life and certainly never at Brown. This “10 points to Gryffindor” incident never even happened. I feel the need to say this because accusing Brown students of something as serious as bullying and this causing me to leave seems beyond unfair. Please don’t try and speculate about what I might do in September – no one can possibly know because I don’t even know yet!’

By the time of the final film’s release, Emma announced
she had made her decision – she was going to do her third year of university in another country: Britain. ‘I haven’t left Brown. I’m still enrolled at Brown. I’m going to Oxford in the fall to study English for a year. I’ll go back to the States to do my last year. I took a semester off, but my credits actually count as an advance, so I’m no further behind. I’m still technically going into my third year.’ Emma Watson was coming home.

Back in Trafalgar Square, the combination of a three thousand-strong crowd and the gushing words of praise from Emma’s collaborators proved too much, especially when she tried to thank J.K. Rowling: ‘Jo, thank you for writing these amazing books and for being…’ with that, the actress began to cry. ‘That’s it I’ve gone. You’re such a role model to me in real life. Thank you to Rupert for making me laugh, you’ve been such a great brother. And thank you to Dan – same thing. I will miss you so much.’

The final film was released – this time in 3D – on 15 July, with some cinemas organising special post-midnight screenings for fans keen to be the first to see it. It’s a very different beast from the previous Potters. The storytelling shackles that have tied the films down for a decade finally slip away for
Deathly Hallows Part 2
. There are no long explanatory sequences designed to set up plot lines for future films. They aren’t needed. All that’s required is for dragons to be ridden, wizarding schools to be reduced to rubble and Dark Lords to be vanquished. And, of course, for Hermione and Ron to kiss. Their slamming snog – which puts the rather bloodless peck shared by Harry and Ginny Weasley to shame – is a key moment of relief in the
middle of all the death and destruction. According to director David Yates, the success of the scene was down to Emma: ‘When we went for the first take,’ he told ITV1, ‘she [Emma] just made up her mind … let’s do this properly. So she grabbed hold of Rupert and just went for it.’ The look on Watson’s face when Ron later describes Hermione as his girlfriend for the first time is priceless.