Actress, feminist, excellent student

What Emma Watson is fighting for (and why she is accused of hypocrisy)

Disney fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” was released, the main role in which is played by one of the highest paid actresses of the young generation, British Emma Watson. In the past - Hermione in the Harry Potter over -off -off franchise, at the age of 26, Watson is the UN Goodwill Ambassador and an activist with a worked out image and a million fans. Medusa tells how an excellent student and know-it-all from the beloved children's saga of Millennialov became an exemplary star and why her public speeches cause a lot of controversy.

Disney princess, whom we have been waiting for so long. Or not?

The output of the “Beauty and the Beasts”, the Rome of the important story of the Disney Renaissance, accompanied a noticeable media excitement. Firstly, Emma Watson is not so much starring: over the past five years she has been released seven films, and then-only a few noticeable roles. Secondly, the project was declared as a modernized story about the beauty, taking the situation into its own hands. For the sake of this role, which the actress presented as a stepy in her career, Emma refused to play in La La Lada - another ambitious, singing and dancing girl in a yellow dress. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Watson says that Belle played by her is not only a drunken reader, like the actress herself, but also the inventor: for example, she understands the engineering mechanisms and teaches the girls to whip the foam on horse force. And even the ridicule of others do not affect its determination.

Whatever Watson said about her beauty, there were not so many innovatives in the film. He not only copies the animation beloved by many and the soundtrack of 25 years ago, but also translates the same controversial thought -that you can become happy with the kidnapper and the monster if you see a person in it. In the article by The Guardian “Emma Watson: feminist to the brain or polished brand?” The author skeptically notes that Stockholm syndrome with a stretch can be called a romantic line.

As a result, the film shot on a grand scale and attention to the details turned out to be conservative. “Beauty and the Beast” does not justify expectations too much: Watson does not shine here as an actress, and her heroine does not become a Disney princess of a new generation. Two years ago, Emma had already refused to play a “passive” Cinderella (she eventually became Lily James), but Belle doesn’t tear Disney templates. Especially against the backdrop of other recent heroines of the studio - independent princesses Merida from the “brave heart”, Elsa from the “cold heart” or Moana. Watson is trying to enter his Belle in this row, as if refusing to admit that for Disney it is only a reinterpatration of a golden hit. And then the question arises: is it enough to remove the corset to be an independent woman?

Clever and excellent student

Hermione Granger all believed so, because behind her stood exactly the same Watson - an insightful and well -mannered girl from a good family and an elite school (a kind of British Hogwarts , where the son and grandson of the writer Tolkien studied), with a complex of an excellent student and a motto “I want to know everything”. Colleagues and loved ones call Emma a rather shy than sociable, and over her habit of burying in the book right on the site, participants in the film crew torn all the years of filming Potteriana. Discussing the participation in the last parts of Harry Potter, the actress set the condition - she should have the opportunity to combine cinema and study.

The older Watson became, the more she had doubts that the acting work would become the main thing in her life. Potteriana brought her glory and millions of pounds (except for advertising contracts with Burberry and Lancome), but closer to the final of the saga in the tabloids, the news did not appear about Watson's secular exits, but about its five and five plus. Two years ago, Watson was estimated at 34 million pounds; By that time, she already had a diploma of the bachelor of English literature and the status of the Ambassador of the UN good will.

To do everything on the five is the main feature of Watson. Even in her favorite yoga and meditation, the actress received a teaching certificate: she says that with her schedule, number of flights and public burden, only the ability to find inner peace helps her. Like many who became famous at an early age (and at the time of the release of the first “Potter” she was only 11), Watson is well familiar with the impostor syndrome - and, importantly, the actress is not afraid to talk about him. It is about this-growing up under the close attention of the whole world that Watson spoke in an interview with another young star, journalist and former “blogger girl” Tavi Gevinson: “The more I try, the more my self-doubt. It seems to me that it turns out that I am that I am a soap bubble, that I do not deserve anything that I have achieved. I can never live up to the expectations of everyone who has at least some opinion about me. ”

Actress or public figure?

