Ever since that pixie crop catapulted her into the fashion consciousness, Emma Watson has been a surprise style darling. The child superstar-turned-Hollywood ingenue is one of the few red-carpet regulars up for having fun with her look. And today, dressed in a cute strapless LBD at The Savoy, she’s so gossipy about lipstick and lacquer, it’s easy to forget she’s one of the most famous faces on the planet.

“When I was younger, I hated the idea of wearing lipstick,” reveals the Harry Potter graduate. “Then, in the past two to three years, I’ve been wearing lots of different colours – my favourite daytime shade is coral. Nails are fun now, too. I rarely wear colour on my hands because I always ruin it within a day, but seeing it on my toes in the shower makes me happy.”

And now, as the face of Lancome Vernis In Love nail polish and Rouge in Love lipstick, Emma has a smile-sparking shade for every day. Collaborating with the French beauty gurus is a perfect fit for the Paris-born actress “obssessed” with icons like Jane Birkin and her daughters, Charlotte Gainsbourgh and Lou Doillon. But true to her Brit upbringing, the ’60s supermodels Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy (“obviously!”) are big influences, too.

Like any beauty junkie, Emma always jumps at the chance to crack out some colour. “I love doing make-up. I did my mum’s make-up for all her job interviews, and whenever my friends and I go out, I do their make-up, too,” she says. “My specialty? I like quite a natural look, but I do everything, really.”

However, as a sign of her skin confidence, the 22-year-old is just as happy going fresh-faced: “There’s such intense pressure on how I look that when I get a chance not to worry about it, I don’t wear very much make-up at all. Sometimes I just get my eyelashes tinted and wear moisturiser.” The the flashbulb-popping crop? It was fun while it lasted but, Emma says, “I’m told, ‘Please, please grow your hair, so we can do different roles.’”

Scared of lipstick? Try Emma’s tips!

- “To get a really intense look, blot off the first layer and reapply your colour.”
- “Use nude lipliner to get the perfect Cupid’s bow.”
- “Exfoliate your lips with a toothbrush. They’ll look great.”

Emma’s Beauty Lessons

- Do give your skin some TLC! “My skin’s really sensitive. It’s got to last me a long time, and I don’t want to wear it out, so I try to be kind to it. There’s an amazing brand called MV Organic Skincare that I buy online. Their Rose Smoothing & Protective Moisturiser smells insane! I also like Eucerin Dermatoclean Refreshing Cleansing Gel, and I’ve been using Lancome’s Bi-facil Non Oily Instant Cleanser Sensitive Eyes forever – it gets everything of.”

- Do big up your brows! “I get mine threaded at Blink in Selfridges or Fenwick [both London] – they’re amazing. People underestimate the power of an eyebrow. I recently got my friend into pencilling hers in, which she thought was such a strange concept at first.”

- Do learn a little French! “I love French pharmacies. I’m obssessed – I could spend hours. They take a very medical, pharmaceutical approach to the face. I love the French less-is-more look – there’s somthing very class about it. It’s so sad when people hide themselves behind too much make-up.”

- Do enjoy some red-carpet prep! “I love having facials. I think it makes more of a difference to how I feel than a full-body massage does. You feel fresh and new. And eyedrops … genius! The anti-redness ones are so good.”

- Don’t listen to everyone! “It’s kind of overwhelming, especially with your diet and skincare. You get so many different pieces of advice, you don’t know what to listen to. I think people need to judge what works for them and trust their intuition.”

- Do be brave with your hair! “This sounds so ridicuous, but if you analyse what I’ve done with my hair over the years, it always matches my moods. Cutting off all my hair was all about getting rid of ‘Harry Potter’, and going dark was about mourning the end of ‘Potter’.”

Lancôme Trésor Midnight Rose
“My dad took me to a perfume factory in France when I was much younger, and you could create your own scent. I had one of those for a while. It probably smelled awful but I was really proud of it. I really wanted to be one of those one-scent girls, but I always ended up trying different things. I have been wearing Tresor Midnight Rose a lot recently, though, obviously.”

LancômeRouge in Love Lipstick in Corail in Love
“When I was younger, I would go for more of a natural lip. Now I like playing with different colours. This is just a beautiful thing to hold and own. It’s something that’s light enough to wear in the day and remake an impression at night.”

Yves Saint Laurent Creme de Blush in Powdery Rose
“I have to wear a blush or some kind of bronze because I am so pale and Enlgish, so I am big into cream blushers. YSL does a really nice one.”

Giorgia Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Powder and High Precision Retouch Concealer
“I am a creature of habit and I like to find what works and keep buying it. Armani does some really nice powders and under-eye concealers.”

Chapstick Classic Lip Balm
“I love Chapstick – I am like a purist. 100 per cent drugstore, that does it for me.”

Blink Brow Bar Eyebrow Pencils and Lash Oil
“I get my eyebrows threaded. Blink is really good and reliable. They listen to you, which is good, because [brow groomers] can get carried away, like hairdressers.”

Lancôme Hypnôse Doll Lashes
“I’m big into Twiggy so I do bottom lashes and top lashes. This is really cool because it’s specifically designed to get that look.”

Diptyque Candles in Roses and Gardenia
“I am obsessed with Diptyque candles – the floral ones! Love them!”

Kiehl’s Creme with Silk Groom
“My haircut is definitely low-maintenance, which is great for me because I had spending too much time on that kind of stuff. I use Kiehl’s products because they aren’t too fragrant.”

Comfort Zone Tranquility Oil
“Getting an aromatherapy massage is just so good. I travel a lot and you are squished up in airplanes so it’s a really nice thing to do. There’s a woman who gave all the massages to the stunt guys on the set of ‘Harry Potter’ and I go to her a lot, but the Berkeley Health Club & Spa in London also has really great treatments.”

