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A charmed life
Emma Watson has dropped out of university to front an ad campaign and make a film. Meet a reluctant star finally embracing her fame
Giles Hattersley Published: 5 June 2011
On a Tuesday night in the poshest part of Paris, Emma Watson is making her way through a party. I can’t actually see her, only the throng of photographers in her orbit. It’s a peculiar scene. The 400 other guests barely chat, too obsessed with getting a glimpse of Lancôme’s latest “ambassadress”, who was once the world’s most famous little girl. “Hermione!” cries an onlooker spontaneously, while I elbow my way past Alber Elbaz, the Lanvin designer, for a better look. Someone stomps on my foot. I turn around to berate them and discover it’s Mario Testino. It’s getting pretty intense, but then Watson has been famous for much of her 21 years. Perhaps she’s used to being celebrity carrion?
Suddenly, she’s coming towards me, tiny and superpretty in Azzaro. She could easily pass for 15, even in make-up. She shakes my hand and keeps hold of it sweetly, like an anchor. For someone who’s been doing this for years, the nerves still flicker about her face. Her palm is endearingly clammy. “You’re doing well,” I say. “Oh, gosh, I hope so. Look at all this.” She marvels at the stage, the cameras, the champagne-rinsed crowd, her name in enormous neon letters. She looks pleased — and ever so slightly scared.
It’s surprising, really. A year ago, Watson, a terribly nice girl from Oxford, didn’t appear to want this life any more. She finished school, as well as Hogwarts, and put fame on the back burner in favour of a “normal” university existence at Brown, an Ivy League college in Providence, Rhode Island. Now, she is taking a term off, back in glitz’s grasp, the face of a luxury brand and filming a movie. With a reported £20m in the bank, she could afford to retire. So why bother? “See you tomorrow,” she says, bestowing two shy kisses on me before she is instantly enveloped by the crowd.
We meet in a ginormous suite at the Ritz, where I’m determined to discover what changed Watson from child star to devoted swot to shy-eyed glamazon. She is more relaxed today, understandably. Cute lace dress, bare feet tucked up underneath her, lovely profile. Her pixie hairdo is growing out, while her voice tinkles like a pretty piano riff. But how come you’re here at all, not living the campus life you seemed so desperate for? “I was in denial,” she says. “I wanted to pretend I wasn’t as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I’m in and what happened.”
You mean Potter? “Yeah,” she replies, “but I feel more comfortable with the fame now. It used to make me really uncomfortable. It’s interesting. My dad’s always giving me a hard time about my posture. The way I used to stand, it was almost as if I was apologising to everyone. I wanted to hide myself, but now — it’s difficult, I still feel shy, but I feel more like I can accept it.” Nevertheless, she doesn’t feel like a natural for stardom. “Sometimes I think I am the worst person to be in the position I’m in. I’m shy, I’m sensitive and I’m self-critical. It’s a terrible combination.” She pauses for emphasis. “But those qualities also make me want to be better.”
I immediately understood the sense of responsibility. My brother says I’m an eager beaver. It’s true. I’m very driven Bingo. Watson’s addiction isn’t to celebrity, obviously. It’s to self-betterment, to doing the “right thing”. She is the definition of propriety, so when offers flooded in while she was at uni, she realised it would be a mistake not to maximise on her moment. Hence the decision to take time out. She says she’ll be back to her studies in the autumn, although she won’t confirm where. It hasn’t been a universally admired move. She says someone had a go at her the other day for accepting the advertising gig if her aim was nobly to sidestep public life. But she has made her peace with it. “I said, ‘Do you honestly think that me doing a Lancôme campaign is going to make me any less or more famous than doing Harry Potter?’ I have to accept Harry Potter is the biggest film franchise of all time. I have to just roll with it.”
That has taken more than a decade: the first film came out 10 years ago, when she was 11, though she won the part when she was nine. I tell her child stars always seem both overly mature and emotionally stunted. “That’s such an interesting observation,” she nods. “I absolutely agree with you. I’m this very weird mix. In some senses, I feel as if I’m 100 years old. In others, I still feel incredibly young, very naive, and as if I haven’t seen much of the world at all. I’ve been incredibly protected, but in other ways I’ve had to be in situations that nobody my age would, to deal with pressure that nobody my age should usually deal with,” she says.
Did you grow up fast because of work? “I was lucky — I matured very early because of my parents’ divorce,” she says. “I had to grow up more quickly than I would have done. I’m the eldest of seven [five half-siblings and a brother, Alex, who is three years younger], and I felt that really brought me up.”