Even in adolescence, Emma Watson turned out to be the heroine of a secular chronicle with headlines like "look, Hermione became a real beauty." Later, she will say that the manipulations of media and growing up helped her to reconsider her role and think about rights - not only personal. “At eight years, I was embarrassed when I was called imperious-but I just wanted to put a home performance for my parents. At the age of 14, the media began to exploit my sexuality. At the age of 15, my friends began to throw sports because they did not want to seem masculine. And at the age of 18, my friends-Parny were already ashamed to openly express their feelings. ”

At the age of 19, the actress, who at this point was increasingly called the style icon, connected to the Fair Trade movement, which advocates ethical production. The admission to the prestigious Braunov University of English literature did not prevent Emma Watson from going to Zambia and Bangladesh - to see with their own eyes the conditions in which women work in local factories. After this trip, she decided to buy things of independent brands sewn without the use of slave labor and go out on the red paths only in “green” dresses. Even her luxurious Calvin Klein outfit from last year's ball of the costume institute, as it turns out, was made of processed plastic bottles.

In the midst of studies, in 2012, she became the ambassador of Camfed-an organization that helps women in rural areas of Africa get an education. Almost immediately after the diploma, in the summer of 2014, Emma Watson was chosen by the UN Goodwill Ambassador to Protection of Women's Rights. “I want to involve those who usually did not participate in it in the discussion,” she commented on her appointment.

What did Watson actress do all this time? It is no secret that her main role is still behind. After Potter (the franchise has already brought her $ 70 million and continues to bring income so far) Emma Watson does not play cinema so often, and even less often plays. Her two best roles outside Potteriana are a high school student in the drama of “good to be quiet” by Stephen Choboski and a celebrity hunter in the “elite society” of Sofia Coppola (except for a grand episodic exit with an ax in the “Apocalypse of Hollywood”). The only mass film Watson during this time was Darren Aronofsky Darren; Everything else is rather failures and secondary roles. It is unlikely that we will remember her by thriller Alehandro Amenabar “Eclipse”, the historical drama “Colony of Dignidad” or the melodrama “My Week with Marilyn”.

In 2016, Watson officially took a creative break-and all year, according to her, was engaged in intensive self-education. “I was almost about to submit gender research on the annual program, but then I realized that I was studying in practice - communicating with people and reading books.” The open book shelf of the OUR Shared Shelf actress, where she shares the read and beloved (whether it is the "Handle Story" Margaret Etwood or the collection of the essay of David Foster Wallace) confirms that she, as they say, is doing homework well. Among her “outputs” over the past six months is not only a performance on March 8. From time to time, Watson lays his favorite books on New York-for example, writers and activists of Maya Angelou.

In 2017, in addition to “Beauties and the Beasts”, Emma Watson will appear on the screen in just one film - the conspiracy the “Sphere” about the world of total surveillance, the omnipotent Internet and the post -truth. It sounds good (and in the spirit of the “black mirror”), but it seems that we really are waiting for her new speeches than new roles.

The struggle for rights or PR strategy?

The most famous of the public speeches by Emma Watson is her speech at the UN September 20, 2014 in honor of the start of the Heforshe campaign (“Once”): noticeably worried, the actress urged men to think about the rights of their wives, mothers and daughters. “We rarely talk about how gender stereotypes deprive men of freedom. But when men are freed from them, the situation of women will also change. If men do not need to behave aggressively, women will not have to obey. ”

She said that in the mass consciousness of women the rights of women continue to be associated with the muzenoviteism, that her privileged position and a prosperous life do not interfere with the inequality everywhere - including in the fate of loved ones. Before the speech, Emma Watson was specially asked not to use the word “feminism”, fearing that it would scare away a wide audience. But it sounded: Watson devoted part of his speech to his unique property to act on nerves. “As it turned out, I am one of those women whose statements are perceived as too aggressive and anti -mim. Even repulsive ... If you are still infuriated by the word “feminism”, forget about it. It is important not a word, but an idea. Because not all women, but only a small part of them, have the same rights as me. ”