Lancome Bi-Facil Eye Makeup Remover
“Way before I became the Lancôme ambassador, I was using the Bi-Facil. You can just leave it on to soak up your eye makeup and it doesn’t feel like your skin is being stripped away.”

Beauty Icon: Mia Farrow
“Going backwards, I love the naturalness of Jane Birkin and the French actresses who don’t look like they are trying too hard – which is definitely the coolest. But Mia Farrow was the big inspriation for the haircut.”

Source: Style.com

It was one of her haunts — along with the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Bethel Park, which she called home — for part of the spring and summer while filming “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” in Pittsburgh.

“The shooting schedule’s been kind of crazy. It’s such a great group of people, and we all got so close that we mainly just hang out at the Crowne Plaza — I’m serious — and we play music,” she said in late June in Peters Township.

(Summit Entertainment just released the first photos from the movie set to arrive in theaters in 2012.)

“Pretty much everyone that’s part of the cast is musically talented in some way, so we spent most of our evenings playing music and just talking and just being silly. I’ve been to Eat’n Park a few times. A bunch of times, actually.”

She would usually go after filming when it was late and the place was quiet. “I haven’t had too much time to do anything but everyone’s been so friendly,” she said.

The 21-year-old plays high school senior Sam in the movie version of the novel about Charlie, a brilliant but sensitive 15-year-old who pours into letters his feelings about first-time emotions and experiences, perceptive observations about the people around him and, eventually, heartrending memories that surface.

Logan Lerman stars as Charlie and the cast also features Nina Dobrev as Charlie’s overachieving older sister; Dylan McDermott and Kate Walsh as their parents; Ezra Miller as Sam’s stepbrother, also a senior; Mae Whitman as a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” enthusiast who asks Charlie to a Sadie Hawkins’ dance; Johnny Simmons as a closeted jock; and Paul Rudd as an English teacher.

Author Stephen Chbosky, an Upper St. Clair native, is directing the film and wrote the screenplay.

As Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” series, Ms. Watson may have anchored a successful, beloved movie franchise, but she had the jitters about playing a suburban Pittsburgh teen.

“I was very nervous before we started shooting. I was very nervous about the American accent,” she told a handful of reporters outside Peters Township High School. It doubles as Mill Grove High School in the story set largely in 1991-92.

Some of her cast mates, after all, had life experiences much like their movie characters — dances, football games, pep rallies and even graduation in white gowns (for the girls) and black gowns (for the boys) and matching mortarboards.

“They went to an American high school, they know what prom looks like, all these little details that I had no idea about. So I was a little neurotic.

“My script was covered in notes about all these American words, American slang. I was quizzing my friends about high school and prom and everything, and then Steve was just like, ‘Emma, this is great and everything, but you just really need to let all of that go’ because he said he saw me as Sam, and it was kind of as simple as that.”

In fact, before she even met with Mr. Chbosky, he had put together a bible of what he wanted the movie’s visuals to look like and he used her photos for Sam.

She acknowledges an element of paranoia that a director might hire her only because of her “Harry Potter” following or some other reason, “so it really meant a lot to me that there was no one else for this role.”

In fact, later that afternoon during an interview in the school library that would double as a set the next day, the director-writer spelled out why he cast Ms. Watson.

“She’s luminous but she’s also incredibly approachable, she’s very down to earth, she’s very fragile but in this very beautiful way. For me, that’s all the qualities I always saw in Sam. Plus, she can dance. The girl can dance.”

To hear her tell it, however, she and co-star Miller had a homecoming dance that terrified her. She had to do a “crazy, full-on dance” for 30 seconds that felt like two minutes in front of 300 extras.

On this day, Ms. Watson was dressed as Sam in a scoop-necked, sleeveless short blue dress with a floral pattern, small golden anchor earrings, a necklace with a single gold star and crocheted-fabric espadrilles with a jute platform wedge.

Her hair, which she famously cut after finishing the final Potter movie, was still short but parted on the side and growing in. She isn’t the lead of “Perks” but has gotten the lion’s share of fan attention and makes an enthusiastic, charming ambassador for it.

When she first told her then-roommates at Brown University that she had just read an amazing script for “Perks,” her friends gasped at how that had been a favorite book. She initially didn’t realize the cult following the novel had, much like the Potter series.

Being able to work with the book author turned writer-director fed Ms. Watson’s compulsive nature or “a little bit OCD” when it comes to her material. As Hermione, she was such a big fan of the books that she became “a Harry Potter dictionary.”

So any time she wanted to ask Mr. Chbosky anything, he was right there.

“He can create new dialogue with me on the spot and we can adapt and that’s been the great thing about him, too, is that he realized he is making something new. Obviously he wants to be true to the spirit of the book, [but] he understands it’s a movie, it’s different. He’s created something new with different actors.”

The book and movie pay homage to the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and cast and crew attended a screening at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont before shooting the real thing there.

“Steve got us all together one night and we all went to the Pittsburgh floor show, and it was hysterical. We had so much fun. It was great.” The newbies were hiding in the balcony so they weren’t “initiated,” but they did throw toilet paper into the audience (as a character utters the line “Great Scott!”)

Moving from a blockbuster franchise to a small movie brings a far faster pace.

“The hours and the days, it’s full on. I mean, I have no time to do anything else other than basically go home, sleep, eat, shower and get ready for the next day. … Everyone gets so close because we’re on location together.”

Being on location also meant Ms. Watson could beg to participate in a key scene in the movie that she calls “hands down, one of the best moments of my life. Definitely.”

“Summit [Entertainment] didn’t want me to do the stunt. I was not meant to do it at all, and I begged Stephen. I said, ‘I really, really want to do this.’ ”

So that’s how the world-famous actress found herself standing as a car traveled at 50 to 60 miles per hour, and she was tethered with a single cord and proved that not all magic comes at the hands of a wand from Ollivanders Wand Shop.