Born in Paris to a pair of British lawyers, she moved to Oxfordshire at five after her parents split. She didn’t have a pushy stage mum; rather, Watson was the self-starter, a devoted member of her local children’s theatre group, where the Potter casting department found her. After eight auditions, she won the part of the mustard-keen, Muggle-born Hermione Granger, practically a carbon copy of Watson. “I immediately understood the sense of responsibility,” she says of getting the role. Are you one of nature’s nerds? “Yeah, totally, 100%. My brother says I’m an eager beaver. It’s true. I’m very driven.”
Recently, rumours did the rounds that Watson left Brown because she was being given a tough time for her star status. This infuriates her. “It made me so sad when all this stuff came out that I left Brown because I was being bullied. It made no sense at all. Brown has been the opposite. I’ve never even been asked for an autograph on campus. I threw a party for nearly 100 students and not a single person put a photo on Facebook.” She rolls her eyes. “Anyway, even if I was being given a hard time, I wasn’t going to wuss out of university because someone said ‘Wingardium leviosa’ to me in a corridor, or ‘Ten points for Gryffindor’. I’ve been dealing with the media since I was nine. If I can’t stand up to a few people giving me a hard time, it’s a bit pathetic, really. I’ve had so much worse.”
Still, there’s no denying she’s appealingly square. Between the compulsion to behave, to never fall out of taxis and to work every day of the year, does she feel as if she’s losing some of her youth? When, for example, was the last time you got drunk? “The last time I got drunk?” she laughs. “Probably my 21st.” That was weeks ago. “I know. My friends saw it as their mission. They were like, ‘Emma, if you can’t get drunk on your 21st, when can you do it?’”
And boys? Do they pursue you? “No,” she says, giggling. “I say to my friends, ‘Why hasn’t X called me? Why doesn’t anyone ever pursue me?’ They’re like, ‘Probably because they’re intimidated.’ It must be the fame wall,” she muses. “It must be the circus that goes around me. Me, as a person, I find it hard to believe I would be intimidating.”
What would a man have to do to woo you? “Oh, gosh! Be brave,” she cries. Have you ever had a ridiculous chat-up line? “So, so many. I constantly get stuff like, do I have a magic wand I can sort things out with? Or guys come up to me and go, ‘Where’s Harry? Where’s Ron?’ Sometimes, maybe because they feel intimidated, they feel they have to knock me down. They know perfectly well who I am, but they’ll ask me, ‘How are the Narnia films going?’” Pause. “I’m single at the minute.”
No wonder. Still, hearing her natter on, you can’t help thinking she’d make someone a fantastic girlfriend. Loyal, hard-working, polite to a fault — and, let’s not forget, with some serious dough in the bank. She also, rather Britishly, downplays her fame, the reasons it exists and what it means to her. “It feels so scary stepping out of Potter, it really does,” she says, with the last film out in July. “But people have been so kind. Lancôme saying I’m the icon of a generation, Glamour saying I’m the best dressed… I just hope I can be everything that everyone wants me to be, I guess.”
She looks about the giant suite, the view over Paris, the intoxicating luxury of her life. “But I’m really not pretending to be anything other than someone who got very, very lucky.” How sweet, Emma. But the little girl is growing up. I think there might be more to you than that.
Emma Watson is the new Lancôme ambassadress and face of the Trésor Midnight Rose fragrance, which launches on October 1
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Sunday times article on Emma.
2011
On a Tuesday night in the poshest part of Paris, Emma Watson is making her way through a party. I can’t actually see her, only the throng of photographers in her orbit. It’s a peculiar scene. The 400 other guests barely chat, too obsessed with getting a glimpse of Lancôme’s latest “ambassadress”, who was once the world’s most famous little girl. “Hermione!” cries an onlooker spontaneously, while I elbow my way past Alber Elbaz, the Lanvin designer, for a better look. Someone stomps on my foot. I turn around to berate them and discover it’s Mario Testino. It’s getting pretty intense, but then Watson has been famous for much of her 21 years. Perhaps she’s used to being celebrity carrion?
Suddenly, she’s coming towards me, tiny and superpretty in Azzaro. She could easily pass for 15, even in make-up. She shakes my hand and keeps hold of it sweetly, like an anchor. For someone who’s been doing this for years, the nerves still flicker about her face. Her palm is endearingly clammy. “You’re doing well,” I say. “Oh, gosh, I hope so. Look at all this.” She marvels at the stage, the cameras, the champagne-rinsed crowd, her name in enormous neon letters. She looks pleased — and ever so slightly scared.
