Emma Watson: 'I Wanted To Pretend I Wasn't As Famous As I Was'

Here's a short interview with Emma Watson from OMG! on Yahoo! Emma discusses how fame has been hitting her lately and why she temporarily left Brown University. Thanks so much to our Hogwarts mate Sylvia for the heads up! :-D

The recent widespread reports that "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson left Brown University due to bullying were a bit hard to take. The 21-year-old seems pretty well-adjusted and easy-going and it seemed sad to think that mean-spirited taunts would derail her entire life.

So we feel relieved to find out that this was, in fact, not what led to Emma's departure.

"It made me so sad when all this stuff came out that I left Brown because I was being bullied. It made no sense at all. Brown has been the opposite. I've never even been asked for an autograph on campus. I threw a party for nearly 100 students and not a single person put a photo on Facebook," she told the Sunday Times Style Magazine.

She did indicate, though, that there may have been a few foolish Brown students who occasionally gave her a hard time.

"Anyway, even if I was being given a hard time, I wasn't going to wuss out of university because someone said 'Wingardium leviosa' to me in a corridor, or 'Ten points for Gryffindor,'" she said. "I've been dealing with the media since I was nine. If I can't stand up to a few people giving me a hard time, it's a bit pathetic, really. I've had so much worse."

Watson admitted that she may have miscalculated how easily she'd be able to have a "normal" college existence.

"I was in denial," she told the magazine. "I wanted to pretend I wasn't as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I'm in and what happened."

And if you imagine that the beautiful Watson is overrun with suitors and dates, it turns out that, surprisingly, that is not the case.

"I say to my friends, 'Why hasn't X called me? Why doesn't anyone ever pursue me?' They're like, 'Probably because they're intimidated.' It must be the fame wall," she said. "It must be the circus that goes around me. Me, as a person, I find it hard to believe I would be intimidating... Sometimes, maybe because they feel intimidated, they feel they have to knock me down. They know perfectly well who I am, but they'll ask me, 'How are the Narnia films going?'... I'm single at the minute."

Somehow we find ourselves feeling bad for Watson now. Will some nice, normal, non-wisecracking guy please ask her out?

(SOURCE: OMG! from YAHOO!)

Emma Watson Discusses Life at Brown University, Dan Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, and More

The Daily Mail has a new article about Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), where she discusses many things, among them her experience thus far at Brown University:

On the first day at her US university - chosen over Cambridge because the latter was 'a bit Hogwarts-looking' - Emma Watson was bombarded by autograph hunters.

She was caught so unawares that she couldn't contain her shock: 'Everyone looked at me horrified, like, "Oh my God, what's wrong with her?"'

So how did she deal with the unwanted autograph hunters, once she had overcome her initial shock? In typical Emma Watson (and Hermione) style, it appears - with quiet determination.

She dusted herself down and decided that she would proceed as planned, on her terms. 'I just said, "I'm really sorry, but I'm here to study and I just want to be a student. Would it be OK if I don't sign, because you'll be seeing me around all the time anyway?"'

The fact that she has now completed her first year of studies is clearly something of a triumph, not least, she admits, because not a single shot of her in the shared uni bathroom has made its way onto the internet.

'One morning I was walking down the corridor from the bathroom in just a towel and I thought I must be mad, anyone could just snap me,' she says, laughing. 'But no one did. Not even when I had my birthday party. 100 people came, and not one person put a picture on Facebook.'

Watson also discusses how she thinks Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) have changed since she first met them, and the differences in her relationship with both of them:

She remains close to both Rupert and Daniel, and seems bemused by how they have both developed.

'It's funny, they've both gone completely opposite ways. At the beginning Rupert was very confident, really chatty, very outgoing, and Dan was the quiet shy one.

'I remember at the first press conference, he was so overwhelmed by the whole thing. Now, you can't shut Dan up. He's telling jokes, he's got this incredible energy. Rupert's gone quiet. He's much more reserved.

'We are like siblings. If I'm feeling a bit anxious or I need to talk something over with someone, Dan's the one I'll go to. We had this great weekend once. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere in Scotland in this castle.

'We were both meant to be in bed and I sneaked into Dan's room and stayed up watching movies all night, drinking Coke and eating M&Ms from the minibar.

'Rupert's the guy I go to when I want to be relaxed and have a good laugh. His dressing room is like a child's wonderland with every kind of game, every kind of sweet, every kind of whatever you can imagine. I go to him if I want to snuggle up on the sofa and watch television.'

Watson also talks about the adult actors on the set of Harry Potter and what she learned from them:

She cites Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson as her role models.

'I learned from Emma how to behave on a set. She remembers everyone's name, she's incredibly courteous and considerate, and she makes everyone laugh.

'It's up to the leading actors and actresses to set the tone on a film set, and the first time I saw Emma I remember thinking, "That's the kind of actress I want to be."'

Indeed, when filming finished, Emma Watson bought all the crew members a Smythson leather notebook engraved with her thanks and a quote from Dickens:

'The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.' Emma Thompson would surely have approved.

Further on in the article Watson talks about the TV shows she watches to relax, her haircut, and juggling her schoolwork and her acting. You can read the rest of the article here.

(SOURCE: THE LEAKY CAULDRON)