Source Watsonuncensored for the scans if you use them, credit it if you use the transcript, please.
TRANSCRIPT:
When, in September 2014, Emma Watson stood before an international audience and implored men to "take up the mantle" of gender equality, her speech - to launch the UN's He For She campaign - went viral within hours. Millions around the world watched as Emma revealed that she felt she had been sexualised by the press at 14 and had seen female friends ditch sport at 15 "because they didn't want to appear muscly".
In the years since, thanks to the launch of a feminist book group, Our Shared Shelf, and her work as the UN's youngest ever Goodwill Ambassador, Emma has solidified her status as one of Hollywood's most high-profile feminists.
But in an exclusive interview with Grazia, the actor has revealed that she once stopped herself from speaking out about sexism because she was too afraid of being labelled "difficult".
"I had a huge fear that someone was going to call me a diva and was so terrified that I would do anything to appease anyone in order to avoid it," she said. "At some point, the sting has to come out of words like diva. It was ammunition against me because I was so afraid of being called spoilt or difficult, or of people saying movie stardom or fame changed me."
When Grazia meets Emma, squirreled away in a hotel room in Central London, she's got a quiet confidence about her. Not so long ago, the 26-year-old star admitted that she had only recently found her own voice. Indeed, despite numerous roles on screen, it is arguably her role as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador that has finally moved her away from being - in her own words - the "Harry Potter girl".
She's smart, funny and engaging as she tells us, "It only happened for me recently. I was like actually 'Go for it!' - say what you need to say. Other people's perception of you can't be the most important thing. You have to let your perception of yourself have a lot more weight."
Her comments will no doubt draw parallels with fellow Hollywood feminist Jennifer Lawrence, who last year wrote that she had initially given up fighting over the pay gap between male and female actors because "she didn't want to seem 'difficult' or 'spoilt'.
The Oscar winner added, "At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the internet and realised every man I was working with definitely didn't worry about being 'difficult' or 'spoilt'.
For her part, Emma has grown so passionate about feminism she recently announced she was taking a year off to study, read and pursue her knowledge of the movement, while also concentrating on her own "personal development".
Her current position? That "what makes you a feminist is not saying that you are a feminist, it's actually in how you choose to live your life, what you do and the action that you take.
"Feminism is more of a verb than just a description, so trying to change the idea around that is quite important."
And top priority is changing the perception that women are defined by what they look like, which she argues is still a huge factor blocking gender equality.
"There is certainly a big part of conditioning in society that still very much tells women that the most important thing is their appearance and their bodies and how they look.
"That's a very, very strong message. I'm someone who is lucky enough to have gone to school and university. At times, I have just felt so irritated because what ultimately seemed like the most important thing was how I looked. I just thought, 'Why do I bother?'
"It's changing, and I think women are learning to be valued for what they're saying, doing and thinking, for who they are. But there's still some strong messages saying what really matters is how you look in a bikini."
Prior to announcing her career break, Emma shot her latest film, The Colony, released on Friday. In it, she plays Lena, a young woman whose boyfriend Daniel is abducted by dictator Augusto Pinochet's secret police during the Chilean military coup in 1973.
It was a part she says she was attracted to thanks to the film's reversal of gender norms. "It's difficult for me not to look at it through a feminist lens and try and think of the representation of women in general," she told us.
"I felt like there was a real role reversal going on in the film where, for once, it wasn't the girl waiting to be rescued. She was the one doing the rescuing."
40 comments:
Can you witte here please? in the magazine the letter is small
Right-click on the picture and open it in a new tab/window ;)
Oh!! Thanks you so much, Eden :)
She is in a position to do whatever she wants and that's a fact. But I'm seriously bored by her by this point. She tackles only one subject on every ocasion. Maybe I'm wrong, but back in the day she seemed so passionate about so many things in life. It seems like she touches one thing, gets super excited and quits. The result being, she hasn't really done very well as an actress (even this Twilight girl is doing better), her feminist talk is just talk. I don't know. I truly believe she has the best intentions, but for now she is just a celebrity, not an artist by any means.
Agree with Robin!
Same thing with her study at Worcester College in Oxford.
There is a pic with thumps up and "...will doing the study seriously...". And then quits for a B-Movie called Bling Ring.
