Birthday: 04/15/1990
Birthplace: Oxford, England, UK
Occupation: Actor
Sign: Aries
Born: April 15, 1990 in Paris, France
Occupation: Actor
Biography: Emma Watson made her big-screen debut in 2001's box-office smash Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, bringing to life Hermione Granger, friend to the famous protagonist Harry Potter of J.K. Rowling's children's novel. Born in Paris, where she lived for the first five years of her life, Watson.
Emma Watson made her big-screen debut in 2001's box-office smash Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, bringing to life Hermione Granger, friend to the famous protagonist Harry Potter of J.K. Rowling's children's novel. Born in Paris, where she lived for the first five years of her life, Watson acted only in school plays before breaking into Hollywood with this film, but her performance skills had been honed through dancing, singing, and poetry recitals, the latter of which she had already received recognition for by the age of seven. In the years following that blockbuster, she reprised her role alongside co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for the subsequent beloved Harry Potter films. A self-avowed serious student at an all-girls school in Oxford, England, Watson signed on for the final two installments of the series, but decided to temporarily put further project offers aside to focus on her studies.
Emma Watson was born in Paris, France, the daughter of Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, English lawyers who are now divorced. She has a brother, Alexander, who is three years younger, and is partly French by one grandmother. She lived in Paris until the age of five, when she moved with her mother and brother to Oxford, England, following her parents' divorce.
From the age of three, Watson had expressed a desire to become an actress. By age ten, she had starred in several school plays, including "Arthur: The Young Years" and "The Happy Prince". She had never acted in any professional capacity prior to her casting to the "Harry Potter" series. 'I had no idea of the scale of the film series', she said in a 2007 interview with Parade magazine, 'if I had I would have been completely overwhelmed'.Hermione Granger casting
In 1999, casting began for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States), the film adaptation of British author Rowling's bestselling novel. Of paramount importance to the casting directors was the lead role of Harry Potter and the two supporting roles of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Harry's two best friends at school. All three characters are 11 at the start of the school year. Impressed with her school play performances, Watson's Oxford theatre teacher passed her name to casting agents and she was taken into serious consideration. The producers were impressed by Watson's self-confidence and she outperformed thousands of other girls who had applied – after eight auditions, producer David Heyman told Watson and fellow applicants Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint that they had been cast for the roles of Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Rowling was said to be supportive of Watson from her first screen test.
Harry Potter (2001–present)
Philosopher's Stone
Watson was eleven years old when "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was released. The film was an instant blockbuster, breaking box-office records for both opening-day sales and opening weekend takings, and was the highest-grossing film of 2001. Critics praised the performances of the three leads, with Watson often singled out for particular acclaim. "The Daily Telegraph" called her performance 'admirable' with IGN even claiming she 'stole the show'. Watson was nominated for five awards for her performance in "Philosopher's Stone", winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress.
In her first major interview, with the BBC in 2001, Watson said she particularly enjoyed the film's stunts, especially a scene when her character is attacked by a troll and has to dart under sinks and run through the legs of bigger actors. Later, she added that her parents did their best to make her feel comfortable and that her biggest thrill was getting to know her adult co-stars, including Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and Robbie Coltrane.
Chamber of Secrets
A year later, Watson again starred as Hermione in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", the film series' second installment. While the film received mixed reviews on account of pace and direction, critics were generally positive about the performances. The "Los Angeles Times" remarked on how Watson and her peers had matured between the two films, while "The Times" was critical of director Chris Columbus for 'under-employing' Watson's hugely popular character. Watson was awarded an Otto Award from the German magazine "Die Welt" for her performance.
Now twelve years old, she commented that while making the second film, she was relieved to be familiar with the filmmaking process instead of being new to everything as she had been the first time. In a 2007 interview, Watson added that during the production of both films she lost several baby teeth and had to wear dentures to avoid continuity issues.
Prisoner of AzkabanIn 2004, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was released; Watson was appreciative of the more assertive role Hermione played in this film, calling her 'charismatic' and 'a fantastic role to play'. Among others, she enjoyed filming a scene where Hermione punches Harry's nemesis Draco Malfoy (played by Tom Felton) and another where she angrily storms out of class when she becomes frustrated with divination professor Sybill Trelawney (Emma Thompson). She thought that Thompson's performance as Trelawney was 'absolutely hilarious'. While critics largely turned away from Radcliffe's acting talent, increasingly labeling him as wooden, Watson continued to receive critical praise; "The New York Times" lauded her performance, saying 'Luckily Mr. Radcliffe's blandness is offset by Ms. Watson's spiky impatience. Harry may show off his expanding wizardly skills... but Hermione... earns the loudest applause with a decidedly unmagical punch to Draco Malfoy's deserving nose'. Although "Prisoner of Azkaban" remains the lowest-grossing "Harry Potter" film to date, it was Watson's most successful, winning her two Otto Awards and the Child Performance of the Year award from "Total Film" Magazine.