It’s surprising, really. A year ago, Watson, a terribly nice girl from Oxford, didn’t appear to want this life any more. She finished school, as well as Hogwarts, and put fame on the back burner in favour of a “normal” university existence at Brown, an Ivy League college in Providence, Rhode Island. Now, she is taking a term off, back in glitz’s grasp, the face of a luxury brand and filming a movie. With a reported £20m in the bank, she could afford to retire. So why bother? “See you tomorrow,” she says, bestowing two shy kisses on me before she is instantly enveloped by the crowd.
We meet in a ginormous suite at the Ritz, where I’m determined to discover what changed Watson from child star to devoted swot to shy-eyed glamazon. She is more relaxed today, understandably. Cute lace dress, bare feet tucked up underneath her, lovely profile. Her pixie hairdo is growing out, while her voice tinkles like a pretty piano riff. But how come you’re here at all, not living the campus life you seemed so desperate for? “I was in denial,” she says. “I wanted to pretend I wasn’t as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I’m in and what happened.”
You mean Potter? “Yeah,” she replies, “but I feel more comfortable with the fame now. It used to make me really uncomfortable. It’s interesting. My dad’s always giving me a hard time about my posture. The way I used to stand, it was almost as if I was apologising to everyone. I wanted to hide myself, but now — it’s difficult, I still feel shy, but I feel more like I can accept it.” Nevertheless, she doesn’t feel like a natural for stardom. “Sometimes I think I am the worst person to be in the position I’m in. I’m shy, I’m sensitive and I’m self-critical. It’s a terrible combination.” She pauses for emphasis. “But those qualities also make me want to be better.”
I immediately understood the sense of responsibility. My brother says I’m an eager beaver. It’s true. I’m very driven Bingo. Watson’s addiction isn’t to celebrity, obviously. It’s to self-betterment, to doing the “right thing”. She is the definition of propriety, so when offers flooded in while she was at uni, she realised it would be a mistake not to maximise on her moment. Hence the decision to take time out. She says she’ll be back to her studies in the autumn, although she won’t confirm where. It hasn’t been a universally admired move. She says someone had a go at her the other day for accepting the advertising gig if her aim was nobly to sidestep public life. But she has made her peace with it. “I said, ‘Do you honestly think that me doing a Lancôme campaign is going to make me any less or more famous than doing Harry Potter?’ I have to accept Harry Potter is the biggest film franchise of all time. I have to just roll with it.”
That has taken more than a decade: the first film came out 10 years ago, when she was 11, though she won the part when she was nine. I tell her child stars always seem both overly mature and emotionally stunted. “That’s such an interesting observation,” she nods. “I absolutely agree with you. I’m this very weird mix. In some senses, I feel as if I’m 100 years old. In others, I still feel incredibly young, very naive, and as if I haven’t seen much of the world at all. I’ve been incredibly protected, but in other ways I’ve had to be in situations that nobody my age would, to deal with pressure that nobody my age should usually deal with,” she says.
Did you grow up fast because of work? “I was lucky — I matured very early because of my parents’ divorce,” she says. “I had to grow up more quickly than I would have done. I’m the eldest of seven [five half-siblings and a brother, Alex, who is three years younger], and I felt that really brought me up.”
Born in Paris to a pair of British lawyers, she moved to Oxfordshire at five after her parents split. She didn’t have a pushy stage mum; rather, Watson was the self-starter, a devoted member of her local children’s theatre group, where the Potter casting department found her. After eight auditions, she won the part of the mustard-keen, Muggle-born Hermione Granger, practically a carbon copy of Watson. “I immediately understood the sense of responsibility,” she says of getting the role. Are you one of nature’s nerds? “Yeah, totally, 100%. My brother says I’m an eager beaver. It’s true. I’m very driven.”
Recently, rumours did the rounds that Watson left Brown because she was being given a tough time for her star status. This infuriates her. “It made me so sad when all this stuff came out that I left Brown because I was being bullied. It made no sense at all. Brown has been the opposite. I’ve never even been asked for an autograph on campus. I threw a party for nearly 100 students and not a single person put a photo on Facebook.” She rolls her eyes. “Anyway, even if I was being given a hard time, I wasn’t going to wuss out of university because someone said ‘Wingardium leviosa’ to me in a corridor, or ‘Ten points for Gryffindor’. I’ve been dealing with the media since I was nine. If I can’t stand up to a few people giving me a hard time, it’s a bit pathetic, really. I’ve had so much worse.”
