Emma Watson Once Revealed That She Felt ‘Restrained’ by Her Role in ‘Harry Potter’
Emma Watson wanted to branch out as an actor after so many years in the Harry Potter franchise. One of the films she tried doing that with was Perks of Being a Wallflower.
It was a role she welcomed after being so limited by Hermione Granger over the years.
Emma Watson starred in ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ after ‘Harry Potter’
Although Watson still wanted to maintain an acting career after being in Harry Potter, the young star wanted a break from the profession. She sought out to spend her life after Harry Potter focusing on her education, while also hoping to live out the college experience. So by the time the script for Wallflower came around, Watson had asked her agent not to send her any movie scripts.
But Wallflower managed to slip through the cracks thanks to Watson’s agent. Afterward, Watson found herself too enchanted by the script to turn it down.
“Perks somehow made it under the door. She said I really think you should read this one and I had been reading things but Perks was the first thing that lit a fire under me. I thought it would be really important to make this film, I think this could really make a difference to a young person watching it. It felt quite special somehow,” she once said according to Roobla.
Since the movie was a coming-of-age story, Watson watched movies with a similar tone to prepare for the role.
“I watched Dazed and Confused, Stephen got me to watch Harold and Maude – amazing film, love it. And I watched The Breakfast Club and 16 Candles. Partly for accent, partly just for feel,” she said.
Emma Watson felt restrained playing Hermione Granger in ‘Harry Potter’
Watson’s character in Wallflower was a welcome change of pace for the actor. She had spent most of her childhood and adolescent years playing Hermione. Eventually, it had gotten to the point where The Bling Ring actor felt limited by both her character and the celebrity status that came with it.
“I didn’t realize how restrained I had made myself, by playing Hermione and living so much in the public eye. I was very restrained and kept a tight leash on myself and was very hard on myself,” she once said to Savior Flair.
Her Wallflower role, Samantha Button, offered Watson a chance to loosen up in a way that Hermione didn’t.
“To play Sam, who is so alive and free and spontaneous and young, was the best thing I could have done. I helped me break down a lot of barriers, listen to myself, and not care so much about what anybody else is thinking about me,” she said.
Emma Watson was angry at herself for doing ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’
Watson might have been excited to do the movie at first, but when it came time to film she began getting cold feet. The Beauty and the Beast actor started to doubt she had the experience necessary to do the role justice.
“I was angry at myself. I was worried I didn’t have a single personal experience to draw on for the movie, having never been to an American high school, in fact never having been to a high school at all. And I was really worried that someone else could do the role better,” Watson said.
But the film’s director, Stephen Chbosky, helped alleviate Watson’s concerns.
“I sent an e-mail to the director that I was worried someone could do the role better than me. And he said, ‘the experiences are not the reason why I cast you as Sam – it’s because I really see her personality in you. So you need to stop worrying about the external things,'” she said.
