Tease once, compliment twice. – i-D Magazine September 2011

Now that the Deathly Hallows are done with, and Hermione and Ron are married happily ever after, Emma Watson is off on a new adventure – playing a troubled Pittsburgh teen in soon-to-be cult high school move ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’, shooting a sexy campaign for Lancôme, and dancing around a sun-kissed garden with Mariano Vivanco …

Emma Watson is in bloom. Because she just turned 21, and spent her birthday starring in a Lancôme campaign shot by Mario Testino? Because ‘Harry Potter’ has finally ended? Because she’s crashing and burning and twitter-seconds away from being caught puking outside Chateau Marmont in a ripped dress? No, none of the above, but because she’s in Pittsburgh shooting scenes for forthcoming movie ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. Shooting overruns way past midnight and her sleeping pattern has synced to the erratic call-times. “We’ve been finishing pretty late, almost 3am most nights so it’s pretty full on,” says Emma, in her eloquent, unchipped accent. “It’s strange being nocturnal. On ‘Harry Potter’ we all had our own separate cars, but on this production we all pile into a white van and travel together. There have been moments when I’ve been sitting in the back of the van, exhausted – that satisfying exhaustion when you feel like you’ve really done something – and the sun’s just rising over Pittsburgh, it’s very beautiful, kind of the best feeling ever.”

Emma’s days as Hermione Granger, the super-cute child potion-master turned stunning sorcerer’s apprentice, are forever over. Never again will she find herself temporarily transformed into a cat, or duelling with Death Easters in a suburban film studio, or impersonated by a busty Lindsay Lohan bursting out of a bodycon wizard costume on ‘Saturday Night Live’. There are a few links from ‘Harry Potter’ to ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ – both are based on popular youth novels that the religious right tried to ban, and both take place in schools – but the similarities end there. ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ was written by Stephen Chbosky and published by MTV in 1999, and tells the story of a shy and unpopular American adolescent, Charlie, through a series of letters.

It’s set in a Pittsburgh high school in the early 90s, it’s stuffed full of cultural references – from Ayn Rand to ‘Night of the Living Dead’ to the Smashing Pumpkins – and it explores aspects of teenage life and death like abortion, abuse, coming out, drugs, madness, self-harm and suicide. Clearly Charlie’s high school is a long way from the wizarding world of Hogwarts, but it’s where Emma’s ended up.

“It was difficult for me at the beginning of the year,” she admits, “it was scary, it felt like I was making a big transition and I didn’t know how everything was going to turn out. Lancôme is a really big thing, working with a new team of people. And now I’m taking this role with an American accent.” She plays the character of Samantha, a clued-up hardcore party girl, in the movie adaptation. “I’m incredibly happy now,” beams Emma, “but at the beginning of the year I was definitely very nervous.”

On set, she’s full of pop, like a kid splashing around in what can only be described as unaffected joy (considering she only just woke up). Emma recalls the experience of shooting with Mariano Vivanco for i-D, when, as the shutter clicked, she came up with the idea of playing a French maid. “This is the second time I’ve worked with Mariano, he’s like my naughty big brother, we do our own thing, leave the world behind and go off to create and invent stuff together.”

The actress confesses, “Being myself is a lot of pressure. I feel a lot more insecure being Emma than if I take on a character. I wore a little bit of everything for the shoot, including the beautiful Azzaro dress that I ended up wearing for the Lancôme event. Mariano was going crazy, chasing me around the garden, while I was pulling on different dresses and turning every which way. The more I do this, the more I learn what make a photograph. I love fashion photography, I love partnering with photographers rather than sitting there like a vegetable.”

Indeed, Emma also exchanged ideas with Mario Testino for the Lancôme commerical. “It’s something that Mario and I worked together on. Mario’s teaching me, essentially, how to be a model, whereas I have much more experience with film and being an actress. We wrote the script together, and on the day i was talking with him about shots, so we helped each other out.” As Emma as born in Paris, she relished the idea of modelling there with a photographer she adores (they also worked together on the Burberry campaigns). “Mario’s like family now,” she confirms, “he really takes care of me. I so appreciate that. He’s been very supportive of my career and definitely very involved in the decision for Lancôme to take me on.”

A new dawn awaits then, after a decade of Harry, Hermione and Ron. “I had a freak out about it all back in February,” explains Emma. “Now that I’m on this new project, and my life is moving forward. I’m genuinely excited about what I’m doing and what’s coming next. Of course it’ll be really emotional and strange and sad but at the same time it feels like it’s going to be okay.” She’s prepared for ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’, he first film role post-Potter, but utterly immersing herself in its world: keeping a diary for her free-spirited character Sam, devouring Sylvia Plath, listening to the music mentioned in the book, and pestering author, director and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky with questions about the adolescent friends that inspired his characters. Her script is covered in notes. “A bunch of my friends at Brown are huge fans of the book so we spent hours sitting around discussing it and talking it all through,” she explains. “I was all over-zealous in my preparation, but it was fun and now I have a better idea of the process and how to approach other roles.”

And what can come next for the girl who’s rumoured to be worth around £43 million at the tender age of 21? “This August I’m going to travel. I’ve travelled so much but I’ve always been working. So I set my sights to not working. I’ve seen the insides of lots of hotel rooms but haven’t really seen the cities. I haven’t made a concrete plan yet but I thought I’d go InterRailing.” It seems a little far-fetched for Emma, the star of the biggest international film franchise of the century, to think she could simply pack a rucksack and hop on a train across Europe. But hey, she’s young, extraordinarily unjaded and at the start of another exciting journey into womanhood, so why spoil the fun?

Photos!: Company magazine interview.