As Emma Watson prepares to bid farewell to Hermione Granger, Suellen Dainty talks to an enchanting and eloquent actress who, despite her huge success, insists she is “just a 20-year-old girl”.
In pictures: Growing up famous
So this is it. Emma Watson is without a script, a filming schedule or a studio set for the first time in more than a decade.
The saga of Harry Potter, the most successful series of films ever produced, has consumed more than half her life. It has made her very rich, universally famous and afforded her dizzying opportunities. Yet now, with the release of the first part of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, her cinematic existence as the quick-witted, brainy Hermione Granger is coming to an end.
There are several reactions your average 20-year-old might have to this. Some might embark on a journey of enthusiastic hedonism. Some might simply do nothing. Others may sink into a permanent gloom at losing their screen identity.
Emma Watson, however, is not your average 20-year-old. At 18, Vanity Fair ranked her the highest paid actress in Hollywood, having banked $33 million in 2009, and she’s set to bank that same amount again for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2. She is too clever and too sensible to fall in a heap. She perches on the sofa in a London hotel suite, a tiny figure dressed in jeans and a white jumper. Her skin is as perfect as her manners. She jumps up to shake hands. Would we like water? Or coffee? What a well brought up young woman.
“How do I feel about it ending? I haven’t decided yet,” she says, with a laugh. “Freedom? Or panic? It’s both. Of course, it’s exciting and liberating in a way. But it’s also, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be over and it’s been such a huge part of my life.’ So I’ll miss it a lot.”
“I’ve come to realise that playing Hermione may be the biggest thing I ever do and that is scary. I can’t imagine I’ll do anything that will be more widely acknowledged, praised or loved.”
Read more of this story in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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