‘Harry Potter’: Emma Watson Felt Like Hermione Granger Was a Parody Until the Last Films

Emma Watson has grown close to her Harry Potter character Hermione Granger over the years. But it wasn’t until later films in the series that she felt she was playing a character more authentically relatable to herself.

Emma Watson originally tried to distance herself away from Hermione Granger

Watson’s Harry Potter character Hermione Granger wasn’t a role she put on and hung up for one movie. The actor spent a large chunk of her formative years portraying the famous wizard. But at one point she didn’t want to come across as too much like Hermione to the public.

“It was really interesting because at first, despite the obvious similarities, I guess I was also trying to detach my sense of self from the image,” Watson once told Paper (via Radio Times). “It was such a delicate time – I was 10 or 11 when the first movie came out – I was trying to figure out what my own identity was, but I didn’t really have one yet.”

This resulted in Watson trying to actively go against the Hermione image by emulating what she thought other young girls might’ve been interested in.

“I watch interviews that I did when the first movie came out and I was so lost! I would think, ‘What do young girls talk about? What do they say?’ ‘I like going shopping and I have a crush on Brad Pitt.’ And I had no idea who Brad Pitt really was,” Watson said. “I hadn’t seen a single movie that Brad Pitt had been in, but this just seemed like the right thing to say. It makes me sad because I see this girl trying so much to fit in.”

Emma Watson once almost felt like Hermione Granger was a parody of herself

Watson felt it took a while for Hermione to develop into a more grounded character. The actor has always noted that she and Hermione have their fair share of similarities and differences.

“I think I’m probably a bit more fun-loving than she is,” Watson once told Oprah. “She’s a bit more serious than I am. I think I’m a bit more rounded than she is. She’s very, like, focused on her academics, and she doesn’t really do anything else. But then, we have similarities, as well. I’m very loyal like she is, and I’m very hardworking like she is.”

But it wasn’t until the latter movies that Watson felt Hermione was truly fleshed out. It might have helped her performance as the wizard reach new heights in the eyes of Deathly Hallows director David Yates.

“David wanted a really honest performance,” Watson once told TV Time (via Digital Spy). “It was lovely to play – I feel like earlier on I played a parody of myself. She was kind of this big personality and she’s developed into someone much more human.”

Emma Watson once shared she’d hate the idea of anyone else playing Hermione Granger

Watson is on record for sharing that she once considered leaving the Harry Potter franchise behind for personal reasons. But she would abandon the idea and choose to stick around for the franchise’s entirety. Her attachment to the character might have played a huge role in her decision. In a 2005 interview, she opened up about how she couldn’t imagine anyone else filling Hermione’s shoes.

“I would hate to have another actress in the role of Hermione,” she once said according to Times of India. “There is so much of me in her. Of course, JK Rowling wrote the character, but, in film terms, I had a part in creating her.”