“I had one string but hands in the air, all the way through the tunnel coming out the other end. The first time I did it, I was so emotional I cried. It was really special and beautiful, and seeing the shot of what it’s going to look like, it’s going to blow your mind. … It’s stunning and Steve knew when he conceptualized it that it would be amazing, but I think it exceeded even his expectations.

“What a great moment.”

Source: The Post Gazette

Who’d have thought that meeting Emma Watson would be such an underwhelming experience? Well, you wouldn’t. Why ever would you? There are certain expectations when you fall into the orbit of a Hollywood star – not just any old star, in this case, but the most famous of her generation, lead actress in the biggest film franchise of all time, currently one of the industry’s highest earners – and, well, you’re waiting for some of them to be met. She should be self-absorbed with the narcissism of youth, at the very least, carrying an undersized dog and an inflated ego, or else, conversely, be making an unconvincing attempt to seem simple and almost exactly the same as us civilians, despite an estimated £24 million fortune. But…no. Not Emma Watson. Instead, she appears as herself. That is, a delightfully ordinary 21 year old who has ended up in the most extraordinary of circumstances. “I question it all the time. Like, this is craziness! I can’t believe my own life. How on earth did I manage this? How am I here? It is very, very strange.”

As she sits with her knees neatly pressed together, dressed in a perfectly serviceable outfit of black leggings and ballet pumps, Emma Watson looks for all the world like an eager student waiting for a lecture. She’s pretty in a clean, fresh-faced sort of way – with her gamine hair and scrubbed skin, she looks heart-wrenchingly young. She doesn’t have the attitude, either. But then, Emma isn’t a star in the way we’ve come to define that term: sure, she can create magic in front of the camera – eight Harry Potter films over the past 10 years have proved as much – but that in itself isn’t what we expect from celebrities today. “My problem is I’m a bit boring really,” she says, with the hint of a smile. “That’s why the tabloids feel the need to make up more interesting stuff. The way I choose to look when I’m not doing something public is very specific. I don’t carry around designer bags, I don’t wear big sunglasses. I’m not comfortable being the centre of attention. When I’m not working, when I’m not being Emma Watson, I’m just trying not to stand out.”

It’s an unexpected thing for an actress to say, especially one so successful at playing a character inextricably linked with her own. After all, Emma and her alter ego, Hermione Granger, have grown up in public together. But when ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2′ – the final instalment in the record-breaking series – was released worldwide in July, Emma had long since stepped away from the spotlight. A straight-A student, she finished school at the same time as Hogwarts and distanced herself from the trappings of Hollywood, heading to the US Ivy League university Brown in the autumn of 2009 instead, forcing Warner Bros to timetable the final two films around her study schedule. “Brown was a way to find some space for myself,” she explains. “I’d been working solidly since I was 10 years old. I felt I needed a bit of time to just try and be Emma.”

Of course, Harry Potter got in the way, with it’s relentless round of reshoots and promotion, meaning that Emma had to temporarily halt her studies at the start of this year. “I was basically commuting across the Atlantic. Taking a semester out wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I am still enrolled at Brown. Despite what the tabloids wrote, I was never bullied there. And I was genuinely never asked for a single autograph, either. I feel lucky to have been able to have that time, because it would have been easy for people not to leave me alone.”

It’s early on a sticky summer morning in Paris, the temperature already forcing its way towards 30ºC, and Emma woke up in a suite at the Ritz. The final emotional round of Harry Potter press has come and gone. “It was intense and mentally draining,” she recalls. “The premieres felt like an out-of-body-experience where I was watching what was happening, not sure it was really me. I shut down to an extent and that’s a good thing – it was such and emotional barrage.” And now she’s taken up a new role. Following in the footsteps of Penélope Cruz, Julia Roberts and Kate Winslet, Emma is an ambassador for Lancôme and the face of a fragrance, Trésor Midnight Rose. “Someone asked me why I would accept this when I said I wanted to study and stay out of the limelight. But could anything make me more famous than I already am?” she asks, rhetorically. “I’ve given up on the idea of anonymity. I used to try and pretend I wasn’t famous by insisting on taking the Tube or the bus. I was kind of rebelling against it. But I realised it isn’t possible to oblivious to it all – I’ve come to accept what’s happened to me. I travelled to Bangladesh last year and was standing there in the middle of these mud houses when a child came up and said, ‘You’re the girl from Harry Potter!’ I knew at that point there was nowhere in the world I could go where I wouldn’t be recognised.” She still finds it impossible to describe the other-worldly insanity of her breed of mega-fame. “I feel like I step into a dream and that’s where I keep my sanity. The minute I start believing it all, that’s when I’ll lose it.”

It isn’t Emma’s first foray into a more glamorous world – she has been the face of Burberry Prorsum, been dressed by Karl Lagerfeld and partnered on eco-friendly lines with designer Alberta Ferretti and Fair Trade clothing company People Tree – but it is a proper creative collaboration. ‘I’d never do a celebrity endorsement,’ she says, emphatically. “Lancôme was taken aback by how much input I wanted to have. But I would never just put my name on something. It’s more interesting to have a genuine involvement with a brand, rather than showing up on the day and looking pretty. Also, as much as I do love fashion, I’m an actress first and foremost. Lancôme represent great actresses and that appealed to me.”

