Emma Watson may have quashed the rumours about being cast in soft porn 50 Shades of Grey but she’s still determined to leave Hogwarts behind for good.
Watson was in Cannes today for the opening gala of The Bling Ring. Directed by Sofia Coppola, the film is based on an actual group of Los Angeles teenagers who robbed celebrity homes in an attempt to get closer to their lifestyles. The script was adapted from a Vanity Fair profile of the Hollywood Hills Burglars who got their kicks rifling through Paris Hilton’s shoe closets. Watson says she prepped for the role by watching the Kardashians and other reality shows, saying her biggest challenge was to learn empathy for her real life character.
Watching that teaser creeps me out. As a recent victim of our own burglary, I can’t stomach the” brats on a lark” theme, even as the broad comment about popular culture is relevant and no doubt handled with some skill by Coppola, who knows celebrity culture intimately. But I have a soft spot for Watson. At 23, she appears to have sidestepped most of the b.s of child actors. Poised and articulate in interviews, the actress is clearly committed to her craft and aware of her profile to millions of fans who grew up with her through the Harry Potter franchise as the smarty pants Hermione. Perhaps my affection is owed to the many hopeful trailblazers I know (a duo in this household alone) who saw themselves in the feisty bookworm, so brilliantly written by J.K Rowling. Would they have loved Hermione as passionately without Watson’s portrayal?
Here she is in a 2010 interview with Time Magazine where she reveals her true ambition: to be a renaissance woman.
Watson will appear next in the biblical epic, Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky. This summer, she’ll also work with another heavyweight director, in Guillermo del Toro’s Beauty and the Beast.
What she won’t be doing is 50 Shades of Grey. Earlier this spring, she shut down the rumours of taking on the lead with this tweet:
“Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life.”
Hermione would concur.
