Emma Watson bristles at the mere mention of the name Hermione Granger.
She has nothing against her one-time alter ego as such, but for 12 years of her life she has had to live the squeaky-clean schoolgirl character from the Harry Potter franchise.
Indeed, since the age of nine when she was first cast in the role, she has lived the magical world of Hogwarts and Hagrids and now shifts uncomfortably in her chair with the reference to the character that made her a household name and turned her life upside down.
"I'm just enjoying now being naughty," she says with a giggle in reference to her new films The Bling Ring - where she plays a real-life Hollywood obsessed bad girl who robs houses of the rich and famous for fun - and the comedy This Is the End, in which she plays a fiery, axe-swinging version of herself. Both are huge departures from her previous image, but she hopes they will show she is more than that annoying little smart girl Hermione Granger.
In 2007, with the release of the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, Watson was reluctant to resign for another. She knew she would be in danger of being seriously typecast and wanted to move on and, as she conceded at the time, she had earned enough money from the hugely successful franchise to ensure she need never work again or could at least be selective in what she did and didn't want to do.
But such was the character's hold on the young star, barely 17, she felt compelled not to let millions of fans down and agreed to sign on for another four years in that character to make another three movies in the Potter series.
She has no regrets, but two years since the last of the Harry Potter flicks was released, it's a raw issue. But Watson now has to be asked and is candidly honest about.
"There are definitely moments when I feel overwhelmed, I think I wouldn't be normal if I didn't, it is an overwhelming situation," she says of that Potter series. "I think thankfully and luckily I had people I could turn to and had a support system, had people who could help me and catch me on the other end if I did have days that I did quite feel overwhelmed.
"Those experiences are personal, but I'm not going to pretend that every day was sunshine and flowers and daisies and roses, there were days when it was tough and it was a lot of responsibility and pressure and a lot of scrutiny and people had high expectations of me.
"To play a character that was loved as much as she is and not only to live up to her onscreen, but also that film franchisement was a lot to… I could feel, I knew it meant a lot to a lot of young people and I felt like I, you know, I didn't want to let people down ever, I didn't want to let the film people down, I didn't want to let the director down, I didn't want to let the … I didn't want to let the fans down I just wanted to do my best, I wanted to do a good job.
"I had to be quite persistent about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be I had to, you know this industry kind of expects you to do a certain thing and go a certain way and I kinda had to speak loudly about what I didn't want to do. But I found it hard when I was young to do that, it's difficult to find your voice when you are that age, I started when I was 10 or something, sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I didn't and sometimes I look back and go 'oh cringe'."
And did she ever feel like giving the game away?
"I think everyone has days when they feel stressed and overwhelmed, but overall it was just the most amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything," she says. "It's made me who I am today and it's given me incredible opportunities like this one. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that."
The celebrity that came with that also landed her the part tailor-written for her by Seth Rogen in his hit apocalyptic comedy, This Is the End. Her first out-and-out comedy enabled her to appear opposite Rogen and his comedic compadres including Jonah Hil, Jay Baruchel and James Franco.
"My agent called me and said, 'There's this movie, it's about the end of the world, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are making it, everybody's playing themselves, and there's only one major female part in it, and they wrote it for you,'" Watson remembers. "I was taken aback - why did they think of me? - but then I read the script, and it was so funny. I've never done a comedy like this one, and to have the chance to work with one of the greatest lineups of comedians working right now - how could I miss out on that?"
Having spent her teenage years playing a nice girl, and in real life being not only a nice English country girl, but one who graduated from high school with a high A+ average, it was perhaps why she found her character in Sofia Coppla's The Bling Ring to be a challenge and great departure to what she was accustomed.
Being a celebrity and self-obsessed tattooed teenager in Ugg boots who robs houses for kicks just didn't sit right.
"I felt like I had landed on an alien planet and it was a very voyeuristic experience for me because as soon as I got to LA I tried to take in as much as possible because as you say it's quite foreign," she says.
"I grew up in the countryside in England and Oxford and my dad wouldn't even let my brother and I watch TV, I mean I grew up in a very, my parents are very academically focused and any kind of vanity on my part was not tolerated. There was no bling, no bling."
In the Bling Ring Watson portrays Alexis Neiers, a key member of a real life fame-obssessed high-schooler in Los Angeles who with a group of other teenagers goes on a crime spree across the Hollywood hills and in the home of the rich and famous. She tattooed, got plenty of 'tude and loves a good pole dancing, for which Watson had to rehearse.