Although she features regularly on the best-dressed lists and won the coveted Style Icon title at this year’s ELLE Style Awards, Emma would be the first to admit her look is fairly low maintenance. “Out of all my friends, I can get ready the quickest! I have to start making more of an effort and taking my appearance seriously, I think.” Even that famous crop, responsible for so many speculative column inches, happened more by accident than design. “I’d never been allowed to cut my hair off, so I just seized the first opportunity. It wasn’t my Britney Spears moment.” She describes her personal style as “classic and clean”, but while her modern attitude and modest demeanour undoubtedly translate into a compelling aesthetic, Emma won’t embrace this side of her job without some reservation. “I do worry about the expectation to look a certain way. I find LA quite scary because of that – all those young people having plastic surgery. But the thing is, I don’t want to look like everyone else. I don’t have perfect teeth; I’m not stick thin. I want to be the person who feels great in her body and can say that she loves it and doesn’t want to change anything. It’s ridiculous that that seems like such an unrealistic goal. I think the actresses who are really successful are the ones who are comfortable in their own skins and still look human. Women are really hard on themselves and the media is really hard on us. Whenever I hear anyone say anything about another woman that’s negative about their image, I just jump on them.”

Talking with Emma is unlike most other celebrity interviews. She’s charming, convivial, yet disciplined and ordered, working through questions carefully rather than sliding into and easy conversation. The daughter of high-flying lawyers, she’s fiercely intelligent and gives everything proper consideration. There’s something efficient about her, as though life is a big to-do list that needs to be addressed – perhaps it’s the behaviour of someone who has spent their life sticking to an insanely structured schedule, fitting in personal pleasures around its endless demands. She describes the moment when her Harry Potter work was, finally, done: “The first few days, I went into a sort of panic. Like, ‘Oh God, I need to be doing something!’ Then I was like, ‘No, Emma, just switch off, you can do it.’” Her dealt expression is one of polite concentration: being Emma Watson is a serious business. “I’m not a worrier, but I’m a perfectionist. The thing is feeling like I didn’t do the best job I could have. I will always be able to find something wrong, something I can do better. My parents say I’m always looking ahead, thinking about what’s in front of me.”

Though Emma gamely tries to deconstruct herself under anything other than nice, polite, well-mannered and brought up with middle-class discipline. Still, she doesn’t want to let you down nor disappoint in any way, even though it’s obvious that this kind of public self-reflection makes her uncomfortable – as the conversation gets more intense, she starts to twist her legs beneath her and squirm. “Sometimes I feel as though everyone’s waiting with baited breath for the three of us from Harry Potter to do something that will perpetuate the child-star stereotype. I don’t know if I’m the least likely person to go off the rails, but I don’t see any need to. It’s not on my agenda. There are too many other things I want to do.”

If you think Emma Watson’s life is all work and no play, you’d be wrong. Though she says, slightly apologetically, that she doesn’t really go out much: “My friends drag me out every now and again if it’s their birthday or something. I get these ‘live a little’ guilt trips. They tell me I should have a bit more fun, but I feel awkward about taking all of the attention when we’re in public, especially if it’s in London where the paparazzi won’t leave me alone.” She likes a drink and, somewhat surprisingly, she says: “I’m not that much of a lightweight. My dad’s great hobby is wine, so it’s always been part of our family life. For someone so little, I don’t get drunk very easily. It’s quite a good talent. I’m not challenging anyone to a competition, though!” TV is her guilty pleasure and painting her passion. She loves Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Francis Bacon and Jenny Saville, all artists who focus on the body. “I would maybe have gone to art school if it hadn’t been for ‘Harry Potter’. Though one way or another, I would have found acting.” Other than that, she says: “I just do normal stuff. I’ve always exercised. I go to the cinema a lot. I live close to my dad, and my brother Alex, who is three years younger than me, is round the corner. Friends come to me house, I go to theirs. I’ve spent so much time away that maintaining friendships is something I feel really proud of. Even though I’m pretty manic, I’m usually the person they call in a crisis. I like being there for people.” Her two best friends are from school – one is studying to be a lawyer, the other a doctor. She says they are the first to tell her if she ever starts to behave like a diva. “I’m lucky they aren’t in the same industry. Just hearing about their days gives me perspective.” She’s recently been spotted kissing the actor Johnny Simmons, but refuses to be drawn on the subject of relationships, explaining carefully: “It’s quite complicated, but I think that’s because of my situation. Hopefully it’s not me!”

Emma is an interesting person in the good old-fashioned way – that is, she clearly has an inner life as opposed to a celebrity existence that’s merely writ large on the newsstands. If it weren’t for the fact that she has such a famous face, she would slide unnoticed through the world. And that would make her very happy indeed. “I’ve never known anything other than this,” she reflects. “It has always been my reality. It’s just that I was incredibly protected in what I call ‘the bubble’ during Harry Potter and I didn’t realise how much. It’s different now. I think for someone like Rob Pattinson [who started his career in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire before finding superstardom in Twilight] it’s harder because he’d lived his life one way, then all of a sudden he wasn’t able to. I’ve never known what it’s like to have that kind of freedom. I can’t even imagine what that kind of fame must be like. So many people must wish they were in his position and think that he has the best life, but actually… there are prices you pay. Don’t interpret that from my perspective; it’s not so bad for me. I’m not in Rob’s position, I don’t have people screaming and crying and clawing at me. I’m so grateful for that.”

If there is any celebrity whose life she admires, it would be Natalie Portman. “She’s incredible,” Emma enthuses. “She’s dealt gracefully with being famous from a young age and has made really interesting choices. But I’m realising I am in a very different position to her. ‘Harry Potter’ is an entity unto itself. I mean, her debut was in Leon so she’s been playing controversial roles all her life, while something like Black Swan would be a stark contrast for me. Although I wouldn’t let fear of what people might think dictate the films I make in the future, I do feel a certain sense of responsibility – I’ve been incredibly fortunate and I don’t want to let anyone down, I suppose.”

