Emma Watson
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April, 1990) is an English actress known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.
Emma Watson was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, to two lawyers, Jacqueline Duerre and Chris Watson, who divorced in 1995. Her brother Alex was born in 1993. As a young girl, Watson attended The Dragon School, a renowned preparatory school in Oxford. By 2005, she was attending the all-girls Headington School in the city.
Before being cast in the Harry Potter films, Watson's performances had been limited to leading roles in school plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince. Other school activities included the Daisy Pratt Poetry Competition, in which she won first place for her year (age seven).
Acting career
Hired at age ten, Watson was 11 years old in 2001 when she made her acting debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (released in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) playing Hermione Granger. She has also appeared in the Potter sequels: Chamber of Secrets (2002), Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and Goblet of Fire (2005).
Potter fans have expressed mixed opinions about Watson's portrayal of Hermione Granger: Some feel she is perfect for the role; others believe Watson fails to capture Hermione's insecurities and flaws, and complain that she is "too pretty"[1] for the role—a sentiment shared by some film critics[2]—since, in the book series, Hermione was generally described as being very "plain" (neither "pretty" nor "ugly"). The Potter screenplays, however, have made Hermione a more powerful and prominent character than originally written by J. K. Rowling.
By February, 2006, Watson is set to start principal photography for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (set for release in 2007), in which she once again reprises her role as "the brightest witch of [her] age."
Through Order of the Phoenix, shooting on the Harry Potter films had kept Watson too busy to take on other projects; however, she has expressed interest in expanding her film career beyond the Potter realm.
Private life
An avid sports player, Watson enjoys field hockey, tennis and rounders. She has 2 cats named Bubbles and Domino[3].
Emma shares her name with her grandmother, and with a fictional character in The Watsons, an unfinished novel by English author Jane Austen (later completed by English writer Joan Aiken in her 1996 novel Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed).
She was the youngest actress to appear on the cover of Teen Vogue magazine at age 15. She also served on a jury, along with Pierce Brosnan, Kenneth Branagh, and Samantha Morton as jurors, to select the 2004 teenaged filmmakers' "First Light Film Award" ceremony in the Leicester Square in London[3].
Awards
Nominated:
- Best Young Actress: Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, 2005
- Best Youth Performance: Phoenix Film Critics Society, 2002
- Best Ensemble in a Feature Film: Young Artists Awards, 2002
- Outstanding Supporting Actress: American Moviegoer Awards, 2002
- Saturn Award: for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Empire Award: for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Won:
- Best Female Film Star (Silver): Otto Awards, 2003
- Leading Young Actress Feature Film: Young Artists Awards, March 2002
- Best Female Child Artist: Phoenix Film Critics Society, for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Best Ensemble in Feature Film: Young Artist Awards, for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Best Performance in Feature Film: Young Artist Awards, for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Total Film Magazine "Child Performance of the Year", 2004
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
| 2007 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Hermione Granger | pre-production |
| 2005 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Hermione Granger | |
| 2004 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Hermione Granger | |
| 2002 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Hermione Granger | |
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Hermione Granger | U.S. title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
See also
External links