Still, there’s no denying she’s appealingly square. Between the compulsion to behave, to never fall out of taxis and to work every day of the year, does she feel as if she’s losing some of her youth? When, for example, was the last time you got drunk? “The last time I got drunk?” she laughs. “Probably my 21st.” That was weeks ago. “I know. My friends saw it as their mission. They were like, ‘Emma, if you can’t get drunk on your 21st, when can you do it?’”
And boys? Do they pursue you? “No,” she says, giggling. “I say to my friends, ‘Why hasn’t X called me? Why doesn’t anyone ever pursue me?’ They’re like, ‘Probably because they’re intimidated.’ It must be the fame wall,” she muses. “It must be the circus that goes around me. Me, as a person, I find it hard to believe I would be intimidating.”
What would a man have to do to woo you? “Oh, gosh! Be brave,” she cries. Have you ever had a ridiculous chat-up line? “So, so many. I constantly get stuff like, do I have a magic wand I can sort things out with? Or guys come up to me and go, ‘Where’s Harry? Where’s Ron?’ Sometimes, maybe because they feel intimidated, they feel they have to knock me down. They know perfectly well who I am, but they’ll ask me, ‘How are the Narnia films going?’” Pause. “I’m single at the minute.”
No wonder. Still, hearing her natter on, you can’t help thinking she’d make someone a fantastic girlfriend. Loyal, hard-working, polite to a fault — and, let’s not forget, with some serious dough in the bank. She also, rather Britishly, downplays her fame, the reasons it exists and what it means to her. “It feels so scary stepping out of Potter, it really does,” she says, with the last film out in July. “But people have been so kind. Lancôme saying I’m the icon of a generation, Glamour saying I’m the best dressed... I just hope I can be everything that everyone wants me to be, I guess.”
She looks about the giant suite, the view over Paris, the intoxicating luxury of her life. “But I’m really not pretending to be anything other than someone who got very, very lucky.” How sweet, Emma. But the little girl is growing up. I think there might be more to you than that.
Emma Watson is the new Lancôme ambassadress and face of the Trésor Midnight Rose fragrance, which launches on October 1
On a Tuesday night in the poshest part of Paris, Emma Watson is making her way through a party. I can’t actually see her, only the throng of photographers in her orbit. It’s a peculiar scene. The 400 other guests barely chat, too obsessed with getting a glimpse of Lancôme’s latest “ambassadress”, who was once the world’s most famous little girl. “Hermione!” cries an onlooker spontaneously, while I elbow my way past Alber Elbaz, the Lanvin designer, for a better look. Someone stomps on my foot. I turn around to berate them and discover it’s Mario Testino. It’s getting pretty intense, but then Watson has been famous for much of her 21 years. Perhaps she’s used to being celebrity carrion?
Suddenly, she’s coming towards me, tiny and superpretty in Azzaro. She could easily pass for 15, even in make-up. She shakes my hand and keeps hold of it sweetly, like an anchor. For someone who’s been doing this for years, the nerves still flicker about her face. Her palm is endearingly clammy. “You’re doing well,” I say. “Oh, gosh, I hope so. Look at all this.” She marvels at the stage, the cameras, the champagne-rinsed crowd, her name in enormous neon letters. She looks pleased — and ever so slightly scared.
It’s surprising, really. A year ago, Watson, a terribly nice girl from Oxford, didn’t appear to want this life any more. She finished school, as well as Hogwarts, and put fame on the back burner in favour of a “normal” university existence at Brown, an Ivy League college in Providence, Rhode Island. Now, she is taking a term off, back in glitz’s grasp, the face of a luxury brand and filming a movie. With a reported £20m in the bank, she could afford to retire. So why bother? “See you tomorrow,” she says, bestowing two shy kisses on me before she is instantly enveloped by the crowd.
We meet in a ginormous suite at the Ritz, where I’m determined to discover what changed Watson from child star to devoted swot to shy-eyed glamazon. She is more relaxed today, understandably. Cute lace dress, bare feet tucked up underneath her, lovely profile. Her pixie hairdo is growing out, while her voice tinkles like a pretty piano riff. But how come you’re here at all, not living the campus life you seemed so desperate for? “I was in denial,” she says. “I wanted to pretend I wasn’t as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I’m in and what happened.”