Despite this trepidation, Emma made two films in 2011: the first ‘My Week With Marilyn’, is an indie biopic starring Michelle Williams, in which she plays a supporting role as a wardrobe assistant to Marilyn Monroe. In the second, ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’, scripted from a gritty novel by Stephen Chbosky that was originally published by MTV, she’s almost unrecognisable as a party girl. The film deals with issues such as suicide and teenage depression, and the subject matter clearly resonates with her. “Free handbags are lovely, but that’s not what I see as the benefits of being famous. It means I can do things I really care about, like this film, which might not have been made otherwise. Being a teenager is quite lonely, particularly for my generation. There’s a sense of people being cut off and in isolation. And when I read the script, it just made me feel less alone. My character says this line: ‘You accept the love you think you deserve’, and that just hit me like a steam train.” Shot on a low budget in just two days, it was a whole new experience for other reasons, too. “It was a little bizarre, but any film now is going to be,” she reasons. “What do you mean, you don’t want me to stay for another three movies?”

If in the past Emma has sounded uncertain that acting will be her future, now she seems to have accepted it. Although, as you’d expect, she is just too unstarry to celebrate the fact unconditionally: “Obviously I have insecurities and doubts. But I just have to do my best and be myself. And then hope that’s enough.” In the meantime before committing fully to film, she’s taking a bit more time off. “I’m going to go travelling – a sort of gap year, condensed into a few months. I’ve seen the inside of many lovely hotels all across the world, but I’ve never been to Venice or Rome or Madrid.” She runs unpainted fingers though her hair and focuses those luminous eyes, serious once again. “Don’t think I’m going off to find myself though. I already know who I am.” Gracious and grounded: who would think there’s anything underwhelming about that?

• “In the garden of my father’s house in London, we have jasmine growing on the balcony, so the scent of jasmine always makes me think of summer evenings and being outside.”

• “The funny thing about me is that I have tons of product. I have always loved makeup and its ability to transform, but I don’t actually wear a lot of it myself.”

• “My dad took my family on holiday to the south of France, and we visited a parfumier. I remember my stepmom getting very cross because she thought I was far too young to own my own fragrance! I think I was seven years old, but I still have it.”

• “I love Covent Garden and Soho, which has such a lively, colourful and vibrant atmosphere.”

• “I still have lots of family and friends in Paris. My favourite places are Café de Flore, the Shakespeare and Company bookstore and walking along the Seine.”

What would it be like to be 21 years old and have already achieved the kind of staggering fame and fortune that is known only to a handful of people around the globe? It’s not a fantasy that most people can even begin to relate to, but it’s a reality for Emma Watson. After making a name—and a small empire—for herself as the quick-witted witch Hermione Granger in what we’ll call the “Harry Potter phenomenon,” Watson is perched on the brink of adulthood. So, now that the wizard has uttered his last spell, the world is waiting to see if Watson—who was cast in the role when she was only nine— is able to emerge as something, well, a little less witchy. It’s a pivotal moment when the weight of the spotlight could feel leaden.

It’s fitting, then, that My Week with Marilyn, out in November, is Watson’s first film since the book closed on Potter. Watson plays a stylist who worked with Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) on the last film of her heartbreaking career. Although they’re both Hollywood blondes, that’s where the parallel ends. Watson is no whispering bombshell; she is decidedly more practical than that. “I can’t remember very much of my life when I wasn’t famous,” she explains simply, now settled in London. “I haven’t really known anything different. There have been times when my life was very odd, though. I could come from a day at school when I’d be doing math one minute and then changing into a premiere dress the next.”

The fact that the daughter of two British barristers signed up to study English, history and art at the Ivy League school Brown University at the very pinnacle of her fame (when some other starlets end up scoring their first DUI arrest) is a tribute to her steely work ethic. But one can’t help but wonder if she feels like she has something to prove. “Schooling is important to me,” she says. “Having another part to me means that I don’t just feel valued for the way I look.”

But tackling a degree in the midst of a gruelling shooting schedule isn’t exactly child’s play. When Watson decided to take a semester off school, a maelstrom of media erupted, accusing her fellow students of bullying her right off the Ivy League commons—an accusation that she said was “beyond unfair” to the friends she made there. (Besides, she had even performed in the school production of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.)

But Watson, who is apparently such a conscientious student that she even enjoys exams, was hardly twiddling her thumbs while off campus. She dove into the world of fashion as the creative adviser for People Tree’s ecofriendly (and laid-back-student-lifestyle-friendly) line. While she has already mugged for the camera in several well-received Burberry campaigns, rocked more than her fair share of Chanel (and Canadian It-boy Erdem) on premiere red carpets and even scored an ELLE Style Icon Award, Watson told The Times that she was enthused about the possibility of trading merino for hemp. “I think young people like me are becoming increasingly aware of the humanitarian issues surrounding fast fashion and want to make good choices,” she said. Now, she’s hoping that the feeling spreads. “There are aspects of the fashion industry that can be cruel to the environment,” she explains. “It’s good to encourage people to consider what they are buying.”

In fact, it seems that Watson is rarely happy to just smile for the camera— even now that she has become the face of Lancôme’s new Trésor Midnight Rose fragrance. Filming the short that announces her as Lancôme’s youngest spokesperson, with Mario Testino, she seized the opportunity to infuse a little Watson-brand girl power. “I wanted the character to be a girl who isn’t waiting for her life to start when a man walks into the room,” she says. “She is someone who is complete in her own right—not waiting for Prince Charming. As I’m growing up, my definition of love is becoming a lot broader. This concept of there being one person for you—while it sounds very romantic, it actually isn’t, in a way. I think love is everywhere, and I don’t think you need to sit around and wait for it to be with one person.”

