Emma Watson recently and for the first time discussed her character in Sofia Coppola's crime drama, The Bling Ring, and what attracted her to portray someone she at first very much disliked. The Harry Potter actress spoke to Vanity Fair during the Toronto Film Festival about her research on the role and how she began to empathise with her on-screen counterpart, named Nicki.

You’re playing the awful, bratty Beverly Hills teenager that feels the compulsion to steal. It’s a brilliant story.
Emma Watson: Yes. It’s such an interesting exploration of this celebrity culture that we’re living in. This celebrity obsession. What drives that. When I read the script I just felt passionately that I wanted to explore the subject. Having lived on one side of it, I was like, "Wouldn’t it be amazing to put myself in the place of someone on the other side of things?"

I went from hating my character and not really being able to find the way in to relate to her to, like about a month or two into my research for her, suddenly just empathizing with her situation so much. That was such a revelation and it made me feel so great about my job because to be able to do that was huge. This girl is everything that I stand against, and then having to play her was so interesting.

Well, we have to kind of sympathize with her to relate to her in a way.
Emma Watson: That’s what’s so great about Sofia’s take on the whole thing is no character in the movie is black or white. The movie isn’t about belittling or criticizing anyone. It’s actually a very nonjudgmental portrayal. I think people will really feel confused, I hope that when people see my character they will almost feel confused – not sure whether to feel sorry for her or hate her or not quite sure what to do.

Los Angeles is so particular to this kind of culture. Fame is for no particular reason - this entourage of fame and materialism that surrounds it.
Emma Watson: Well, it’s interesting. I think Nicky, the character I play, genuinely believes that if she could just wear Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan’s clothes, or she could just be famous, or if she could just have enough money, then she would be happy. And that’s this deep, deep seeded belief in her, which is “If I could just be like them, I would be happy and all of my problems would disappear and go away.”

The tragedy, of course, is that she realizes is that having these material objects and living that lifestyle has zero to do with a sense of fulfillment and contentment and happiness. That is her real tragedy – that she thinks it’s going to fill her emptiness, and it just makes her feel even emptier.

It’s the real tragedy of humanity, I think. Why would in such dire economic straits is everyone buying things, wanting things and going into such debt to have these things that everyone feels is going to make them happy. I’m so curious to see the film because it is a microcosm of that aspiration and to what point does it stop.
Emma Watson: People ask how I’ve chosen my scripts coming out of Potter and, the same as I felt with Perks and same as I felt with Bling Ring, this is a really important movie that has to be made. I really feel like people need to hear what this movie is about. With Bling Ring I felt so strongly about it’s not okay that young people have this sense that if they would just get a certain number, or if they can just achieve a certain level of fame, that they get sprinkled with magic fairy dust and all of a sudden their life is perfect. It just doesn’t work like that.

A new photo shoot of Emma to promote the September release of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, via Chris Pizzello of the Associated Press, was released online and can be viewed here.











Emma is back in New York City to further promote The Perks of Being a Wallflower, including three televised interviews this coming Thursday on Live with Kelly and Michael on ABC in the morning, Anderson Live with the cast in the afternoon, and NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon during the evening. We will have all the segments when they appear online.

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