Watson found comfort in the fact that she already knew many of the crew on "Prisoner of Azkaban" because they had also worked on "Philosopher's Stone". Later that year, Watson joined Pierce Brosnan, "Chamber of Secrets" co-star Kenneth Branagh, and Samantha Morton on a panel in London to award the 2004 First Light Film Awards to teenage filmmakers.
Goblet of Fire
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was released in 2005; Watson reprised her role as Hermione Granger. She called director Mike Newell 'fantastic' and quickly shot down rumours that she and colleagues Radcliffe and Grint could be replaced in the following movies. For Watson, much of the humour of the film sprung from the tension between the three lead characters as they matured. She said, 'I loved all the arguing ... I think it's much more realistic that they would argue and that there would be problems. So I thought it was great fun. And it makes for a lot of humorous relief from this quite dark book.' The film shattered the records set by the previous installments in the franchise, setting new records for a "Harry Potter" opening weekend, all-time non-May opening weekend in the USA, and all-time opening weekend in the UK. Critics praised the increasing maturity of Watson and her teenage co-stars; the "New York Times" thought her performance 'touchingly earnest'. Watson was nominated for three awards for "Goblet of Fire", winning a bronze Otto Award.
Watson counted herself amongst the many fans who predicted a relationship between Hermione and Ron Weasley in later "Harry Potter" books, saying 'Hermione and Ron just need to get it together! It just needs to happen and they just need to get on with it.' Later that year, Watson became the youngest person to appear on the cover of "Teen Vogue" magazine, until the subsequent appearance of American actress Willa Holland. In 2006, Watson played Hermione in "The Queen's Handbag", a special mini-episode of "Harry Potter" in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday.
Order of the Phoenix
In the 2007 film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Watson returned as Hermione Granger for the fifth time in seven years. She was appreciative of director David Yates, saying he was 'quiet, very calm, very thoughtful, very sensitive.' She said that her favourite scenes were the two Wizard duels in which Hermione is a participant, especially when she practices combat magic with Grint's character Ron Weasley. When Ron patronises her, her spell blows him backwards into a wall. Watson said, 'It was a real 'girl power' moment, of which there are many in this film.' She was impressed with newcomers Evanna Lynch and Imelda Staunton, who play Luna Lovegood and the villain Dolores Umbridge, and reinforced the notion that her character Hermione should romance Ron Weasley. The film was an enormous financial success, setting a record worldwide opening-weekend gross of $333 million. For her work in "Order of the Phoenix", Watson won the inaugural National Movie Award for Best Female Performance.
Watson was a target of some friendly ridicule on set because of her straight-A GCSE exam results, and was unnerved by the film's climax which features flashback clips from earlier "Harry Potter" movies: 'It's just like having your baby pictures blown up on a 20-foot screen and placed in 37 countries ... You see yourself and you say, 'God, who is that girl?"
On July 9, 2007, Watson and fellow "Harry Potter" co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint left imprints of their hands, feet, and wands in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Future plans
Despite rumours alleging that she refused to appear in the last two "Harry Potter" installments, her commitment to the final two films was confirmed in March 2007 by Warner Brothers. She said, 'I could never let the role of Hermione go – she is my hero! I love her too much and love what playing her has meant to me. I am excited and honoured to be finishing what I started and playing her in all seven of the films.' Later, she explained that people underestimated the scope of this decision, as she was aware that filming would dominate her life for the next three to four years; in the end, 'the pluses outweighed the minuses.'
On July 19, 2007, Watson announced her involvement in her first non-"Harry Potter" project, "The Tale of Despereaux", an animated film to be released in 2008, in which she will voice the character of Princess Pea. In August 2007, it was announced that she would star in the BBC's adaptation of "Ballet Shoes", playing Pauline Fossil, the eldest of the three Fossil sisters around whom the story revolves – the role required Watson to bleach her hair white-blonde.
