Emma Watson Reveals One Dark Secret About Playing Hermione
By Emily Bell
It turns out that becoming an instant icon isn't always the greatest thing for a child's psyche.
Emma Watson, who was cast as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series at the tender age of nine, recently opened up to British Vogue about her years-long struggle with guilt over having landed the plum role.
Watson was famously plucked from a crowd of would-be Hermiones during open auditions which took place at her school, and as soon as Potter fans were introduced to her in 2001's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, they knew that the role had been perfectly cast. Her droll delivery and adorably adult mannerisms suited Hermione perfectly, and as the series' cast grew into young adults over the course of eight films, it became clear that Watson's formidable talent was growing, as well.
But immediate worldwide fame can obviously be tough for any kid to handle, and Watson was no different. In her conversation with Vogue, the actress said that she experienced a great deal of guilt over feeling burdened by said fame when the role could have gone to any number of other young actresses — perhaps one who would have handled the exposure better.
"[It's something that] I've sat in therapy and felt really guilty about, to be honest," the star said. "Like, why me? Somebody else would have enjoyed and wanted [the fame] more than I did. And I've... wrestled a lot with the guilt around that. Of being, like, 'I should be enjoying this more, I should be more excited, and I'm actually really struggling.'"
The actress went on to say that, as a child, it was truly impossible to know exactly what she was signing up for when producers picked her to play Hermoine. "I was nine years old, and I got literally picked out of a lineup in my school gym. It wasn't even an acting school," she said. "And [I] got the first part I ever auditioned for... it's so bizarre and otherworldly, what happened to me."
The star related how, as Pottermania swept the globe, she had to make a conscious effort to reorient herself mentally in the face of massive worldwide fame. "[There have] been moments when everything just got so big... [that] I almost had vertigo on my own life, and it got so big that I felt disconnected. And part of, I think, my sense of peace within myself has been in remembering my identity as, like, I'm someone's daughter... I am a sister, I belong to a family, I come from a place, I have roots. There's a whole really big existence and identity that I have... that has nothing to do with [the fame]."