We have Anno's criticizing her with some nonsense about for not doing enough for her projects then when she does she gets this from Robin, really.
And to both of you I say, yes she has what she has earned and you have what you have earned what do you do to make the world even a little better for anyone. If you had her resource what would you do.
If you did success in discouraging her efforts would that really make you happy!
Yeah, the thing with Worcester College was sad. I thought she was eager beaver enough to do her master in English. She got a very good education at famous Dragon school as a litte child and then changed to Headington girls school. An Ivy League school. So if she take a spare time off acting I think it's a good idea to get the Master degree in English.
HeForShe issues can be done casually.
Are you guys for real?? Emma did a year/semester (don't remember) in Oxford as part of her program in Brown; when she was finished, she went back to Brown, and she graduated last year. She got her degree. She didn't get bored, she just took a longer time to graduate to do other things at the same time.
All her life choices which she worked for and achieved. HeforShe is working I am part of it and it always easy to criticize than do but I will stick to doing and leave the spite to you Anno.
@ D
"...Are you guys for real?? Emma did a year/semester (don't remember) in Oxford as part of her program in Brown..."
Emma quits after a few months. You have to stay a year!
And she has her bachelor - not her master!
I have no problem with that. I only mention it as a opportunitiy for doing more than only a few "retweets" on her Twitter account"!
She completed her degree finishing her last year at Brown after a year out. Not uncommon Anno. But thanks for at least using some facts and not just bile. No Idea what Emma did that made people so mad at her.
She is not perfect who is but she is talented hard working and trying to make a difference do some good and live her life. What is so bad about that.
@ Ross Taggart,
."...No Idea what Emma did that made people so mad at her..."
Only facts!
I have made a commitment not to engage with you Anno to freely. So I refute your "Facts" I think she is a good person and hope you find one in your life to make you see spending an hour supporting someone is worth a year of denigrating someone.
Fame didn't change. Social engineering and indoctrination changed her. I completely agree with Robin. She's not Emma Watson. She's a hollow feminist puppet who's getting hollower everyday. It depresses, saddens and pisses me off. I find her to be a coward. She sold herself to feminism because it was the easy way. It's easier to have other people thinking for you than it is to think for yourself. Contemptible coward.
I'm only sticking around out of a vague hope she might still have some good performances left in her. If she quits, and I'm thinking it's likely, I'm gone. I invested in the "renaissance girl" who wanted to do everything and was passionate about more than PROPAGANDA. Not in this puppet.
This was the ultimate bait and switch.
I see no change in her she simply declared herself a feminist as I did. Her name is Emma Watson mine is Ross Taggart and you are Anonymous how brave.
I don't think anyone like me or not would say I don't think for myself and Emma has numerous quotes attributed to her and HeforShe a new initiative. what little I do know about her for certain is that she is no man's puppet and never was.
You invested in a projection of something you wanted her to be she was not that so you are angry. Why not take responsibility and not wait around for someone else to do things for you that would not be thinking for yourself or at all really.
I invested in what SHE said she was. I didn't invest in what anyone else said of her. Her public image was built on her OWN comments and a LITTLE bit on Hermione. If there's some of the artist still their, I'll stick around. If she's nothing BUT a feminist groupmind puppet, I'm gone. I'm already gathering new inspirations.
"Art is individualism." If she is not an individual, she has no right to call herself an artist.
"Fame didn't change. Social engineering and indoctrination changed her. I completely agree with Robin. She's not Emma Watson. She's a hollow feminist puppet who's getting hollower everyday. It depresses, saddens and pisses me off. I find her to be a coward. She sold herself to feminism because it was the easy way. It's easier to have other people thinking for you than it is to think for yourself. Contemptible coward.
I'm only sticking around out of a vague hope she might still have some good performances left in her. If she quits, and I'm thinking it's likely, I'm gone. I invested in the "renaissance girl" who wanted to do everything and was passionate about more than PROPAGANDA. Not in this puppet."
Please, get some help. You are not okay. That is all.
Do you worshippers of mediocrity always look down at the ground and think of ways to bring yourselves down rather than looking up and thinking of ways to better yourselves?
