The Oscar-winning role Emma Watson turned down: “It just didn’t work out”
For a few years now, in my house, there has been a tradition over the Christmas period to watch all of the Harry Potter films, all eight of them, in order, and this year I had a realisation not present in any of the other years’ marathon viewings. And it was that in the seventh film, The Deathly Hallows Part One, Emma Watson suddenly becomes absolutely brilliant.
Quite why this transition occurs, I have no idea; for the rest of the movies, she’s just fine, not bad at all, perfectly competent and of course plays the part of Hermione Grainger just as well, if not better than any other kid could have. But something shifts between the sixth and seventh films, with David Yates’ 2010 movie sparking something in her that transforms her from a capable child actor to a proper, deserves an award grown-up actor.
For a while, it seemed like Watson would be the one out of the leading three actors in the magical franchise to go on and achieve genuine megastar status. As the Potter films finished, she took on some interesting roles in films like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Bling Ring, before landing a female lead in a big-budget biblical film, Russell Crowe and Darren Aronofsky’s Noah in 2014.
Despite some middling reviews, it was a box office success, and it seemed like Watson would continue being cast as someone who could, if not carry a film herself, then definitely carry it alongside another big-name actor. Disney then initially came calling about casting her in the lead in a live-action remake of Cinderella, but she turned that down, and it went to Lily James instead.
Then, a year later, she did get her first blockbuster, the lead role in Disney’s massive remake of Beauty and the Beast, one of the highest-grossing animations of all time. The film and her performance got great reviews, and it still stands in the top 20 biggest box office movies in history. But starring in the film meant she wasn’t able to appear in a movie that would go on to change Emma Stone’s career for good.
Watson was originally considered to star alongside Ryan Gosling in 2016’s La La Land, the love letter to jazz and Los Angeles directed by Damien Chazelle that would go on to win a raft of awards including ‘Best Director’ and ironically a ‘Best Actress’ gong for Stone.
Watson had decided that the preparation involved for Beauty and the Beast meant she had to drop out, telling Sirius XM: “(Beauty and the Beast) wasn’t a movie I could just sort of step into. I knew I had horse training, I knew I had dancing, I knew I had three months of singing ahead of me, and I knew I had to be in London to really do that”.
Adding, “This wasn’t a movie I could just kind of parachute into. I knew I had to do the work, and I had to be where I had to be. So, you know, scheduling conflict-wise, it just didn’t work out.”
Stone, of course, has gone on to be possibly the most feted actress in Hollywood for the past decade, winning another Oscar for Poor Things in 2023 and being Academy Award-nominated for two other films in Birdman and The Favourite.
Meanwhile, it’s difficult to know exactly what has happened with Watson in the last five years or so; some believed she had deliberately retired from acting, which she refuted, and for some time, she certainly seemed to focus on activism and social justice issues. She hasn’t appeared in a film since 2019’s Little Women and currently has no upcoming projects scheduled.