But, despite having a confidence that seems well ahead of her years, Watson admits to feeling a bit out of her depth and “less well-established” than Lancôme’s other famous faces: women like Julia Roberts and Kate Winslet, whom she idolized while growing up. (Winslet, she gushes, “is so real, grounded, honest and authentic.”) But, luckily, Watson was able to channel that antsy energy for her role as Sam, an awkward teenager, in next year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. “I felt really compelled by her struggle to believe in herself,” she says. “I think it can be confusing at times because there is such a broad definition of what it is to be a woman. It’s hard to navigate your way around that.” We’re quite sure she’ll find her way, though.

Source: ElleCanada.com

Ms. Watson was in this leafy suburb of Pittsburgh, a 30-minute drive from the glass-and-steel downtown, filming a movie that’s set at Peters Township High School. Every day she arrived at the sprawling campus, with its swim team and banners promoting reading, to experience the youthful rites that, as the Oxfordshire-bred star of the “Harry Potter” franchise from age 10 to 20, had otherwise eluded her.

“Oh my goodness, so many firsts,” she said, speaking in an excited rush during a break from filming. “I did the prom! We all get dressed up and we go in a limo, and get photographs. It’s been really fun for me to get to graduate. Eating in the school canteen; all these things that I’ve always sort of said to my American friends, ‘Oh, that looks amazing, that looks so fun, I’m jealous.’ And I get to do it for this movie.”

The film, an adaptation of the young-adult novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” a beloved coming-of-age tale published in 1999, will be the next starring role for Ms. Watson, 21, and practically her first that doesn’t involve a cast of wizards and trolls. Though she earned legions of young fans as the plucky Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” series (and as the fashion-forward face of several luxury brands), Ms. Watson has never played a regular girl, let alone a suburban American.

Set loosely in the pre-Internet age of the early ’90s, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which is due in theaters next year, is the closest Ms. Watson has come to playing a contemporary character not too far removed from herself, she said. It’s not a grown-up role, but carrying the film — helping get it made at all — is a newfound adult responsibility.

Like her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, Ms. Watson has been defined by J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter,” with audiences watching her mature, as a person and a performer. Now multimillionaires, the cast mates “have grown into nimble actors, capable of nuances of feeling that would do their elders proud,” A. O. Scott wrote in his review of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” in The New York Times. “One of the great pleasures of this penultimate ‘Potter’ movie is the anticipation of stellar post-‘Potter’ careers for all three of them.”

Mr. Radcliffe is now making his name in theater, currently appearing in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” on Broadway; Mr. Grint has a slate of films. And Ms. Watson’s move away from “Potter” begins with “My Week With Marilyn,” a micro-biopic starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, which is scheduled to premiere at the

Though she relished the chance to play a young working woman — “It’s definitely important to do something that I feel is stretching me,” she said — Ms. Watson spent only a few days on set for “Marilyn,” nothing like the time and preparation that “Perks” entailed. “It’s been the most intense five weeks of my life,” she said in an interview in the school library, toward the end of shooting this summer. Holed up on location immediately after wrapping the “Potter” series, and playing Sam, a feisty, precocious high school senior on the cusp of a new life, was, she said, unexpectedly cathartic. “I really lost myself in it,” she said with pleasure.

“Perks” had something of the same effect on Stephen Chbosky, the writer (of the book and the movie) and first-time director. Mr. Chbosky, a native of Pittsburgh, began writing the slim novel in college and returned to it in earnest at 26, when he finally moved out of his parents’ house. Told in letters by a shy loner, Charlie (played by Logan Lerman, star of “Percy Jackson & the Olympians”), it follows him, Sam and her stepbrother, Patrick (Ezra Miller, soon to be an indie heartthrob), as they navigate the perils of adolescence in 1991. It has the requisite era-specific pop-culture references (the Smiths’ “Asleep”; midnight screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”) and deals with thorny subjects like sexual abuse, suicide, drug use and homosexuality: “The Catcher in the Rye” crossed with “Go Ask Alice” for an emo generation.

It was a quick sensation after it was published, earning cult status and a place on many school reading lists. Mr. Chbosky, 41, moved from Pittsburgh to New York and then Los Angeles to work in TV and movies. He wrote the screenplay for the film version of “Rent,” but is best known as the show runner on “Jericho,” a short-lived CBS series set in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. (“I love my Stephen King” was his explanation for his ranging tastes.)

Though he recalled being a well-liked athlete in high school, “on the inside I was a misfit kid,” he said. Afraid to participate in “Rocky Horror” himself, he had Charlie do it in “Perks.” Mr. Chbosky said he had many offers to turn the book into a movie over the years, but resisted unless he could direct it himself.  “It was so personal,” he said. “I’ve seen the effect the book has had on certain kids who’ve seen bad things. Some of their stories, which they’ve told me in letters, would break your heart.” He didn’t mind waiting and treating the material preciously.

“I don’t need the money,” he said, eating chocolate cake in the school cafeteria during an interview. “What I need is for that 14-year-old kid to know they have a chance.”

“Perks” found the right collaborator in John Malkovich’s production company, Mr. Mudd, which has made other indie films about adolescents and oddballs, like “Ghost World” and “Juno.” “I asked our assistant if there was any book he could turn into a movie, and he named this book,” said Lianne Halfon, a partner in Mr. Mudd. “We’d never heard of it.” Once news of a potential adaptation got out, Ms. Halfon said, she too was inundated with e-mails from fans of the book, people who were “lonely in their families,” as she put it. “For them this book is very important.”

Nonetheless the film version did not have the necessary financing until Ms. Watson came on board. She went to Los Angeles and promoted her interest in it; eventually Summit Entertainment, flush with cash from distributing the “Twilight” series, picked it up.  “That I could get a movie made is kind of incredible to me,” Ms. Watson said. “It’s the first time I realized I had that kind of power.”

