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BIOGRAPHY

In the Beginning...

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is the youngest of her Harry Potter co-stars. Born on the 15th April 1990 in a busy town of Oxfordshire, England, Emma's parents Chris and Jaqueline (now divorced) are both lawyers. Emma moved to France with her parents shortly after she was born, and lived there until the age of five, when she moved back to England.

Although Emma possesses many of the qualities of her Harry Potter character Hermione, the one thing she has which Hermione does not is a younger brother, Alex, who is three years her junior. Bright, intelligent, funny and charming, Emma often enthuses about her role of Hermione in the films. She has taken the character to heart, and has also made Hermione the heroine of the trio, making her wildly popular amongst fans.

Emma started out acting in school plays like Dan and Rupert. She starred in school productions of "Arthur: The Younger Years," "The Swallow and The Prince," "The Happy Prince" and "Alice in Wonderland." Attending the Dragon school, which is one of the top boarding and day prep schools in the UK, gave Emma the advantage of a rigorous schedule, so she was well prepared for the schedule of the Harry Potter films.

In school Emma gained accolades such as first prize in The Daisy Pratt Poetry Competition at the young age of seven. Minus the acting experience at school, Emma had no professional training and so was just another hopeful when she first went to audition for the role of Hermione. The casting directors must have noticed the unique qualities that Emma possessed and must have known that she was the only young actress who would be able play the character of Hermione.

Though she may have been the natural choice for the casting directors, Emma couldn't believe her luck when she learned she had successfully landed the part of Hermione. She describes when she found out: "I rang my best friend, just as I'd been told, literally minutes after I'd been told, I rung my friend and she answered and she said: 'So have you got it?' And I said: 'Yes.' And she screamed - she literally just went arghhh - it was like five minutes, I had to hold the phone here, not to be able to break my ear and she was so excited she was almost more excited than me."

Magical Beginning

Emma was another fan of the Harry Potter books, and so when it came to filming Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, she was naturally anxious that her performance reflect Hermione perfectly. Emma also spoke of her excitement in seeing the sets the Harry Potter crew had built, "I think the best thing which I was looking forward to seeing from the book was just the outlook from the whole of the school because it describes in the book coming over in a boat across the river to Hogwarts and just the first view - that took us ages, we had to keep going ahh, wow, ooh - a bit like watching fireworks going off, it was like ooh, eee, ahh, ooh."

Of course, Emma had to hold her own against her other two co-stars who were both boys. And she did it fantastically. Some of the key scenes for Emma's character in the first film included the Troll scene (which she listed as her favourite), and of course her scenes with Ron. She said of this, "I liked the line at the end where I said: 'I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed or worse expelled!' And another one was where I said: 'Honestly you're going to take someone's eye out!' Hermione always has some really snooty lines for Ron, I think Ron gets the worst of it really."

It was important for all of the trio to make an impact on their characters in the first film but this seemed no problem for any of the trio, least of all Emma, whose portrayal of Hermione provided fantastic chemistry with Daniel's and Ron's characters.

Of course, the media madness which came hand-in-hand with the first Harry Potter movie helped the cast to bond, and a such a good experience was had on the set of the first film that there was nothing but sheer excitement for returning to film Chamber of Secrets.

When asked what part of CoS she was most looking forward to, Emma replied, "The thing I'm looking forward to most in the second film is probably how they're going to make me look like a cat, that'll be very interesting."

Act Two

When the cast returned for filming of CoS (which started only three days after the first film was released), Emma felt more confident on set and was more at ease with the process of filming. The fact that the cast had acted together before and had broken the ice on the first film lessened the nervous feelings on set.

Emma also reaped the benefits of working with half of the UK's best actors, describing Kenneth Branagh as "a really nice guy." Not only did this give her more confidence, but they also had a great time filming! Emma commented afterwards that, "I really enjoyed making the film but then again I also really enjoyed watching it this time round." These were certainly memories which were going to last Emma a lifetime.

Naturally, as the second Harry Potter film was being made, Emma's acting experience was growing, and CoS definitely provided her with some challenges. Emma had before commented that the part of CoS which she most looked forward to was being turned into a cat by the special effects team. After she had made this scene, Emma described what was involved: "It was a mixture of a masks, make up and special effects. It was cool though. How long did you have to wear all that hair on your face? Not very long - it was only one shot so it was alright."

She also had to deal with another integral situation in the film, the "Mudblood" racism storyline. Of this Emma said, "It was quite hard - I just tried to forget about everyone else. The fact that she was a Mudblood and this whole racism and prejudice against her made her a very interesting part to play. I really enjoyed doing that scene because it really tested me. I just tried to keep my eyes open for a long time and not blink and then think of the saddest thing I could and it just happened really."

Yet again as the release of the second film loomed, Daniel, Rupert and Emma all had to face the fact that they were once again going to be all over the world's press. Emma said this of being famous: "Going back to school is alright - I go to a very big school and some people give me a bit of stick. They walk past and go 'Wingardium Leviosa' for the billionth time that day, and I go aaagggghhhhhh! But apart from that most people are really nice about it. My close friends just treat me normally. They ask questions about it because they're curious but it's OK. It's funny mixing the two worlds, but I still do everything I used to do. I still play hockey and do all my sports."

Third Time Around

A change of director for the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, saw Emma being given a chance to expand her character, and give Hermione some real feistiness.

When new director Alfonso Cuaron asked the trio to write essays on their characters, Emma went straight home and wrote somewhere near the region of 15 or 16 pages on Hermione, although she blames her "big handwriting" on this. Emma valued the chance to express her insight into Hermione, and in the third film, the fans witnessed that she had really made the character her own.

This, however, didn't stop Emma from worrying about how the third film, which had a different feel from the previous two, would be received. She said, "There has always been so much pressure from the start, I just hope that the third film has done justice to the book, and I have done justice to Hermione, because it's my favourite book."

Emma also noted that even though the other two films had made her a household name, she still felt totally normal. "It feels like I am famous for about two days and then it goes back to being me again."

One of the highlights of the film, where Emma's character Hermione punched Tom Felton's Draco, went down a storm with the fans. Emma said of her other favourite bits in the film, "I was privileged that I got to work with people like David Thewlis, Gary Oldman, Timothy Spall, Emma Thompson, all these fantastic actors and actresses. And I had a great time doing that. Also, the last scene in the Shrieking Shack really challenged me. So I had a good time doing that."

The cast seemed to have as much fun with this film as ever, and after Prisoner of Azkaban was released, all eyes are turned to Goblet of Fire.

Taking the Goblet

With Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire having just finished filming, fans have lots to look forward to from this film. Emma will have scenes with Stanislav Ianevski, who plays Viktor Krum, of whom she says, "He is really nice actually. He's good fun." So we are sure to see some jealousy from Rupert Grint's character Ron! Emma has also said this of the potential romance between the characters Ron and Hermione: "On the outside they spend the whole film arguing because Ron is convinced that Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, has eaten his rat. But I think it's a bit of a cover-up really, because they have a soft spot for each other. You always tease the ones you like!"

We look forward to seeing what Emma brings to Hermione in the forthcoming film, as there is no doubt she will deliver another fantastic performance as our favourite heroine.

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