[Version française]
The article is about Emma and Rupert Grint. Check Telegraph for Rupert's parts.
In the new Harry Potter film, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger emerge from the boy wizard's shadows to become substantial characters – while the pair who play them are becoming talented performers and assured youngsters. David Gritten meets them.
As for Emma Watson, playing Hermione Granger, she's starting to look rather glamorous, with windswept hair like a model's.
When we meet, Emma Watson wastes no time letting me know this. "The third book is definitely my favourite, and it's a good script for Hermione," she says enthusiastically. "She has some great scenes."
Watson has strolled into a room in the Harry Potter production offices at Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire. She sits upright on a sofa with three cushions embroidered with a likeness of Harry Potter and an owl, and chats animatedly.
In the new film she relished a scene with the odious Hogwarts pupil Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), a constant thorn in the sides of Harry and his chums. Hermione gives him a biff on the nose, and says: "That felt good!"
"I loved it! My first screen punch! It was fantastic! It's been building up for ages through the first three films," Watson says, arms flailing in emphasis. "He's been insulting, rude and really hateful. Harry's been going, 'Ignore him, don't say anything,' and suddenly Hermione gets so angry she ends up punching the guts out of him. Fantastic. Very girl power!"
Even apart from this scene, she thinks Hermione is finally coming into her own. "She's had two films of being put down by teachers and rudely insulted by Malfoy. Now she thinks, `Right, that's it, I'm not having any more of this.' She storms out on a teacher, punches Malfoy, fights with Ron. She's really fired up. She's not taking nonsense from anyone."
Watson is disarmingly articulate in explaining this. Slim, petite, with sparkling eyes, she wears a pale green cable-knit sweater over a T-shirt, flared jeans and cream trainers with a gold trim. This is her first film as a teenager (she turned 14 in April) but she speaks with bristling intelligence.
She also has a finely-tuned sense of humour. Since Radcliffe, Watson and Grint landed their roles, they have patiently stressed how little they have in common with their characters. On reflection, they are now less sure.
I have been told that when Cuarón first met the trio, he asked them to write an essay about their characters and their feelings and beliefs. They responded perfectly appropriately: Radcliffe wrote one page, and felt he had done reasonably well. Watson, reacting just like Hermione to a set task, wrote 16 pages, and has since suffered much on-set teasing about it.
"Was it 16 pages?" she says, covering her face and blushing. "Might it have been 12… or a little less? All right, I enjoyed writing it. But my handwriting's big! I leave big spaces between words."
In retrospect, it was useful for her. "It made me see Hermione in a completely different way. Alfonso made me think, why does she do the things she does? Why is she such an annoying bookworm? I thought maybe it's her mask, her front, so she doesn't have to show emotions or feelings. I'd never thought about that before, so for me she became much deeper."
At this point, Rupert Grint enters, sleepy-eyed, having completed a tutoring session.
A quintessential teen moment between him and Watson ensues. He lurches towards a chair next to the sofa, but is then persuaded to sit beside her. After much eye-rolling from them both, with Watson muttering that he has forced her to move, they finally settle.
Watson too has learned that she likes performing."I love art. I love being on stage, singing, dancing. So even if I don't end up acting, maybe I'll try screenwriting, whatever gets thrown at me." She wrinkles her nose. "I can't really see myself in an office."
Adults who know them think they can fulfil these ambitions. Cuarón says of Watson: "She's growing up so beautifully. I'd love to work with her again, away from Harry Potter – maybe in a love story. She listens intensely, and there's an intelligence and warmth about her."
An important neutral voice is also pushing Watson's claims. Jina Jay, one of Britain's leading casting agents, specialises in finding child actors, including Jamie Bell for Billy Elliot. "I feel Emma has enormous potential as a future leading actress," she says. "I'd expect her to explore her abilities carefully beyond Harry Potter. I also feel she's clever and focused enough to only choose material and directors for whom she feels passionate."
Meeting Watson and Grint, it's striking how unspoiled and natural they seem.
Refreshingly, Watson and Grint are determined to remain level-headed. "I still do normal things," Watson insists. "There's nothing I can't do now that I could before the films. I hope I'm exactly the same person."
If you have news to share (pictures, infos, scans...), please send an email to eden@emmawatson-updates.com
Follow the blog on social media: 
No comments:
Post a Comment