For a long time it was handy dinner party fact that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One (2010) briefly filmed at my late grandparents’ house, and appeared as Hermione Granger’s house in the film. Even this required extensive exposure of my grandparents to Warner Brothers’ lawyers, the film crew and, of course, to young Emma Watson herself.
Neither of my grandparents had heard of Harry Potter before they were approached, and throughout filming, they failed entirely to notice her, though there was some vague recollection of ‘that rather mousy girl’ from my grandpa, who was far more taken with Susan, the 60-something woman in charge of props.
This description stayed with me as Watson’s star rose and rose, plateaued, and turned gender political. Watson, most people over 40 agree, is a key example of how far the British thespian national treasure has declined: where once we had Shakespearean queens like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Emma Thompson, now we have little more than a poor woman’s Keira Knightley (and Keira Knightley).
Watson is certainly a sign of artistically thinner times: she may be good enough for a generation whose childhood literary imagination extended no further than wizards, but seeing her as Belle in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast was a cheapening, sobering experience for those of us who cried and swooned over the Disney cartoon classic in 1991. Feminist point-scoring to the last, Watson refused to wear a corset. ‘In Emma’s reinterpretation, Belle is an active princess. She did not want a dress that was corseted or that would impede her in any way,’ said the film’s costume designer Jacqueline Durran. How radical.
Watson’s last role as an actress was in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film Little Women. Since then she has kept herself rather weakly in the limelight by becoming a trans rights cheerleader, and, like her other Potter stars Eddie Redmayne and Daniel Radcliffe, turning on her fairy godmother J.K. Rowling for her ‘transphobia’. Rowling has posted on X that Watson and her fellow Potter actors were busy ‘pouring petrol on the flames’ when she was getting death threats over trans rights and that unlike them, she ‘wasn’t a multimillionaire at 14’. Watson is now enrolled on a DPhil at Oxford on the philosophy of creative writing and, rather than jump on the rosé wine brigade, Watson has launched a gin distillery with her brother called Renais. The booze business gets them all in the end.
Watson wants people to love her. Of her public disavowal of J.K. Rowling, she mewled last week on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast that ‘It’s my deepest wish that people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.’ Hm.
She also discussed her recent driving ban for speeding, saying ‘my shame is everywhere’ and launching into a mea culpa about how she had some missing basic life skills. Now we learn that for all her lofty political ideas, those years being ferried in luxury to Hollywood sets (and my grandparents’ house in north London) were fatal for her road sense.
I would wager that her problem with ‘some pretty basic life things’ is more connected to her absorption in naff, damaging politicking
‘They literally won’t insure you to drive yourself to work,’ she said. ‘I did not have the experience or skills, clearly, which I now will and do.’ Good to know. Watson didn’t attend the court hearing but was gracious about the fine of £1,044. She ‘fully understands her position and will accept her punishment,’ her lawyer said, adding: ‘I ask you to give her credit for the plea of guilty. She is a lady in a position to pay an appropriate fine.’
On the podcast with Shetty, Watson, worth about £59 million, leaned into the learning experience of being done for speeding. ‘It’s been a discovery and a journey that’s been humbling because on a movie set I’m able to do all these extremely complex things: stunts, sing, dance… and then I get home and I’m like: “OK, Emma, you seem to be unable to remember keys, you seem unable to keep yourself at 30mph in a 30mph speed limit. You don’t seem able to do some pretty basic life things.”’
I would wager that her problem with ‘some pretty basic life things’ is more connected to her absorption in naff, damaging politicking. If you live in a world where J.K. Rowling is the enemy, and men who say they are women deserve the full scope of feminist passion because ‘trans women are women’, then perhaps it’s no surprise that the banal facts of speed limits might seem alien or mundane.
Of course, tens of millions of pounds, global celebrity, and being the world’s most famous childhood witch, might also make the rules of ordinary life feel remote. Overall, her conviction seems unlikely to cause her too much grief; she’s already taken up cycling, and any opportunity for a spot of soul-searching is no doubt welcome for a woman who is now a humble philosophy doctoral student, albeit with millions in the bank.
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