Although the geography is vague in the book, Mr. Chbosky insisted that the film be shot in Pittsburgh, as a tribute to his hometown. (“I finally was able to put the words ‘chicken paprikash’ in a movie,” he said.) Costumes were culled from local thrift stores, and an architectural quirk of the city — a surprise vista that emerges from the Fort Pitt Tunnel, of the downtown skyline gleaming over the city’s three rivers — plays a big part, as it does in the book.

On location the cast, which includes the young stars Nina Dobrev of “The Vampire Diaries” and Mae Whitman of the series “Parenthood,” and Paul Rudd as the sensitive teacher, jelled quickly. As he is on screen, Mr. Miller, 18, was the bad-boy dreamer. “When I first got here, I did decide that some of the co-stars needed a solid does of corruption,” he said, smoking on a bench outside the school.

Mr. Lerman, 19, a Beverly Hills High student and natural showbiz type who religiously watches “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” prepared for his wallflower part by going Method. “I came out here a week and a half early and just stayed in my hotel room,” he said. “It was perfect for creating that social awkwardness.”

And Ms. Watson, accustomed to acting alongside people and in a story she had known for a decade, “started freaking out,” she said. She threw herself into research, e-mailing friends about their high school experiences and worrying about how to create a bond with this new, unfamiliar clique. (Shades of the encyclopedic Hermione are there, and of Ms. Watson’s semesters at Brown University, where she plans to return to complete her undergraduate degree.)

But studiousness wasn’t necessary. They just hung out. They formed a hotel-room band: Mr. Miller drummed, Mr. Lerman played guitar, and Ms. Watson sang. They jokingly called themselves Octopus Jam. Friends dropped by; noise complaints followed. Before she knew it, the world of Hogwarts had receded.

“That’s a different chapter of my life, which, kind of through doing this, feels like it’s closed,” she said. She pointed to a scene in “Perks” as symbolic of her new beginning: standing in the back of a pickup truck, she and her high school crew take a late-night joyride through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, the city lights shining on the other end.

“Summit didn’t want me to do the stunt, but I insisted,” she said, even though she was scared. “The car’s moving at 60 miles per hour, I had one little thing attaching me to the truck,” she recalled. She ended up going through seven or eight times, screaming her guts out. “Oh my God, it was so fun,” she said. “One of the best nights of my life, without a doubt.”

Source: NYTimes.com

As she failed to hold back tears at July’s premiere of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2′, the final instalment of a franchise that transformed her life, Emma Watson had come of age. Dressed in a silver-grey Oscar de la Renta gown, the awkward girl who first walked the red carpet aged 11, now 21, finally bid farewell to Hermione and said, “Hello, Hollywood A-List!” While wearing couture, naturally.

She’s elfin, poised and a natural beauty in a very English way. No wonder, then, that she was appointed the face of Burberry in 2009, succeeding Kate Moss and Agyness Deyn. Plus, this year, she was named brand ambassador for Lancôme.

A style icon and Hollywood superstar, but how does Emma feel about life after ‘Potter’? Company sat down to find out…

It’s finally bye-bye, Hermione. So what’s up next for Emma?
Everything’s up for grabs, really. I’m excited and nervous.

How similar are you to Hermione?
I probably started out more like her and got less like her. Like her, I think with my head – and I’m intellectual, so we’re similar in that way. We’re also very eager to please, have a need for approval and are not the kind of people who want to break the rules. Overall, I think I’m more of a rounded person than she is. She’s very focused on her studies but I think I’m more creative. I love acting but also love sport and music. I have lots of different interests, whereas she’s very focused on one area.

You’re clearly more stylish than her too! How do you describe your look?
It’s quite simple, I guess. I think it’s quite French, actually [Emma was born in Paris], but overall, it’s not really defined yet. I’m still experimenting. I’m not big on jewellery and accessories. I feel most beautiful when I’m wearing something quite simple that’s understated and cut beautifully.

Any cringe-worthy faux pas?
You know what, I used to look back at pictures and cringe but actually I’m quite proud that I’ve had fun with fashion and don’t always look perfect. I’ve made mistakes, there’s a history and there’s a learning curve. You can see that I’ve made my own mistakes then figured it out for myself, which is a process I’ve enjoyed. It’s obvious from the clothes I’ve worn that I’ve enjoyed dressing up. I suppose, if anything, sometimes I wish I’d had a bit more help in the early days when I used to wear my stepmother’s clothes to events because I didn’t have anything else to wear! It’s hard for 12-year-old girls because, often, you end up looking like a bridesmaid. The only regret I have is when I look at something I wore when I was very young and it obviously looks like it belonged to someone else. But I’m just human, and – let’s face it – life’s boring if you don’t take risks.

And everyone can end up looking the same on the red carpet …
Oh my God, yes! If everyone’s styled then there’s no personality in what anyone wears anymore. It’s just so bland. There’s nothing expressive and you don’t get a sense of who that person is – you just see whatever designer they’ve been put in.

Career aside, can you see marriage and kids in your future?
Yes, definitely. I have very strong family values and I definitely hope that will be in my future. I can’t wait to be a mum and have my own family one day.

Are you good with kids?
My parents remarried and I have half-brothers and sisters, so I think I’ve become pretty good with young kids.

What do you go for in a man?
Hmm … kindness, good manners, intelligence, confidence and someone who can make me laugh.

And on a superficial level?
Oh, *laughs*, on a superficial level, I don’t have a “type”. You could line up photographs of all the guys I’ve dated and they all look totally different. You won’t believe me but it really is more to do with personalities rather than looks. Because if someone’s nice to look at but gets boring after about 10 minutes, their looks aren’t important.

Is it tricky to meet men without worrying they’re only interested in your fame?
You know what, I can spot people like that a mile off. It’s easy to figure out who’s who and, generally, I can just tell. I don’t get paranoid about it because otherwise you’d never let anyone in. It took me a year at university to trust anyone properly, but sometimes you have to take a risk because otherwise you’re not really living and that’s pretty sad.

