Emma Watson Recalls the Movie Role She ‘Actually Fought For’

Emma Watson has been a working actor for most of her life. When she was only 9 years old, she nabbed the coveted role of Hermione Granger. Watson would spend an entire decade filming and promoting the eight highly-successful Harry Potter movies. Since completing the franchise, Watson has continued adding new films to her resume. The English actor has done everything from A24 films like The Bling Ring to period dramas like Little Women.

Emma Watson doesn’t have to audition for most movies

Because Watson is such a huge name, she’s usually considered an offer-only actor. This means that she’s typically able to bypass many of the auditions that other actors go through. Instead, producers, directors, and others in the industry approach the Noah alum with projects. From there, the English actor is usually able to decide which movies she’s potentially interested in joining the cast of.

The ‘Beauty and the Beast’ alum fought to be in ‘The Bling Ring’

Of course, for more in-demand roles, Watson sometimes has to go to bat for them. This was the case when the Brown University alum wanted to star in The Bling Ring. In an interview with GQ UK, Watson recalled how she campaigned to play Nicki. The Perks of Being a Wallflower star was dying to work with the director, Sofia Coppola, and play a character who was so drastically different from her.

“It’s funny, but I actually fought for the role; I really wanted to play it,” Watson recalled. “First of all, I was a big fan of Sofia’s. I’m probably the least obvious choice to play the role, as she’s the epitome of everything that I am considered not to be. We’re polar opposites. When I read the script, and I realized that essentially it was a meditation on fame and what it’s become to our society, I had to do it.”

Watson admits she hated her character, Nicki, in ‘The Bling Ring’

Continuing on, Watson shared that one of the biggest challenges of the movie was how much she disliked her character. However, she welcomed the challenge that The Bling Ring presented her with. “The character is everything that I felt really strongly against – she’s superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral,” she shared. “She’s all of these things, and I realized that I really hated her. How do you play someone that you hate? But I found it really interesting, and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be.”

Watson may have hated her character, but she loved the experience of stepping into Nicki’s shoes. Playing the role allowed her to be seen in a new light. “What I’m trying to get towards is that I want to be a character actress,” she shared. “I want to play parts. I want to play roles that transform me. Nicki seemed like an opportunity to do that.”