You mean Potter? “Yeah,” she replies, “but I feel more comfortable with the fame now. It used to make me really uncomfortable. It’s interesting. My dad’s always giving me a hard time about my posture. The way I used to stand, it was almost as if I was apologising to everyone. I wanted to hide myself, but now — it’s difficult, I still feel shy, but I feel more like I can accept it.” Nevertheless, she doesn’t feel like a natural for stardom. “Sometimes I think I am the worst person to be in the position I’m in. I’m shy, I’m sensitive and I’m self-critical. It’s a terrible combination.” She pauses for emphasis. “But those qualities also make me want to be better.”
I immediately understood the sense of responsibility. My brother says I’m an eager beaver. It’s true. I’m very driven Bingo. Watson’s addiction isn’t to celebrity, obviously. It’s to self-betterment, to doing the “right thing”. She is the definition of propriety, so when offers flooded in while she was at uni, she realised it would be a mistake not to maximise on her moment. Hence the decision to take time out. She says she’ll be back to her studies in the autumn, although she won’t confirm where. It hasn’t been a universally admired move. She says someone had a go at her the other day for accepting the advertising gig if her aim was nobly to sidestep public life. But she has made her peace with it. “I said, ‘Do you honestly think that me doing a Lancôme campaign is going to make me any less or more famous than doing Harry Potter?’ I have to accept Harry Potter is the biggest film franchise of all time. I have to just roll with it.”
That has taken more than a decade: the first film came out 10 years ago, when she was 11, though she won the part when she was nine. I tell her child stars always seem both overly mature and emotionally stunted. “That’s such an interesting observation,” she nods. “I absolutely agree with you. I’m this very weird mix. In some senses, I feel as if I’m 100 years old. In others, I still feel incredibly young, very naive, and as if I haven’t seen much of the world at all. I’ve been incredibly protected, but in other ways I’ve had to be in situations that nobody my age would, to deal with pressure that nobody my age should usually deal with,” she says.
Did you grow up fast because of work? “I was lucky — I matured very early because of my parents’ divorce,” she says. “I had to grow up more quickly than I would have done. I’m the eldest of seven [five half-siblings and a brother, Alex, who is three years younger], and I felt that really brought me up.”
Born in Paris to a pair of British lawyers, she moved to Oxfordshire at five after her parents split. She didn’t have a pushy stage mum; rather, Watson was the self-starter, a devoted member of her local children’s theatre group, where the Potter casting department found her. After eight auditions, she won the part of the mustard-keen, Muggle-born Hermione Granger, practically a carbon copy of Watson. “I immediately understood the sense of responsibility,” she says of getting the role. Are you one of nature’s nerds? “Yeah, totally, 100%. My brother says I’m an eager beaver. It’s true. I’m very driven.”
Recently, rumours did the rounds that Watson left Brown because she was being given a tough time for her star status. This infuriates her. “It made me so sad when all this stuff came out that I left Brown because I was being bullied. It made no sense at all. Brown has been the opposite. I’ve never even been asked for an autograph on campus. I threw a party for nearly 100 students and not a single person put a photo on Facebook.” She rolls her eyes. “Anyway, even if I was being given a hard time, I wasn’t going to wuss out of university because someone said ‘Wingardium leviosa’ to me in a corridor, or ‘Ten points for Gryffindor’. I’ve been dealing with the media since I was nine. If I can’t stand up to a few people giving me a hard time, it’s a bit pathetic, really. I’ve had so much worse.”
Still, there’s no denying she’s appealingly square. Between the compulsion to behave, to never fall out of taxis and to work every day of the year, does she feel as if she’s losing some of her youth? When, for example, was the last time you got drunk? “The last time I got drunk?” she laughs. “Probably my 21st.” That was weeks ago. “I know. My friends saw it as their mission. They were like, ‘Emma, if you can’t get drunk on your 21st, when can you do it?’”
And boys? Do they pursue you? “No,” she says, giggling. “I say to my friends, ‘Why hasn’t X called me? Why doesn’t anyone ever pursue me?’ They’re like, ‘Probably because they’re intimidated.’ It must be the fame wall,” she muses. “It must be the circus that goes around me. Me, as a person, I find it hard to believe I would be intimidating.”