Before they are caught, the Bling Ring as the gang was dubbed in the media, stole more than $3 million worth of luxury goods from victims including Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge and Megan Fox.
"I felt really uncomfortable doing the robbery scenes even filming, acting it just felt horribly wrong so I think luckily somehow my parents instilled some morality in me somewhere," Watson said of her portrayal of the deluded teen Nicki (character name based on real life Alexis)
"I enjoyed playing a real character, someone I really had to transform into definitely.
"I watched a lot of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians and I sort of worked with a dialect coach for accent; I really tried to think, get my head into the psyche of this crazy girl and tried to find a way to sympathise and try and understand what her motivations might be. It was quite difficult, quite difficult, but interesting."
Despite being the face of fashion label Burberry, Watson said in real life she dresses down and is as comfortable in a sloppy jumper on the coach as strutting down a red carpet in a glamorous Yves St Laurent. But she admires people such as Paris Hilton who has made a name for herself with her life of over-the-top excess.
"I think she is very clever, she was the first one to lead the way to create a brand, lifestyle and business people understand what Paris does and what I do it's just a different job. I think I own about eight shoes in total. I'm always trying to dress myself down in a way that people I think won't draw attention so it's interesting."
She has nothing against her one-time alter ego as such, but for 12 years of her life she has had to live the squeaky-clean schoolgirl character from the Harry Potter franchise.
Indeed, since the age of nine when she was first cast in the role, she has lived the magical world of Hogwarts and Hagrids and now shifts uncomfortably in her chair with the reference to the character that made her a household name and turned her life upside down.
"I'm just enjoying now being naughty," she says with a giggle in reference to her new films The Bling Ring - where she plays a real-life Hollywood obsessed bad girl who robs houses of the rich and famous for fun - and the comedy This Is the End, in which she plays a fiery, axe-swinging version of herself. Both are huge departures from her previous image, but she hopes they will show she is more than that annoying little smart girl Hermione Granger.
In 2007, with the release of the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, Watson was reluctant to resign for another. She knew she would be in danger of being seriously typecast and wanted to move on and, as she conceded at the time, she had earned enough money from the hugely successful franchise to ensure she need never work again or could at least be selective in what she did and didn't want to do.
But such was the character's hold on the young star, barely 17, she felt compelled not to let millions of fans down and agreed to sign on for another four years in that character to make another three movies in the Potter series.
She has no regrets, but two years since the last of the Harry Potter flicks was released, it's a raw issue. But Watson now has to be asked and is candidly honest about.
"There are definitely moments when I feel overwhelmed, I think I wouldn't be normal if I didn't, it is an overwhelming situation," she says of that Potter series. "I think thankfully and luckily I had people I could turn to and had a support system, had people who could help me and catch me on the other end if I did have days that I did quite feel overwhelmed.
"Those experiences are personal, but I'm not going to pretend that every day was sunshine and flowers and daisies and roses, there were days when it was tough and it was a lot of responsibility and pressure and a lot of scrutiny and people had high expectations of me.
"To play a character that was loved as much as she is and not only to live up to her onscreen, but also that film franchisement was a lot to… I could feel, I knew it meant a lot to a lot of young people and I felt like I, you know, I didn't want to let people down ever, I didn't want to let the film people down, I didn't want to let the director down, I didn't want to let the … I didn't want to let the fans down I just wanted to do my best, I wanted to do a good job.
"I had to be quite persistent about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be I had to, you know this industry kind of expects you to do a certain thing and go a certain way and I kinda had to speak loudly about what I didn't want to do. But I found it hard when I was young to do that, it's difficult to find your voice when you are that age, I started when I was 10 or something, sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I didn't and sometimes I look back and go 'oh cringe'."
And did she ever feel like giving the game away?
"I think everyone has days when they feel stressed and overwhelmed, but overall it was just the most amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything," she says. "It's made me who I am today and it's given me incredible opportunities like this one. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that."
The celebrity that came with that also landed her the part tailor-written for her by Seth Rogen in his hit apocalyptic comedy, This Is the End. Her first out-and-out comedy enabled her to appear opposite Rogen and his comedic compadres including Jonah Hil, Jay Baruchel and James Franco.
"My agent called me and said, 'There's this movie, it's about the end of the world, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are making it, everybody's playing themselves, and there's only one major female part in it, and they wrote it for you,'" Watson remembers. "I was taken aback - why did they think of me? - but then I read the script, and it was so funny. I've never done a comedy like this one, and to have the chance to work with one of the greatest lineups of comedians working right now - how could I miss out on that?"