It's something I've always wanted to ask Emma since she's always worshipped mediocrity. it's the most disgusting thing about her. But you'll do just as well.
In Emma's case I already got my answer. She worships mediocrity so much she's willing to sell her soul to it.
"Do you worshippers of mediocrity always look down at the ground and think of ways to bring yourselves down rather than looking up and thinking of ways to better yourselves?"
lol. As I've said before, I'm an architect who works for a great firm, I help run a garden that provides food for the impoverished in my free time, and I live at the beach - literally a couple minute's walk to a year-round warm beach. Are you sure you want to call me mediocre? I'd hate to see what that makes you.
Worshippers of mediocrity are mostly successful people. Emma worships mediocrity. I am a lower middle class citizen who dreams of better. There must be some sort of guilt driven correlation. Why should I want more while you and Emma obviously want less.
Emma in particular in some interviews seems to want to be on MY level. Mostly voiceless. Invisible.
The most infuriating thing is that she has decided to embrace ideology and the thought processes, the "feminist lens", of the authors she's read and calls this embracing herself. She has not embraced herself. She has made herself into an amalgamation of the authors she's read. That is all.
She is making a stand with many many others with her. She has Learned and changed that is growth. We have to adapt and work together. Public figures are just people to and the ones the want to be with people of any "Level" should be applauded.
If you don't like feminism you won't like her stand but you can at least respect she is taking one. Trying to help all people you can is egalitarian not mediocrity.
Working together for common goal does not diminish you as an individual.
This is getting out of hand. I think I need to delete some comments but I truly don't even know where to start. "puppet", "worshippers of mediocrity" and so on, you lot sound so condescending and obnoxious, it's unbelievable. I get you don't like Emma's stance on feminism, but is there really a need to belittle her or those who agree with her?
Emma is beautiful, intelligent and flighty.
She was so obsessed with Queen of Tearling that she had to have the role and wanted to produce to have some sayso in the development of the project, now she says she is unsure if she is still in the project.
She was in fact at Worchester College -Oxford and quit for Bling Ring. That is a fact. She left before the Semester was completed. Of course she could have been so brillian to finish ahead of time. Bling Ring was truly a sorry role for that. She should have gotten have gotten her MSt.
I like Emma but she is like a bee that goes from flower to flower collecting nectar and returning to the beehive and then she has a new interest.
Of course I know it is difficult for gifted people to decide what they really want to do. But is Feminism- getting paid more in Hollywod worth it. Now if Emma was out there researching low paying jobs for women in factories and other lowly workplaces that exploit women, I would have respect, but she is a true celebrity living on the Red Carpet. Be a true Feminist and get out there and do something for the poor women out there.
Feminism, the way she works at it is senseless. I looked up Anne Hathaway's concept and interests for family, adoption ... that is worth following. It seems Anne really wants to help women live a more respectful life- beginning with childhood and not after the Red Carpet. Am I cynical, but what Emma has said and what she has supported is non-sense. How many millions does she have? Is she upset that Tom Hanks got more money than she did? Or Russell Crowe? She has not proven herself that good yet.
One can find her cute and intelligent and live in a cloud of bliss with what she says and does. I will continue watching the films she is in if they are good, but what she says is in my regard not to be taken serious. She needs more life experience and think about real issues where people are truly suffering.
Just wanted to say, I agree with Robin.I no longer see her as an artist. sometimes I have the feeling that she is afraid to not be noticed so Feminism is the poster now. I am glad that she has not slipped into scandal, drugs, drunken bouts and rehab for attention. She does have an extra curricula activity for all her free time.
It can take a lot of words to say nothing, Emma uses fewer and says so much more.
Really?
Yes
Gee wiz Ross! Which words impress you?
Many she is know for her Quotable comments.
But for me Davos and the UN since you ask.
What has happened with HeforShe since then- dead silnce.
many things are happening it an initiative not a club Emma says things when she has something to contribute has do we all. She did not want to start a movement with her at it head she wanted us as men of conscience to do what we can to help women struggle for equality.
If she made speeches everyday she would be accused used of starting a cult would she not.
Oh, I thought she had said at one point, in the beginning, that there would be more, taking it to a higher level. Maybe I misunderstood.
No just a little Impatient perhaps.
Post a Comment