What would a man have to do to woo you? “Oh, gosh! Be brave,” she cries. Have you ever had a ridiculous chat-up line? “So, so many. I constantly get stuff like, do I have a magic wand I can sort things out with? Or guys come up to me and go, ‘Where’s Harry? Where’s Ron?’ Sometimes, maybe because they feel intimidated, they feel they have to knock me down. They know perfectly well who I am, but they’ll ask me, ‘How are the Narnia films going?’” Pause. “I’m single at the minute.”
No wonder. Still, hearing her natter on, you can’t help thinking she’d make someone a fantastic girlfriend. Loyal, hard-working, polite to a fault — and, let’s not forget, with some serious dough in the bank. She also, rather Britishly, downplays her fame, the reasons it exists and what it means to her. “It feels so scary stepping out of Potter, it really does,” she says, with the last film out in July. “But people have been so kind. Lancôme saying I’m the icon of a generation, Glamour saying I’m the best dressed... I just hope I can be everything that everyone wants me to be, I guess.”
She looks about the giant suite, the view over Paris, the intoxicating luxury of her life. “But I’m really not pretending to be anything other than someone who got very, very lucky.” How sweet, Emma. But the little girl is growing up. I think there might be more to you than that.
Emma Watson is the new Lancôme ambassadress and face of the Trésor Midnight Rose fragrance, which launches on October 1
Friday, 3 June 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Trio clip from HP 5,6
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150284206662457&oid=164826613936&comments
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Friday, 27 May 2011
Italian vogue interview
How does it feel to be back in the city you were born in?
Paris always makes me feel nostalgic. My second name is Charlotte, a part of my family still lives here, so every day it's a thrill.
Where did you grow up?
In the Marais, but at that time it wasn't the cool district it has become today. The other night my dad brought me out to dinner there and it felt like a completely different place.
Did you manage to have a quiet walk?
More than in London. Only tourists stop me here. Parisian people feel a bit like celebrities themselves, so they don't take pictures with me.
Is it because of your French origins that Glamour UK named you the most elegant woman in the world?
(Laughs) Maybe. I really like fashion, but also a certain understatement that's typical of those French girls I see on the streets. My style is a mix of these two things: trying to be tasteful without trying to seek attention at any costs. I love simple things. Few accessories, not much make-up.
Now that you've won this title, aren't you stressed when you dress up in the morning?
Oh, way more than before! (Laughs again) As soon as I see something I like I think: will this dress make me lose the title? But in the end, I just decide things myself.
For example, how long did it take for you to choose this dress?
Just a second, because I wanted to feel comfortable today. I had this DVF dress and I wore it.
How many times do you think you'll wear it?
Unfortunately not many. These dresses are part of my job, you can't and that's a shame. But I give them to my friends, who are always happy about that. They periodically come at my house to clean out my wardrobe.
Where's your house?
I have a house in London and in certain periods I stay at my mom's in Oxford.
And where do you feel more at home?
At my mom's.
How's your bed?
Quite small. I live in a small room that I'm really attached to, though, because I feel safe and protected there. Big hotel rooms make me feel anxious. If I'm travelling with an assistant I'll always ask her to exchange rooms. So she stays in the suite and I have a normal room.
Do you have any posters in your bedroom?
I have a big poster with all the movies by Jean-Luc Godard, and a few things I painted myself. I also pinned up a few letters kids have written me in the years that have helped me in the most difficult moments. I read them and I feel better.
In your website I've seen the open letter where you cleared up that you weren't bullied at university in America. Why did you feel like pointing that out?
People are free to gossip about me, trying to guess which university I'll attend, what's going to be my next film or the color of my dress at a première. But you can't speculate about the honesty of my fellow students at Brown University, who have always behaved. It was a fantastic experience for me.
What was the most difficult thing to bear?
Being distant from my family.
But, it also happens that you're letter is dated April 29th, Kate and William's wedding day. Were you trying to steal their spotlight?
(Laughs a lot) I see you got the point!
What advice do you feel like giving to Kate Middleton because of this "media hangover"?
The only advice I have is always be true to yourself. Never have something to hide or lose. This applies to Kate Middleton and to all human beings as well.
Do you think that Kate is a lucky girl?
In a sense, of course she's lucky: she's in love and she can do good to the world. She has all the potential to help others. On the other hand, she won't have any more privacy or freedom. And she'll always be a target to critics and pressure.
How do you recognise the people you can trust?