As Lancôme ambassador, what’s your best beauty tip?
Don’t wear too much make-up. Less really is more. I think the most beautiful people are those who look like they’re not really wearing any. Overall though, just have fun with it and experiment.

Who do you think always gets it right?
Kate Bosworth and Diane Kruger always have beautiful hair and make-up.

What do you miss about the UK when you’re away?
My friends and family, obviously. But I also miss the food. You won’t believe this either, but I miss the weather. I actually miss the grey because it’s nice to feel like you can snuggle up indoors, watch a movie and not feel guilty. I’ve got that inherent British thing that the minute the sun comes out I’ve got to be outside enjoying every single second of it.

What tips would you give up-and-coming actors?
If you love acting then I’d say, believe in yourself, work hard and just go for it, if that’s your dream.

Do you ever wish you could be a muggle for the day?
*Laughs* I have moments, but I think it’s more like I wish things were simpler sometimes. Like, why does everything have to be so complicated and why do I have to think everything through so much? Sometimes I’d like more freedom, privacy, that kind of thing. but that’s only ever when things get really hard, and the grass is always greener, as they say.

Have you ever been starstruck?
Yeah, definitely, and it’s always but the weirdest people. I got really starstruck when I met Matt Damon. I mean, obviously, he’s someone you would get starstuck by but I’ve met people more famous than he is and been absolutely fine, but with him I got all giggly and went red with embarrassment. I don’t know why. I just suddenly got overwhelmed, and I can’t really predict when that will happen.

What’s a day off like for you?
I like watching movies, reading, sleeping. Sleeping is great! I like playing sport, being with my friends, going out to dinner and cooking.

What’s your signature dish?
Baked beans on toast. I’m very good at that! Not really – I make very good roasted peppers and I’m pretty good at mackerel pate, believe it or not.

How do you stay in shape?
Luckily, I hate fast food with a passion so I try to eat organic and fresh. Eating healthy is the trick, I guess, but I have a terrible sweet tooth, which is my downfall. I just try to limit the amount of sweets and chocolate I eat.

Do you have any hidden talents?
I’m very good at ping-pong! Yep, I love ping-pong. Is that surprising enough?

“The other day I was like, ‘I can’t take it anymore,’” Emma Watson cries, on the phone from her home in London. But the 21-year-old managed to be strong. “Just persevere,” she told herself. “You have to stick with it.”

Fortunately, it wasn’t an existential crisis over the end of the ‘Harry Potter’ series. The reason behind her emotional meltdown? Her hair: that now famous pixie cut that drew comparisons to Mia Farrow when she snipped her familiar long locks last year. Now she’s getting the style out into a bob for her next film, 2012′s teen drama ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. “I’m going through that awkward in-between stage,” she says. “But it’s not been easy.”

When it comes to her career, however, the transition has been much smoother. When ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2′ opened in July, it marked the end of an eight-film saga that’s hauled in more than $6 billion at the box office over 10 years – nearly half of Watson’s life. Yet, as she hangs up her Hogwarts robe, her agenda is anything but open.

Watson’s already wrapped a role as Lucy, a wardrobe assistant who works with Michelle Williams’ Marilyn Monroe in the Oscar-tipped ‘My Week with Marilyn’. “I tend to think of the tragedy,” Watson says of Monroe. “She was made out to be this pin-up and this image of glamour and sex and actually she was a very fragile, complex person who I think was really misunderstood and really abused.”

Like the ‘Potter’ series, ‘Wallflower’ is based on a young-adult novel, though instead of Herbology and teen hormones, it tackles serious themes such as sexual abuse and suicide. Her role as Sam, a too-cool-for-high-school misfit who corrupts “wallflower” Charlie, is a dramatic departure from ‘Potter’s’ perfectionist Hermione Granger. So far her biggest challenge with the role has been mastering an American accent, even with the assistance of her friends from Brown University, where she studied for two years. “They’re so hard on me,” she says, laughing. “They’re like, ‘Nope, do it again; that sounds English.’”

Still, Watson prefers wrestling with diction over her Angelina Jolie-like turn in the ‘Potter’ finale. One scene in the action-filled fantasy required her to leap off a 30-foot building onto a crash pad. “I actually ended up losing weight when I was doing this movie,” she says. “Maybe it was from the fear and the stress and all the running, but I lost six pounds.”

Watson’s been enjoying mellower moments as the face of Lancôme’s Trésor Midnight Rose fragrance, debuting in Canada in November. For the Mario Testino-shot campaign, she had the not-so-difficult task of sharing kisses on a street in Paris with French model Cyril Descours.

Her relationship with Lancôme follows a modelling contract for Burberry’s Fall ’09 and Spring ’10 campaigns. She took a more collaborative role two years ago when she designed a capsule collection for People Tree, a fair trade line that includes summer dresses, tanks, tees and skirts. The casual vibe was closer to her own personal style, which extended to what she calls a “less is more” approach, especially when it comes to makeup. “Although recently it’s been fun to experiment with different looks,” she says. “I love how makeup can really transform you sometimes seen more than fashion can. Just a lipstick or a different way that you do your eye can make you look really different.”

Despite the exciting new opportunities, it’s not easy to leave behind the only role you’ve ever known. Watson admits she misses the routine: getting pick up by her driver Nigel, who has taken her to set since she was nine, and going through her beauty regimen with Charlotte, her hair and makeup artist. They still keep in touch. After all, they know the little girl who showed up for her very first day on a film set, even if Watson hardly recognises herself. “I look at the screen and I’m like, ‘Who’s that girl?’” she says. “It’s feels like another lifetime.”

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?