In Defense Of 9-Year-Old Emma Watson, The Most Prepared Person In Hollywood

By Victoria McNally | Celebrity | March 7, 2017 |

By Victoria McNally | Celebrity | March 7, 2017 |

Emma Watson’s new movie Beauty And The Beast is coming out next week, which means it’s officially time for her to make the rounds on all the late night talk shows. And of course, Jimmy Kimmel had a special surprise to embarrass her and delight us: showing her an outtake from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s(/Philosopher’s) Stone, where she can clearly be seen mouthing the lines of the other young actors alongside her.

“This is actually quite traumatic for me! I created issues because of this. I would ruin takes,” she admitted to Kimmel. “I couldn’t help myself! I was such a loser. I really love those books, I really wanted to do my job well, and I kinda overdid it.”

Bless Emma Watson for her humility and her self-effacing groundedness, but I, for one, will not stand for this kind of talk. Here’s an alternative idea: Baby Emma Watson is a consummate professional who will not tolerate unprepared scene partners, and maybe if baby Daniel Radcliffe had spent more time rehearsing his lines in the first place, she wouldn’t have to feed them to him every time the cameras were rolling.

In fact, I would argue that Emma’s over-preparedness is not a fault for her to work through, but a symptom of a larger society that teaches competent, intelligent women to both bend over backwards and appear to exert no effort in the process, all while men of similar status can achieve the bare minimum while depending on them to pick up the slack. so seriously, watch that footage again. Look at how Daniel’s watching her lips! How come he’s not in trouble for needing her to feed him lines? What, he’s the Boy Who Lived so he doesn’t have to try as hard??

Of course, I’m exaggerating for hilarious effect here. It’s not baby Daniel’s fault, and I’m definitely not bitter over an elementary school performance in my own childhood, where I was inexplicably the only performer who knew all the material, no sir. What I am really trying to say is this: Emma Watsons of the world, do not be embarrassed for having passion and ambition and for showing up to do the work. Especially if that’s literally the exact reason you’ve been hired to do your job, because you know director Chris Columbus and his crew were looking at each other like, “This is the most Hermione person who’s ever existed, how did we nail this casting so correctly?” YOUR STUDIOUSNESS IS A FEATURE, NOT A BUG.