Still in costume which consisted of a cute pair of jeans and a t-shirt, Emma Watson sat down with ComingSoon.net and talked about Hermione’s struggles with Ron in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Watson joked about how her character’s jealous side comes out in this film and the great lengths Hermione goes to in order to get back at her friend she now has feelings for:
Q: This movie is like the romantic comedy “Harry Potter.” Is that right? Is there a lot of that?
Emma Watson: Yeah. It kind of is. It really, certainly for Hermione in this one it’s about her relationship with Ron and how that develops and doesn’t develop because obviously his kind of affair going on with Lavender. So I think it’ll be very humorous. It’s certainly been hilarious to film and we’ve been in absolute fits of laughter to the point where we’ve had to go, “I’m sorry. We need five or ten minutes because, frankly, this just isn’t happening.” So it’s been really, really fun.
Q: What’s been the best part of what you’ve filmed so far?
Watson: I guess one of the things that I like most about this one is that obviously the relationship, but also there’s loads of scenes between Hermione and Harry because Ron and Hermione have all these problems. That kind of brings Harry and Hermione closer and there’s loads of scenes of them talking and there’s a scene where Hermione sees Ron kiss Lavender for the first time. They both really sympathize with each other because Hermione is really upset about Ron and Harry is also really down about Ginny who he really likes, but can’t do anything about. So I really like those scenes. I know it’s not the most exciting and it doesn’t have the most visual FX or there aren’t any dragons or anything in it, but for me I think they’re really funny and really kind of sympathetic. I think those are going to be really good.
Q: What are some of the way that you show your jealousy?
Watson: Well, Hermione takes Cormac who’s in the film [and] is this horrible kind of slimy guy who is kind of really arrogant. He really shows off about everything and is really horrible. Hermione, as she says, he’s vulgar and wouldn’t even consider him until, obviously, Ron kind of really hurts her and goes off with Lavender. So she kind of uses him to get back at Ron because she knows that’s the person that will annoy him the most, if she went off with him, because they have this kind of competitive Quidditch thing going on as well. It’s quite clever and just shows you the lengths that girls will go to. It’s quite funny because he’s actually genuinely quite cute on Hermione and she’s trying to get away from him.
Q: Cormac is?
Watson: Cormac really likes Hermione. It’s really funny. We’re doing a scene at Slughorn’s dinner for SlugClub and we were doing a shot, and again I just couldn’t keep it together for the show, but basically Cormac is giving Hermione all these looks and David [Yates] was really experimenting with how ridiculous he could make it. Cormac was kind of licking cream off of his finger and looking at Hermione and all of this stuff. I don’t know how he expected me to keep it so together. So Hermione is enraged by this like, “Oh, my God!” She completely can’t handle it. It’s so funny. It’s really funny and Freddie [Stroma] plays it really well. Good things are in store. It’s going to be really funny.
Q: Does Ron get that you’re jealous and upset by his new girlfriend?
Watson: I think he does, but he’s really jealous because he finds out from Harry, or well, he doesn’t find out from Harry, but he kind of asks the question, “Do you think Hermione and Cormac kissed?” They probably didn’t. It wasn’t shown in the film. Harry says, “They probably did.” He gets really jealous and that’s kind of like, “Oh, well.” So I think he does get it. I think that they’re both so in denial about their feelings that it’s funny.
Q: Can you talk about getting the seventh book and reading that?
Watson: My goodness, yeah. It was really awful because I had just gone on holiday when I was being sent the book and it went to my house. So I actually had to go cue up and buy it because I wanted to read it so bad and didn’t want to wait until I got home. So that was kind of awkward because everyone was kind of looking at me like, “Oh, my God, it’s Hermione. She’s getting in line with us to get the book.” That was really funny. I went down to Borders and I got quite a lot of attention.
Q: Did you read the end of the book first or wait until you got there?
Watson: No. I was really good. I was really restrained. I didn’t want the magic to be over. I wanted to kind of make it last as long as I could. I did read it to the end though and it was good.
Q: So Rupert is the only one who went to the end first.
Watson: That’s such a Rupert thing to do. He’s amazingly lazy. He should make a sport of being lazy.
Q: Yeah, that’s what Daniel [Radcliffe] was saying. He told us about the thing with the DVD player.
Watson: He’s like nothing that you’ve ever seen. He’s so lazy in a really kind of endearing way, but that’s such a Rupert thing to do.
Q: Does everyone still hangout in his dressing room?
Watson: Yeah, kind of. It is. Mine is kind of boring in comparison because he’s got all the games. He’s got table-tennis and pool and everything. His is still definitely the place to be.
Q: Have you been emotionally or mentally preparing yourself for when this all comes to an end in a couple of years?
Watson: Yeah, kind of. I guess that I’m just aware that this is the last one and I know what happens. I know where it’s all going and how it’s going to wrap itself up. Obviously I’ll be really sad, but I’ll also be really excited because it means that other things can start.
Q: I read that you recently did your first new project in doing “Ballet Shoes.” How has it changed you as an actress to start working with other people on a different story?
Watson: It really gave me a lot of confidence and I learned so much from doing it. Doing a film for TV was so different in terms of the pace and in terms of the budget, in terms of everything. So I really loved it a lot and I’m so glad that I did it.
Q: It’s much more an intimate thing than you’re used to.
Watson: Yeah, it really was and I loved that because everyone was kind of close and everyone pulled together as a team because it was such a small crew trying to do such a big thing. I really enjoyed it.
Q: What kind of things do you do to let go of Hermione for another role?
Watson: Well, I was really worried about that at first. I was worried that Hermione would come out, that as I was saying the lines that I’d find it hard to be someone else, but because I identified so much with Pauline and her story basically that I surprised myself with how just kind of naturally it came to be her and be in her mindset if that makes sense. So it came pretty easy.
Q: Can you talk about your official website? Are you enjoying running it and what did you want to do with it?
Watson: Yeah, I really do. It’s just a really fun thing to do. It sounds really cheesy, but I really just wanted to give something back. I get so many letters and stuff that I don’t really have a chance to read and I don’t really have a way of communicating with people and with fans of the film and of Hermione and all of that. So I just wanted a way for me to be able to communicate with them because I can’t respond to each individual letter and can’t meet everyone personally because that’d be physically impossible. I just figured that was a really good way to do it and it was a fun way of doing it. I think it’s worked really well and has been really useful. I’m really pleased that I did it.
