Emma Watson has retired in recent years, and quite consciously, as she recently said. In the years after the last Harry Potter part, however, the British actress was very present in the cinema. In 2013, for example, she starred in Sofia Coppola’s satire about the so-called Bling Ring – it was about a real criminal case in which a group of young people broke into the homes of celebrities and stole their expensive clothes.
Emma Watson embodied the character Nicki, the so has nothing to do with her signature role, Hermione Granger and that’s why it’s so exciting. The real role model of the Bling Ring role was Alexis Haines. In the run-up to The Bling Ring’s release, Watson lashed out at the character and his values. Alexis Haines was hit hard by the statements, as she stated years later.
Emma Watson on her Bling Ring role: “How do you play someone you hate?”
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Emma Watson in The Bling Ring
In a 2013 interview, Watson said of her character that she embodies “everything I strongly oppose: She is superficial, materialistic, vain and immoral.” The characters in The Bling Ring celebrate a rather thoughtless lifestyle that focuses on consumerism and celebrity cult. The film rather criticizes all of this between the lines. Watson became more direct in her statements:
She is all of that and I realized that I hate her. how do you play someone you have However, I found it interesting and it gave me a new perspective on what my work or my role as an actress can be.
But she did, and her words did not go unheeded.
How Emma Watson’s real-life role model reacted to the statements
In 2010, Alexis Haines served half a year in prison. In 2020, Haines guest-starred on a talk show and looked back at the time the film came out about part of her life. She found Watson’s statements insensitive. “The problem I had with her comments was that she knew I had been convicted.” In this context, it has already become known that Haines was addicted to heroin. She was under treatment when the film was made.
Haines criticized Watson for only addressing part of her character image in her comments: “By that time I had already said that I had been sexually abused during my childhood […]”
In this context, Emma Watson’s statements can certainly be perceived as insensitive. At the moment she did it, the actress may not have realized she was attacking a real person.
More on the subject:
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In the podcast we answer important questions about the series, which Harry Potter creator JK Rowling is involved in. Below: Why is Rowling’s involvement so criticized. And what are the pros and cons of remaking the books?