I had the fortune of becoming famous when I was really young, so my instincts, in that sense, have developped right from the beginning. I always know what people want from me, so I just play along.
You seem more mature than a girl your age. In what do you still feel like a teenager?
I'm kinda stupid sometimes.
Did you ever get drunk?
Of course. I think it's normal at my age.
How's your drunk self?
I'm not the best: I become boring and I suddenly feel sleepy.
Do you have a secret profile on Facebook?
No.
Do you ever chat with unknown people?
Almost never. But I have an app on my iPad I use to stay in touch with my friends. I often send them silly pictures of me.
If you had Harry's broom where would you go right now?
I'll surely stay in Paris. Maybe I'd take a trip in the zones I don't know. But I also like being here with you chatting and drinking a cup of tea.
What do you remember of your first day on the set of Harry Potter?
I was overwhelmed. People everywhere. The first scene we shot was on the train, and there were lots of animals. Too many interesting things for a 10-year-old girl.
Were you more happy or worried?
I was a happy girl.
Do you still are?
I'm trying to.
Do you remember signing your first autograph?
Sure. I was baffled: what was an unknown guy going to do with my name and surname written by me?
What do you remember of the last day on set?
(She sighs and stays silent)
Did you feel relived?
Actually, I was more dazed than anything else. And something kept telling me that, in the end, it wasn't actually over. Maybe Harry Potter will never end.
What was the last time you heard from Daniel Radcliffe?
Last week, he texted me. He thanked me again for going to see him on Broadway in New York.
How was he?
Brilliant and funny. But I had no doubts about that.
So you're still in touch?
Of course, we're friends. We also had a drink after his show, even if he was really tired.
Have you ever met in real life a friend like Harry is for Hermione?
Sure. I have good male friends.
Are they here with you?
No.
How do you keep your friendships alive if you're always travelling?
I'm always on Skype, and I also text a lot: I'm the quickest girl at texting in the whole world.
How difficult it is to get your phone number?
Enough.
So boys are quite intimidated by making a pass at you.
That's why it's really hard to have a love story for me. I'm a famous actress. I'm usually surrounded by people who take care of me. And I'm shy. Honestly, I don't know how to come out of this situation. As soon as I find out, I'll let you know.
But if you see someone you like, what do you do?
I never know what to do. They don't make the first move because they think I'm super busy or unreachable. The result is I'm still single.
But you sure had a boyfriend in the last three years.
Luckily, yes. But not right now.
Let's make a plea.
Help me, please. (Laughs)
Have you ever hated Hermione?
I mostly hated her in the first movie of the saga, because she was a know-it-all, because of how she dressed and for that hair. But not all the other times. I've never actually hated her.
Do you still think about that character?
I don't think she'll leave me easily.
Did you feel guilty with her when you decided to cut your hair?
Honestly, no.
At least tell us the name of your hairstylist.
His name is Rodney Cutler and he has a studio in New York. He's really good, and at every cut he kept asking me if I was sure.
And what did you answer?
I kept telling him: cut it, cut it all.
Paris always makes me feel nostalgic. My second name is Charlotte, a part of my family still lives here, so every day it's a thrill.
Where did you grow up?
In the Marais, but at that time it wasn't the cool district it has become today. The other night my dad brought me out to dinner there and it felt like a completely different place.
Did you manage to have a quiet walk?
More than in London. Only tourists stop me here. Parisian people feel a bit like celebrities themselves, so they don't take pictures with me.
Is it because of your French origins that Glamour UK named you the most elegant woman in the world?
(Laughs) Maybe. I really like fashion, but also a certain understatement that's typical of those French girls I see on the streets. My style is a mix of these two things: trying to be tasteful without trying to seek attention at any costs. I love simple things. Few accessories, not much make-up.
Now that you've won this title, aren't you stressed when you dress up in the morning?
Oh, way more than before! (Laughs again) As soon as I see something I like I think: will this dress make me lose the title? But in the end, I just decide things myself.
For example, how long did it take for you to choose this dress?
Just a second, because I wanted to feel comfortable today. I had this DVF dress and I wore it.
How many times do you think you'll wear it?
Unfortunately not many. These dresses are part of my job, you can't and that's a shame. But I give them to my friends, who are always happy about that. They periodically come at my house to clean out my wardrobe.
Where's your house?
I have a house in London and in certain periods I stay at my mom's in Oxford.
And where do you feel more at home?
At my mom's.
How's your bed?
