While Emma Watson had to audition a staggering amount of times for Harry Potter, many of her post-Hermione roles have been outright offers. Because the actor is a household name with a massive fan base, she doesn’t often have to compete with other actors for a role. Still, there have been a few times when Watson went to bat for a part that she desperately wanted.
After spending more than a decade making Harry Potter movies, Watson was itching to try something different. The Brown University alum always wanted to be a character actor. Thus, she was looking for a role that would allow her to morph into someone else entirely. So when she stumbled upon the script for Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, she had a strong feeling that the character Nicki would do just that.
Emma Watson fought to be in the ‘The Bling Ring’ cast
As luck would have it, Coppola was also interested in Watson playing the role. However, it wasn’t an easy victory for the Beauty and the Beast actor. Nicki was drastically different from Watson, so she knew she’d have to put in work to be believable. In an interview with GQ, Watson explained her passion for the part.
“I actually fought for the role; I really wanted to play it,” Watson revealed. “First of all, I was a big fan of Sofia’s. I’m probably the least obvious choice to play the role, as she’s the epitome of everything that I am considered not to be.”
The ‘Harry Potter’ actor shocked her friends with her audition tape
Ultimately, Watson ended up embracing the vast differences between herself and her character. In fact, she seemed to have fun surprising people with her take of the character. Watson even had fun shocking her friends with her audition tape. Apparently, they were all taken aback to see the Noah star do something so drastically different.
“This has been a really big departure for me; it’s a really big character,” Watson shared. “The fun thing for me was that I showed my audition tape to my friends. Half of them had their jaw drop, and the rest were just hysterical, laughing because it was so different. That’s so exciting for me, because it meant I really was acting.”
Watson went from hating her character to being able to portray her
Eventually, Watson’s tenacity helped her win the part. However, the challenges didn’t stop because she booked the role. Even though she wanted to play Nicki, the character’s personal ethos made it hard for Watson to connect with her at first. However, that difficultly ended up pushing the actor to think about her craft differently.
“The character is everything that I felt really strongly against – she’s superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral,” Watson added. “She’s all of these things, and I realized that I really hated her. How do you play someone that you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be.”
Clearly, being in The Bling Ring was a huge departure from what Watson was used to up until that point. However, she seems to have really enjoyed the experience. And while fans will likely never get to see her audition tape, the film is currently streaming on Netflix.
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