The Heforshe campaign was supposed to connect these ideas of men with the help of a hashtag and local initiatives (that is, to become a kind of online platform for male professionalist organizations and movements at universities, schools and not only). It was assumed that by July 2015 a million participants would join it; Now, after a year and a half, there are only 1.3 million of them. There was no loud unity, but Watson’s speech was remembered: according to Vanity Fair, she changed the rules of the game, and two years later the actress’s words still quote in pop culture. In one of the series of the last Girls season, Lina Danam comes to visit the writer with uncomfortable questions and a punchline from the very speech: “If not me, then who? If not now, then when? "

The approval, however, was not limited. Time Columnist drew attention to the fact that the division only into “she” and “he” is outdated, and it is time for us to unite in the name of equality - regardless of age and biological sex. The actress also recalled the fact that her origin, external data and profession hide from her the problems of most women - and the reluctance of many men to refuse privileges. The opinion also sounded that with the help of Emma Watson or Anne Hathaway, ideas of 40 years ago in a brilliant package resell us. Such pop phheminism is really easier to absorb, but during the rare performances of stars we do not notice the “real” activism, where there are often no success stories, but much more daily struggle.

In addition, critics noticed that the actress’s public performances often coincide in time with the release of her films. On the one hand, there is nothing surprising in this: a massive promotion accompanies the premiere of any movie. On the other hand, to use your public image to give the significance and rationality of the old-fashioned Disney fairy tale-a move in which Watson still did not have an urgent need.

Why is the beauty on the rostrum believe with difficulty

All this does not mean that the arguments of Watson should not be listened to. Of course, the level of discrimination in Hollywood and, for example, India, is not comparable, but even movie stars know what the difference in wages is. “Whether you are a woman on a tea plantation in Kenya, or a brokerage on Wall Street, or a Hollywood star, none of us earns as much as a man,” Watson said in a conversation with Esquire. With each interview, her position becomes more and more clear and neat: the actress clearly gets used to the status of the speaker on social issues. Seriousness and simplicity are its main trump cards. So, in the recent text in Vanity Fair, Emma Watson is represented as a successful and pragmatic woman who continues to develop, although by another 20 years she earned a living not only for herself, but also to her grandchildren (if she has it).

The scandal with a fashionable shoot for this Vanity Fair number (where Emma Watson posed in an openwork jacket on her naked body) is an example of how the British superstar learned to cope with attacks. Many considered that starring the feminist naked. Watson immediately replied to this that being a feminist is first of all the freedom to dispose of his body, and not wait for the approval of others, and feminism itself is not a beating stick. And this confident answer is much more suitable for the heading of the Vanity Fair “ Beauty Buntark ” than the movie heroine, which she promotes this headline.

So why is there so many questions to Watson? The accusations of hypocrisy are addressed to almost every woman who occupies a high position and speaks of non -rights - and the more it is noticeable, the higher the requirements for her. Will Emma Watson discredit that at only 24 years she became one of the UN speakers? What has earned a state on the film adaptation of my favorite book? That she is young, slender and beautiful (and this allegedly spoils the matter and when she performs from the rostrum, and when she starred in gloss)? Or what, together with other women, lays books throughout New York, which, perhaps, found out about not so long ago?

26-year-old Emma Watson, of course, is not the main face of the female movement and not even the main actress of her generation. She could follow the example of many movie stars and not annoy the majority: instead, Watson entered into a public field with a risk. She does not have much experience, but the Hogwarter excellent student is trying to find answers to her (and many) questions, although sometimes it seems as a bobby and even an upstart. “If you put the whole soul in what you are doing, miracles will certainly happen,” said Emma Watson, receiving one of the prizes for his contribution to social movements. And this, indeed, does not differ from Hermione: “I hope to do something good for this world,” she said many years ago. - And what I am - mind and books, that's all! But, it turns out, there are much more important things - for example, friendship and courage. ”

Alice Tayzhnaya