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Vanessa Stefany Arifianto - XE - 31

The Real Life Hermione Granger

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson, better known as Emma Watson, was born on
April 15, 1990, in Paris, France. She is an actress, model, activist, and British
philanthropist. The actress got her big break as a child with Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone, growing up on screen as she reprised her role of Hermione
Granger through the franchise's eight films. Emma is the daughter of Jacqueline
Luesby and Chris Watson, English lawyers. His third name, Duerre, was given by
his paternal grandmother. Emma lived in Paris until she was five years old. Her
parents separated and so she went to England to live with her mother in
Oxfordshire and spend the weekends at her father’s house in London. After the
divorce of her parents, her mother and father remarried, and her brothers were born
in their new marriage. Emma is the oldest of seven children; the little ones are her
younger brother Alex, two half maternal brothers and three half-brothers from her
father’s new marriage.

She went to school at the Dragon School in Oxford, where she studied until
2003. At the age of six, she decided that she wanted to be an actress, and she was
educated at the Stagecoach Theater Arts in Oxford, a part-time theater school
where she studied singing, dancing and performance. Emma participated in various
plays at her school, for example, Arthur: The Young Years, The Happy Prince, and
Alice in Wonderland. Emma Watson also participated in The Daily Poetry
Competition and won the first prize when she was only seven years old.

Emma had never acted professionally when her theater teachers suggested
her to agents looking to cast an upcoming movie based on the first novel of the
best-selling Harry Potter series. A 9-year-old Emma auditioned eight times for the
role that would make her an international star. Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling,
who was deeply involved in the film process to make sure it stayed true to the book,
wanted her involved in the project. Emma sufficiently impressed casting agents and
the film's producers, and won the role of Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's smart,
bossy best friend and voice of reason. Harry Potter was portrayed by Daniel
Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint was cast as Ron Weasley, Harry's other best friend. The
trio of British child actors would become known around the globe for their roles as
young wizards fighting a battle between good and evil, beginning with the release of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in November 2001.

Emma's film debut was an enormous success: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone earned a record-breaking $33.3 million on its opening day in the United
States, en route to grossing $975 million worldwide. It was nominated for three
Academy Awards and seven BAFTA Awards, with Emma receiving critical praise to
cement her status as an up-and-coming star. For the next decade Emma stayed
busy filming the Harry Potter series. She reprised the role of Hermione for Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002 and for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban in 2004, and continued to star in the eight-part series through the final film,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, in 2011.

Although they spent their adolescence on film sets, Emma and co-stars
Radcliffe and Grint kept up with their lessons, with five hours of tutoring each day.
Emma took high school equivalency exams, and made high scores in every subject.
She took a year off from school to film the final two Harry Potter movies, but
maintained that she was committed to furthering her education.
 At fifteen, Emma became the youngest person to appear on the cover of Teen
Vogue magazine. She also participated in a panel, with Pierce Brosnan, Kenneth
Branagh, and Samantha Morton, to select young directors “First Light” of 2004, for
the award ceremony of the films in Leicester Square in London. She also played
Hermione in The Queen’s Handbag (The Handbag Queen), a special mini-episode
of Harry Potter for the 80th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II of the United
Kingdom.

Although Emma became closely identified with the character of Hermione

Granger, as an adolescent the young actress wanted to be seen as more. In 2007,
she starred in another film based on a children's novel, Ballet Shoes, by Noel
Streatfeild. The film aired on BBC One, garnering decent reviews with Watson in
the lead role. In 2008, she branched out into animated work, voicing the character
of Princess Pea in The Tale of Despereaux.

After the conclusion of Harry Potter, Emma was cast in My Week with Marilyn
(2011), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), The Bling Ring (2013), This Is The
End (2013) and Noah (2014). In 2017, she played the lead role of Belle in the live-
action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, which became the highest-grossing live
action musical of all time. That year, Emma won the MTV Movie & TV Awards
inaugural gender-neutral award for Best Actor in Movie. “MTV’s move to create a
genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone,” said
Emma. “But to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in
someone else’s shoes. And that doesn’t need to be separated into two different
categories.” Also in 2017, Emma joined Tom Hanks and John Boyega for the thriller
The Circle, which earned middling reviews despite its strong cast. Next up for the
actress was the prominent role of Meg March in Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation of
Little Women.
As a teenager coming of age as an established movie star, Emma also
emerged as a fashionista, her style catching the eye of many major figures in the
fashion industry. "I love fashion. I think it's so important, because it's how you show
yourself to the world," she once told Teen Vogue.