Although Radcliffe and Grint have confirmed their commitment to an acting career, Watson has expressed uncertainty as to her future plans. Speaking to "Newsweek" magazine in 2006, she said, 'Daniel and Rupert seem so sure... I love to perform, but there are so many things I love doing... Maybe that sounds ungrateful. I've been given such an amazing opportunity, but I'll just have to go with the flow.' Commenting on Radcliffe's widely publicised nude scenes in the theatre piece "Equus" in 2007, she not did categorically rule out nude scenes herself in future films or stage works, but added that 'you will never see me naked without a good reason'. Watson affirmed this in a later interview with "The Sydney Morning Herald" saying, 'If I feel that nudity is essential to the story I'll do it ... But I'm not going to get my kit off for something that I don't really believe in.'
Professional relationships
Over the years, Watson has formed a strong platonic bond with fellow "Harry Potter" stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. She described it as an 'unique support system' because 'you can't really explain to someone other than Radcliffe and Grint what this experience is like'; whilst Radcliffe and Grint used to tease her when they were younger, they are now protective of their female colleague. Watson maintains that there were never any romantic feelings involved.
In an interview with German broadsheet newspaper "Die Welt" in 2007, Watson explained her reaction to realising that she would have to kiss Grint's character in the seventh film. Although she supported the idea of a relationship between the two fictional characters, she said she 'would rather not think about it now', adding that while Grint was 'very nice' and 'many girls like him', he was definitely not her type.
Beyond her peers Radcliffe and Grint, Watson greatly enjoyed working with the adult "Harry Potter" actors, including Helena Bonham Carter (Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange) who was 'so much fun', Emma Thompson (divination teacher Sybill Trelawney), Maggie Smith (transfiguration teacher Minerva McGonagall) 'who always gives me chocolates at Christmas', and Robbie Coltrane (gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid) who 'is always telling us completely dirty and inappropriate jokes that we are far too young to be hearing, but we love, of course.' She added that in the end, all "Harry Potter" actors form 'a bit of a family for us as well'. In a 2007 interview with "YOU Magazine", Watson was appreciative of J. K. Rowling's contribution to the film series: 'she has been really lovely and very supportive of the films-she comes on set and she is in e-mail contact with a lot of us. She just said to me, 'You are Hermione, you have completely become her,' which was just so nice and so generous of her to say'.
Personal life
In recent years, Watson's extended family has grown as both her parents have children by new partners after their divorce. Her father has identical twin girls, Nina and Lucy, and a four-year old son Toby. She also has two half-brothers from her mother's new marriage who 'regularly stay with her'. Watson's full brother Alexander has appeared as an extra in two "Harry Potter" films,, and her sisters Nina and Lucy were cast as the young Pauline Fossil in the BBC's "Ballet Shoes" adaptation.
After moving to Oxford with her mother and brother, Watson attended The Dragon School, a private preparatory school, until June 2003 and then moved to Headington School, a private all-girls school, also in Oxford. In 2003, she described having 'a good time as a teenager' despite all the stardom and did not have the feeling of having lost her youth. However, she says that getting spotted by tourists and being a regular target for Internet impersonators gets on her nerves once in a while. Watson admitted resenting some of her celebrity status in an October 2006 interview with "The Times", citing it as one reason for her being single: 'Guys are either intimidated by me, or they have defences up, or they like to take the piss out of me.'
Watson's work in the "Harry Potter" series has amassed her over £10 million; Watson has acknowledged that she will never have to work again for money. However, she has declined quitting school and becoming a full-time actress, saying 'People can't understand why I don't want to... but school life keeps me in touch with my friends. It keeps me in touch with reality. It makes me feel normal. Let's be honest: I have enough money never to have to work again, but I would never want that. Learning keeps me motivated.' While on film sets, Watson and her peers were tutored for about four hours of lessons per day; despite the focus on filming, Watson's academic achievements were good. In June 2006, she took GCSE examinations in 10 subjects, achieving eight A* and two A grades. The following year she received four A grades in her AS levels in English, Geography, Art and History of Art. The only one of the "Harry Potter" trio to intend to study at university, Watson has entertained thoughts of applying to read Philosophy at Cambridge or PPE at Oxford.
On her official homepage, Watson states her interests as dancing, singing, field hockey, tennis and art. She calls herself a feminist. She has a cat called 'Bubbles', admires Johnny Depp and Julia Roberts, and lists France as her favourite holiday destination. Watson says her greatest wish is 'to have two friends, which stay - people with you can always be together and who don't scoot, because you are a film star.'
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