Interview: Emma Watson on her role in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and her cinematic future

EMMA Watson tells Susan Griffin why she wouldn’t rule out nude scenes and the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades Of Grey

Adolescence is a tough time for anyone, but imagine going through it while under the full glare of the public spotlight.

As Harry Potter’s ‘mudblood’ swot Hermione Granger, Emma Watson did just that, yet somehow she appears to have come through unscathed.

Career-wise, she’s also successfully pushing forward with brave and intelligent film choices.

The first post-Potter was a supporting role in My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams, and she now steps up to a leading role as the free-spirited Sam in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

Based on the beloved best-selling novel by Stephen Chbosky, it’s a funny and tender coming-of-age story.

It stars Logan Lerman as the academically precocious but socially awkward Charlie who is taken under the wing of Sam, her step-brother Patrick (Ezra Miller) and their group of ‘wallflowers’.

“Charlie’s been through a pretty rough time but he’s the sweetest, most sensitive soul you’ll ever meet, and Sam and Patrick try to shepherd him through the first year of high school, which we all know can be intimidating,” says Watson.

She was studying at Brown University in the US when she received the script.

“Even though it was set in America it felt like it had something to do with what my adolescent experience was like,” she says.

“It was funny and sad and witty all at the same time and it felt really honest and authentic. It didn’t glamorise the experience and didn’t patronise or sensationalise it either.”

The actress can admit she wasn’t familiar with the novel - something her American counterparts could barely believe.

“My American friends berated me. They couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it and I realised there’s this amazing cult following of people that really care about it,” she explains.

“So, again putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it right,” she adds with a small laugh.

She remembers a sense of panic a month before the cameras were due to roll.

“I was like, ‘I’ve got to do an American accent and I don’t know anything about being at an American school’, so I started freaking out and making these crazy notes and emailing the director at three in the morning going, ‘What does this mean?’

“It all worked out fine in the end but it was a real stretch for me, and there were parts that really pushed me out of my comfort zone in a big way.”

That includes spending numerous scenes in little more than a corset and suspenders but Chbosky, who also directed the film, had immense faith in Watson.

“Emma is absolutely luminous in the role. It took about five minutes for me to realise that she was the perfect person for the character and the movie,” he says.

“She grew up in the middle of a hurricane, and she did it with such grace and such class, but there is this loneliness about her. I knew when I met her that this was a part of her that was just dying to come out. She just needed permission.”

And there is something solitary about Watson, as polite as she is.

Sitting in a chair wearing black trousers, a canary yellow jacket and black pumps, she seems a little distant, a tad world-weary, but then, at just 22, she’s already been a household name for half her life.

“I tried my best to live my adolescence behind closed doors and I think I managed that,” she says.

“I went back to school between filming; I sat my GCSEs and my A-levels and I went to university.”

But making the film did make her “very aware” that her life has been very different to the majority of her peers.

“It’s definitely been unusual, almost like it’s been done backwards. There are certain parts of my development that are happening at different times,” she muses.

“At times that’s felt lonely but generally I feel privileged to have had so many different experiences.”

Watson has four more projects in the pipeline, including Sophia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, based on the real-life robberies of celebrity homes, and there are rumours she’s also in the running for the lead role in the movie adaptation of ‘mummy porn’ bestseller Fifty Shades Of Grey.

Laughing at the mention of this she says: “It’s flattering in the sense that people are excited about what I do next.

“The thing is I haven’t read any of the books so it’s quite difficult to know what I’m turning down potentially, but I hear it’s quite raunchy.”

And she’s not phased by the idea of stripping off on screen.

“I’ve been saying since I was 16 that if it’s an interesting character and important for the character development, and of course if it’s important to the story, then I’ll do it because I’m an actress and that’s it really.”

Perks Of Being A Wallflower is on general release