In September 2009, Emma announced that she was working with People
Tree, a fashion label that promotes fair trade. Emma catapulted into the world of
high fashion and modeling when she was chosen as the face of Burberry's
Autumn/Winter 2009 collection, and again for the 2010 Spring/Summer collection.

Emma took fans by surprise when she chopped off her long locks, and
debuted a pixie haircut in August 2010. The new looks helped her shed the child
star image of her Potter days, and in July 2011, Emma graced the cover of Vogue.
The next month, she starred in a commercial for Lancôme perfume.

Maintaining her commitment to her education, in July 2009, Emma said that
she chose Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island, for her university
studies. Emma claimed she chose an American university over a British education
because the American system allows students to study many subjects at once.
Brown was also a place, Emma said, where she could more easily blend in. “I want
to be normal,” she said. "I really want anonymity." In September 2009, she began
studying English Literature. In March 2011, she announced that she was going to
pause her studies in order to promote the latest Harry Potter film and focus on her
projects as an actress. Even so, she enrolled at the University of Oxford to study
English as a complement to Brown’s course and made it clear that she would return
to finish her studies.

Emma Watson had rejected several incredible offers to act because she did
not want to interrupt her classes because the experience of the university is very
important. On May 25, 2014, Emma graduated from Brown University (USA), with a
degree in English Literature.
 In June 2011, Emma agreed to pose for the British artist Mark Demsteader, in
order to produce a collection of 30 paintings made with different techniques such as
Aguada, charcoal, ink, and oil. By accepting, Emma requested that 10% of the
proceeds from the sale of the paintings be donated to CAMFED International, a
British non-governmental organization (NGO) working in rural Africa, which seeks to
introduce girls to the school environment providing them with books, uniforms and
other supplies. In September 2012, Emma ended up representing CAMFED
International as her official ambassador, and said she was happy to support
Camfed and the incredible work they do.

In 2013, Emma Watson posed for the photos in favor of the Natural Beauty
campaign, by the American photographer James Houston, with the intention of
raising funds for the Global Green USA, a non-governmental organization focused
on sustainability and the preservation of the environment. The exhibition was
launched on April 22, on Earth Day, in New York and Los Angeles. In October
2013, she was declared Woman of the Year by the review British GQ. In 2014, she
received the Best British Style award at the British Fashion Awards, and in July
2014, the UN named her Ambassador of GoodWill.

In a 2019 interview, Emma stated she divides her time between London and
New York City. She refuses to publicly discuss her romantic relationships, stating, "I
can't talk about my boyfriend in an interview and then expect people not to take
paparazzi pictures of me walking around outside my home. You can't have it both
ways." She has been in a relationship with American businessman Leo Robinton
since 2019.

When asked about her faith in 2014, Emma described herself as a spiritual
universalist. In February 2016, Emma was appointed visiting fellow at Lady
Margaret Hall, Oxford University.

On coping with intense fame from a young age, she has said that remaining
rooted in her own identity helped her eventually "find peace". In 2013, she became
certified to teach yoga and meditation. As part of this certification, she attended a
week-long meditation course at a Canadian facility, in which residents are not
allowed to speak, in order to figure out how to be at home by herself. Regarding her
meditation training, she stated in an interview with Elle Australia that an uncertain
future meant finding "a way to always feel safe and at home within myself. Because
I can never rely on a physical place."

Most people probably recognize Emma from the Harry Potter franchise as her
character, Hermione Granger. Even as the strong-willed, hard-working, quick-
thinking and determined Hermione Granger, Emma inspired us through her on-
screen character. She demonstrated that girls can be as tough as boys, that hard
work pays off, and that if you persevere at something, your dream will come true.
 As a child actress, fame can be a difficult world to negotiate. However, Emma
demonstrated that despite her celebrity status she could also stay grounded and
not let it go to her head. She completed her schooling education whilst playing
Hermione, and then also her higher education at Oxford and Brown Universities
alongside her acting career. Emma Watson is an inspiration for that alone: she has
managed to juggle fame and the real world and keep them in balance.

Since Hermione, Watson has appeared as many strong female characters,

most recently as Belle in Beauty in the Beast. One of the reasons why Emma is
adamant about empowering women on-screen, is because she is a feminist activist
off-screen. We love her for this! As a role model to many young women and men,
we believe that our society will listen to what she has to say about equality. The
passion, determination and eloquence through which Watson fights for what she
believes in, is an inspiration. We can’t wait to see what she does next!