Having spent her teenage years playing a nice girl, and in real life being not only a nice English country girl, but one who graduated from high school with a high A+ average, it was perhaps why she found her character in Sofia Coppla's The Bling Ring to be a challenge and great departure to what she was accustomed.
Being a celebrity and self-obsessed tattooed teenager in Ugg boots who robs houses for kicks just didn't sit right.
"I felt like I had landed on an alien planet and it was a very voyeuristic experience for me because as soon as I got to LA I tried to take in as much as possible because as you say it's quite foreign," she says.
"I grew up in the countryside in England and Oxford and my dad wouldn't even let my brother and I watch TV, I mean I grew up in a very, my parents are very academically focused and any kind of vanity on my part was not tolerated. There was no bling, no bling."
In the Bling Ring Watson portrays Alexis Neiers, a key member of a real life fame-obssessed high-schooler in Los Angeles who with a group of other teenagers goes on a crime spree across the Hollywood hills and in the home of the rich and famous. She tattooed, got plenty of 'tude and loves a good pole dancing, for which Watson had to rehearse.
Before they are caught, the Bling Ring as the gang was dubbed in the media, stole more than $3 million worth of luxury goods from victims including Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge and Megan Fox.
"I felt really uncomfortable doing the robbery scenes even filming, acting it just felt horribly wrong so I think luckily somehow my parents instilled some morality in me somewhere," Watson said of her portrayal of the deluded teen Nicki (character name based on real life Alexis)
"I enjoyed playing a real character, someone I really had to transform into definitely.
"I watched a lot of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians and I sort of worked with a dialect coach for accent; I really tried to think, get my head into the psyche of this crazy girl and tried to find a way to sympathise and try and understand what her motivations might be. It was quite difficult, quite difficult, but interesting."
Despite being the face of fashion label Burberry, Watson said in real life she dresses down and is as comfortable in a sloppy jumper on the coach as strutting down a red carpet in a glamorous Yves St Laurent. But she admires people such as Paris Hilton who has made a name for herself with her life of over-the-top excess.
"I think she is very clever, she was the first one to lead the way to create a brand, lifestyle and business people understand what Paris does and what I do it's just a different job. I think I own about eight shoes in total. I'm always trying to dress myself down in a way that people I think won't draw attention so it's interesting."
I got this off another website, check it out:
How do you know you're taking Harry Potter too seriously?
Your computer says "You've Got Mail" and you run outside looking for an owl.
You ask for a broom for Christmas.
You sort everyone you meet into the four Hogwarts houses.
You went out and bought the latest edition of the Webster's Dictionary because they added the word "muggle".
You were burned trying to get through the flames of your fireplace.
You were kicked out of the movie theater for standing on your chair, throwing your shoe at the screen and yelling "THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN THE BOOK!"
How do you know you're taking Harry Potter too seriously?
Your computer says "You've Got Mail" and you run outside looking for an owl.
You ask for a broom for Christmas.
You sort everyone you meet into the four Hogwarts houses.
You went out and bought the latest edition of the Webster's Dictionary because they added the word "muggle".
You were burned trying to get through the flames of your fireplace.
You were kicked out of the movie theater for standing on your chair, throwing your shoe at the screen and yelling "THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN THE BOOK!"
I don't know things about you but in my side, i will really miss my childhood movie. I was growing up with this movie. I really can't beliave the end has came. I will miss the perfect friendsip trio; Harry-Hermione-Ron.
I will miss Romione couple. At the beggining, we all thought there will be a chemistiry between Harry and Hermione but as the time goes on, we all learned how can love be possible, funny. We loved Romione!Their fights were the beggining of a big love. :)
I really love this movie because when ron left hermione and fight with Harry, Hermione cried at all nights but she pretended like she does never care. And she tried to help Harry all the time. She didn't hurt herself or stopped being.
I will never forget the most enjoyable Beautiful perfect movie in my life.!
i really want to know your ideas. I will always be watching and writing comments about it!
and do't forget that; LEGEDS ARE UNFORGETTABLE:))
I will miss Romione couple. At the beggining, we all thought there will be a chemistiry between Harry and Hermione but as the time goes on, we all learned how can love be possible, funny. We loved Romione!Their fights were the beggining of a big love. :)
I really love this movie because when ron left hermione and fight with Harry, Hermione cried at all nights but she pretended like she does never care. And she tried to help Harry all the time. She didn't hurt herself or stopped being.
