"I enjoyed playing a real character, someone I really had to transform into definitely."
She has nothing against her one-time alter ego as such, but for 12 years of her life she has had to live the squeaky-clean schoolgirl character from the Harry Potter franchise.
Indeed, since the age of nine when she was first cast in the role, she has lived the magical world of Hogwarts and Hagrids and now shifts uncomfortably in her chair with the reference to the character that made her a household name and turned her life upside down.
"I'm just enjoying now being naughty," she says with a giggle in reference to her new films The Bling Ring - where she plays a real-life Hollywood obsessed bad girl who robs houses of the rich and famous for fun - and the comedy This Is the End, in which she plays a fiery, axe-swinging version of herself. Both are huge departures from her 前一个 image, but she hopes they will 显示 she is 更多 than that annoying little smart girl Hermione Granger.
In 2007, with the release of the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, Watson was reluctant to resign for another. She knew she would be in danger of being seriously typecast and wanted to 移动 on and, as she conceded at the time, she had earned enough money from the hugely successful franchise to ensure she need never work again 或者 could at least be selective in what she did and didn't want to do.
But such was the character's hold on the young star, barely 17, she felt compelled not to let millions of 粉丝 down and agreed to sign on for another four years in that character to make another three 电影院 in the Potter series.
She has no regrets, but two years since the last of the Harry Potter flicks was released, it's a raw issue. But Watson now has to be asked and is candidly honest about.
"There are definitely moments when I feel overwhelmed, I think I wouldn't be normal if I didn't, it is an overwhelming situation," she says of that Potter series. "I think thankfully and luckily I had people I could turn to and had a support system, had people who could help me and catch me on the other end if I did have days that I did quite feel overwhelmed.
"Those experiences are personal, but I'm not going to pretend that every 日 was sunshine and 花 and daisies and roses, there were days when it was tough and it was a lot of responsibility and pressure and a lot of scrutiny and people had high expectations of me.
"To play a character that was loved as much as she is and not only to live up to her onscreen, but also that film franchisement was a lot to… I could feel, I knew it meant a lot to a lot of young people and I felt like I, 你 know, I didn't want to let people down ever, I didn't want to let the film people down, I didn't want to let the director down, I didn't want to let the … I didn't want to let the 粉丝 down I just wanted to do my best, I wanted to do a good job.
"I had to be quite persistent about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be I had to, 你 know this industry kind of expects 你 to do a certain thing and go a certain way and I kinda had to speak loudly about what I didn't want to do. But I found it hard when I was young to do that, it's difficult to find your voice when 你 are that age, I started when I was 10 或者 something, sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I didn't and sometimes I look back and go 'oh cringe'."
And did she ever feel like giving the game away?
"I think everyone has days when they feel stressed and overwhelmed, but 总体, 整体 it was just the most amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything," she says. "It's made me who I am today and it's 给 me incredible opportunities like this one. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that."
The celebrity that came with that also landed her the part tailor-written for her 由 Seth Rogen in his hit apocalyptic comedy, This Is the End. Her first out-and-out comedy enabled her to appear opposite Rogen and his comedic compadres including Jonah Hil, 松鸦, 杰伊, 杰伊 · Baruchel and James Franco.
"My agent called me and said, 'There's this movie, it's about the end of the world, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are making it, everybody's playing themselves, and there's only one major female part in it, and they wrote it for you,'" Watson remembers. "I was taken aback - why did they think of me? - but then I read the script, and it was so funny. I've never done a comedy like this one, and to have the chance to work with one of the greatest lineups of comedians working right now - how could I miss out on that?"
Having spent her teenage years playing a nice girl, and in real life being not only a nice English country girl, but one who graduated from high school with a high A+ average, it was perhaps why she found her character in Sofia Coppla's The Bling Ring to be a challenge and great departure to what she was accustomed.
Being a celebrity and self-obsessed tattooed teenager in Ugg boots who robs houses for kicks just didn't sit right.
"I felt like I had landed on an alien planet and it was a very voyeuristic experience for me because as soon as I got to LA I tried to take in as much as possible because as 你 say it's quite foreign," she says.
"I grew up in the countryside in England and 牛津, 牛津大学 and my dad wouldn't even let my brother and I watch TV, I mean I grew up in a very, my parents are very academically focused and any kind of vanity on my part was not tolerated. There was no bling, no bling."
In the Bling Ring Watson portrays Alexis Neiers, a key member of a real life fame-obssessed high-schooler in Los Angeles who with a group of other teenagers goes on a crime spree across the Hollywood hills and in the 首页 of the rich and famous. She tattooed, got plenty of 'tude and loves a good pole dancing, for which Watson had to rehearse.
Before they are caught, the Bling Ring as the gang was dubbed in the media, 偷了 更多 than $3 million worth of luxury goods from victims including Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge and Megan Fox.
"I felt really uncomfortable doing the robbery scenes even filming, 表演 it just felt horribly wrong so I think luckily somehow my parents instilled some morality in me somewhere," Watson 说 of her portrayal of the deluded teen Nicki (character name based on real life Alexis)
"I enjoyed playing a real character, someone I really had to transform into definitely.
"I watched a lot of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians and I sort of worked with a dialect coach for accent; I really tried to think, get my head into the psyche of this crazy girl and tried to find a way to sympathise and try and understand what her motivations might be. It was quite difficult, quite difficult, but interesting."
Despite being the face of fashion label Burberry, Watson 说 in real life she dresses down and is as comfortable in a sloppy jumper on the coach as strutting down a red carpet in a glamorous Yves St Laurent. But she admires people such as Paris Hilton who has made a name for herself with her life of over-the-top excess.
"I think she is very clever, she was the first one to lead the way to create a brand, lifestyle and business people understand what Paris does and what I do it's just a different job. I think I own about eight shoes in total. I'm always trying to dress myself down in a way that people I think won't draw attention so it's interesting."
"I'm just enjoying now being naughty,"
Rita Skeeter
Oh Simon! You amused me!