Quite small. I live in a small room that I'm really attached to, though, because I feel safe and protected there. Big hotel rooms make me feel anxious. If I'm travelling with an assistant I'll always ask her to exchange rooms. So she stays in the suite and I have a normal room.
Do you have any posters in your bedroom?
I have a big poster with all the movies by Jean-Luc Godard, and a few things I painted myself. I also pinned up a few letters kids have written me in the years that have helped me in the most difficult moments. I read them and I feel better.
In your website I've seen the open letter where you cleared up that you weren't bullied at university in America. Why did you feel like pointing that out?
People are free to gossip about me, trying to guess which university I'll attend, what's going to be my next film or the color of my dress at a première. But you can't speculate about the honesty of my fellow students at Brown University, who have always behaved. It was a fantastic experience for me.
What was the most difficult thing to bear?
Being distant from my family.
But, it also happens that you're letter is dated April 29th, Kate and William's wedding day. Were you trying to steal their spotlight?
(Laughs a lot) I see you got the point!
What advice do you feel like giving to Kate Middleton because of this "media hangover"?
The only advice I have is always be true to yourself. Never have something to hide or lose. This applies to Kate Middleton and to all human beings as well.
Do you think that Kate is a lucky girl?
In a sense, of course she's lucky: she's in love and she can do good to the world. She has all the potential to help others. On the other hand, she won't have any more privacy or freedom. And she'll always be a target to critics and pressure.
How do you recognise the people you can trust?
I had the fortune of becoming famous when I was really young, so my instincts, in that sense, have developped right from the beginning. I always know what people want from me, so I just play along.
You seem more mature than a girl your age. In what do you still feel like a teenager?
I'm kinda stupid sometimes.
Did you ever get drunk?
Of course. I think it's normal at my age.
How's your drunk self?
I'm not the best: I become boring and I suddenly feel sleepy.
Do you have a secret profile on Facebook?
No.
Do you ever chat with unknown people?
Almost never. But I have an app on my iPad I use to stay in touch with my friends. I often send them silly pictures of me.
If you had Harry's broom where would you go right now?
I'll surely stay in Paris. Maybe I'd take a trip in the zones I don't know. But I also like being here with you chatting and drinking a cup of tea.
What do you remember of your first day on the set of Harry Potter?
I was overwhelmed. People everywhere. The first scene we shot was on the train, and there were lots of animals. Too many interesting things for a 10-year-old girl.
Were you more happy or worried?
I was a happy girl.
Do you still are?
I'm trying to.
Do you remember signing your first autograph?
Sure. I was baffled: what was an unknown guy going to do with my name and surname written by me?
What do you remember of the last day on set?
(She sighs and stays silent)
Did you feel relived?
Actually, I was more dazed than anything else. And something kept telling me that, in the end, it wasn't actually over. Maybe Harry Potter will never end.
What was the last time you heard from Daniel Radcliffe?
Last week, he texted me. He thanked me again for going to see him on Broadway in New York.
How was he?
Brilliant and funny. But I had no doubts about that.
So you're still in touch?
Of course, we're friends. We also had a drink after his show, even if he was really tired.
Have you ever met in real life a friend like Harry is for Hermione?
Sure. I have good male friends.
Are they here with you?
No.
How do you keep your friendships alive if you're always travelling?
I'm always on Skype, and I also text a lot: I'm the quickest girl at texting in the whole world.
How difficult it is to get your phone number?
Enough.
So boys are quite intimidated by making a pass at you.
That's why it's really hard to have a love story for me. I'm a famous actress. I'm usually surrounded by people who take care of me. And I'm shy. Honestly, I don't know how to come out of this situation. As soon as I find out, I'll let you know.
But if you see someone you like, what do you do?
I never know what to do. They don't make the first move because they think I'm super busy or unreachable. The result is I'm still single.
But you sure had a boyfriend in the last three years.
Luckily, yes. But not right now.
Let's make a plea.
Help me, please. (Laughs)
Have you ever hated Hermione?
I mostly hated her in the first movie of the saga, because she was a know-it-all, because of how she dressed and for that hair. But not all the other times. I've never actually hated her.
Do you still think about that character?
I don't think she'll leave me easily.
Did you feel guilty with her when you decided to cut your hair?
Honestly, no.
At least tell us the name of your hairstylist.
His name is Rodney Cutler and he has a studio in New York. He's really good, and at every cut he kept asking me if I was sure.
And what did you answer?
I kept telling him: cut it, cut it all.
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