I will never forget the most enjoyable Beautiful perfect movie in my life.!
i really want to know your ideas. I will always be watching and writing comments about it!
and do't forget that; LEGEDS ARE UNFORGETTABLE:))
Your favorite devils food cake recipe, made into cupcakes
black string licorice
Instructions
Bake your cupcakes according to the instructions, without using paper cup liners.
Slice off the top of the crown of each cupcake so that when it is turned upside down, it sits flat. This gives you more of a cauldron shape than a cupcake shape.
Cut the black string licorice into small pieces and poke them into the cupcakes as cauldron handles.
Ingredients
dark chocolate
dry chow mein noodles
Instructions
Melt your chocolate until smooth.
Stir in noodles until the mixture is thick enough to hold together.
Spoon bite-sized clusters onto wax paper and let harden in the refrigerator.
If you want longer-lasting candy, melt 1 stick cooking paraffin per 12 oz of chocolate before adding the noodles.
These can be frozen, just thaw before serving.
black string licorice
Instructions
Bake your cupcakes according to the instructions, without using paper cup liners.
Slice off the top of the crown of each cupcake so that when it is turned upside down, it sits flat. This gives you more of a cauldron shape than a cupcake shape.
Cut the black string licorice into small pieces and poke them into the cupcakes as cauldron handles.
Ingredients
dark chocolate
dry chow mein noodles
Instructions
Melt your chocolate until smooth.
Stir in noodles until the mixture is thick enough to hold together.
Spoon bite-sized clusters onto wax paper and let harden in the refrigerator.
If you want longer-lasting candy, melt 1 stick cooking paraffin per 12 oz of chocolate before adding the noodles.
These can be frozen, just thaw before serving.
I throw my wand up in the air sometimes
saying,"Ah-oh, my name is Draco!"
I wanna celebrate and kill Dumbledore
saying "Ah-oh,old man, just let go."
We gonna rock the school
We gonna go all night
We gonna light professors up
like they're dynamite!
Cause I dueled you once,
Now I dueled you twice
We gonna light them up
like they're dynamite.
We gotta move, move, move, move
Get out the way of me and my crew, crew, crew, crew,
Sanpe, Bellatrix and Fenrir too, too, too, too,
It was on and on and on,
Now Albus is gone and gone and gone, yeah!
CREDITS:
greekgirlA,and boredcreativity have made this
(gryffindorgal made the last part)
become a fan of us and we will make more spoof songs to your favorites! just tell us the song,
and only if you become a fan!
saying,"Ah-oh, my name is Draco!"
I wanna celebrate and kill Dumbledore
saying "Ah-oh,old man, just let go."
We gonna rock the school
We gonna go all night
We gonna light professors up
like they're dynamite!
Cause I dueled you once,
Now I dueled you twice
We gonna light them up
like they're dynamite.
We gotta move, move, move, move
Get out the way of me and my crew, crew, crew, crew,
Sanpe, Bellatrix and Fenrir too, too, too, too,
It was on and on and on,
Now Albus is gone and gone and gone, yeah!
CREDITS:
greekgirlA,and boredcreativity have made this
(gryffindorgal made the last part)
become a fan of us and we will make more spoof songs to your favorites! just tell us the song,
and only if you become a fan!
If only we could be together,
You and I,
But our parents would never allow it,
You and I,
Our hearts are broken,
Yours and mine,
I weep for you,
My dear Rose,
Tears run down my face,
Like water flows.
I love the way your wand made flowers,
Made me feel like I had super powers.
I love your spirit,
Fierce but charming,
Complimenting and healing mine,
Which is hurtfull and harming.
My dad's a butt,
My mum is too,
But YOU made my heart soar,
When I was with YOU.
Your the best witch ever,
Inherrited your mum's brains,
Your hair is fiery,
Like a bright pretty flame.
If only we could be together,
You and I,
Forever together,
You and I
You and I,
But our parents would never allow it,
You and I,
Our hearts are broken,
Yours and mine,
I weep for you,
My dear Rose,
Tears run down my face,
Like water flows.
I love the way your wand made flowers,
Made me feel like I had super powers.
I love your spirit,
Fierce but charming,
Complimenting and healing mine,
Which is hurtfull and harming.
My dad's a butt,
My mum is too,
But YOU made my heart soar,
When I was with YOU.
Your the best witch ever,
Inherrited your mum's brains,
Your hair is fiery,
Like a bright pretty flame.
If only we could be together,
You and I,
Forever together,
You and I