Authors: David Nolan
Emma was given a 1957 Rolex watch. Like that presented to any worker retiring from a long-held job, the timepiece had her length of service engraved on the back: 2002–2010. She also approached producers to ask for some mementos of her time in the films – three items in all: ‘I asked permission to take Hermione’s time turner and her cloak and wand. Those are the three things I took with me.’
David Heyman recalled, ‘A few of us gave speeches – Daniel Radcliffe, David Yates and myself.’ Heyman’s speech nearly ground to a halt as emotion got the better of him. ‘It was very moving. We all talked about how it’s like being part of the family. It was very intimate and lovely.’
Director David Yates told
USA Today
how the enormity of what was about to happen kicked in as the final moments came closer. ‘I don’t think we ever took it for granted. We’d sometimes joke about what we’re going to do when it’s all over. We’ll never have this amount of resources again. We’re going to have to go back into the real world, after living in this bubble.’
Then a film was shown to the cast and crew. Put together by an assistant director, it was a behind-the-scenes compilation of scenes and moments from the series along with messages and goodbyes from people who couldn’t be there. The film ended with an as-yet-unseen trailer for the
new film, but by that stage the damage was done. Emma began to weep. ‘I’m the girl, it was obviously me – I was the first to crack,’ she told Radio 1. ‘Then Dan, then Rupert went, then we were all just a mess.’
The three young actors put their arms around each other as they wept. ‘I think the fact that there’s two other people in the world who’ve shared this unique experience makes you feel less alone,’ Emma said.
Daniel Radcliffe remembered, ‘I’ve never seen Rupert Grint cry before; it was weird. It was like seeing your dad cry.’
Then it was gone. The filming world that had provided Emma with wealth, fame and a consistency that she lacked in her own life was over. The Watford World of Harry Potter was no more, gone, apart from one gesture of nostalgia and friendship organised by Emma by way of a thank-you and a goodbye. Emma invited the key young cast members to her home in north London. ‘I threw a dinner,’ she told the Scholastic website. ‘I just bought a new apartment in London. I tried to make it look really nice. I bought tons of flowers. I lit candles everywhere and everyone had place settings and I made food for everyone to come and eat. I made a book for everyone and I had silly questions like: Who was your first crush on the set? What was your best memory? What was your worst memory? Who was your favourite director? Stuff like that, that’s just really fun. And everyone had a piece of paper to write it all down, but we all discussed our answers and went around and listened to people’s stories and what they remembered. It was just a really nostalgic evening, basically, just all of us
sharing stories. It was a really nice evening and it was warm weather, so we sat outside as well, and I bought disposable cameras for the tables, so everyone could use those, and it was just fun. It was just … chill.’
T
he Harry Potter filming saga was finally over with – at least that was what Emma thought. Other than her university commitments, she had an unusually large chunk of free time ahead of her. ‘I’m not planning to do an awful lot this summer,’ Emma said in mid-2010. ‘I’ll take a bit of a break and enjoy that, really.’
Of course, she did no such thing. She went to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with People Tree founder Safia Minney to see for herself if the Fair Trade approach to fashion and manufacture could really make a difference. The trip was the logical flowering of the seeds of social consciousness sown by her Headington geography teacher during her A levels – to see if the Fair Trade concept really worked.
After a hair-raising car journey through the streets of Dhaka – all heat, noise and driving unrestrained by the
niceties of the Highway Code – Emma and Safia went to a clothes factory in the city’s slum district. Looking pale and shocked, Emma was given a tour of the area as scores of children looked on at the strange visitor wearing a light red, sari-style dress. Workers there were being paid the equivalent of £6 per week and were campaigning to get wages brought up to around £18.
‘We visited the slums in Dhaka,’ Emma said, ‘where the garment-factory workers live. I had some preconceived ideas but nothing prepared me for the reality. It was upsetting to see the conditions in which these people live, but I was incredibly moved by their spirit and friendliness in spite of such apparent adversity. Facilities? There are no facilities there to speak of. In the building we visited, I saw one shower, one cleaning place and one hole in the floor, which was the toilet. This was for the whole floor. That floor had maybe eight or nine rooms coming off it, and each room housed a whole family, that is 32 people to one toilet.’
People Tree filmed Emma in the slums and the crew interviewed one female worker who made the reality of her situation clear to the young actress. ‘She was very candid about the fact that there just wasn’t any hope for her,’ Emma said. ‘There is no hope for anyone living in those conditions and being paid that kind of wage.’
She also met with the head of the national Garment Workers Federation before moving on to a Fair Trade centre called Swallows in the Thanapara region, which had created jobs for 200 women. As well as clothes manufacture at Swallows, there was a day-care centre and
a school for 300 children. The school was open to workers and to people from the wider area, an illustration of the trickle-down effect of Fair Trade policies.
Emma helped the children with their maths and acted as a teacher’s assistant, gathering in their work. She even took a turn on a foot-driven sewing machine and watched as workers dyed and wove yarn, cut it into patterns, sewed it and embroidered it. ‘It is so hard for people to imagine what it takes to create something and how special that item of clothing is,’ she said. ‘Coming to Swallows I see that there is an alternative. The living conditions are modest but it’s clean and there is a real sense of community, their families are together and they seem to love and be proud of what they’re doing – many things that we in the West take for granted. Swallows is special and I need to believe for my own peace of mind that there will be more places like this in the developing countries in the world.’
The Bangladesh video would be among the last images that people would see of the ‘old’ Emma. ‘New’ Emma was about to appear. On 5 August at 4.57pm, Emma posted a picture of herself on Facebook. It caused a sensation. It also neatly sidestepped the chance of any paparazzi snatching pictures of her and making money from them – she was clearly in control of the situation. The picture of an elfin-looking, very short-haired Emma –
very
short-haired – was followed by a brief status update: ‘Dear all. Cut my hair off a few days ago … Feels incredible. I love it. I’ve wanted to do this for years and years; it’s the most liberating thing ever. Hope you like. Big love from Emma x.’
Not since Britney Spears went to work with a pair of electric clippers in 2007 would one haircut spark off so much interest and debate. ‘At that moment I felt I became a woman,’ she told the
Sun
. ‘I’m ready to start taking risks.’
Ever since she was young, Emma’s appearance had been largely dictated by her filming commitments. At a time when most young girls were trying out different styles and looks, Emma was not allowed to. ‘For the nine years I was on Harry Potter, I was contractually obliged not to cut my hair, not to tan – all the normal things girls do, I couldn’t,’ she told
Vogue
. ‘So, when I got the chance to change my appearance – this is what I did. I didn’t realise until afterwards how significant it was because of course the hair was Hermione’s defining feature. It’s my way of being myself.’
She had spoken many times – especially to her dad, Chris – about wanting to change her appearance, and particularly her hair, saying she wanted to do something different, and cut it all off. While carrying out press duties in New York, she walked into the Cutler Salon. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going and went in alone. In her hand was a picture of actress Mia Farrow, with the boyishly short haircut she had sported in the 1960s. She showed it to hairdresser Rodney Cutler and said, ‘I want to look like this. Make it happen.’
Cutler was clearly in his element – the Australian-born crimper was keen on shorter cuts. ‘Some of my favourite hairstyles are the graduated bob, as seen on Louise Brooks in the twenties, which is timeless,’ he told the
Beauty
Interviews
website. ‘Linda Evangelista’s short haircut at
the height of her career – that set the tone for what was hot in hair fashion.’
Grabbing a ponytail full of her hair, he set to work. ‘It was weird,’ Emma recalled. ‘My hairdresser was like, “When are you going to freak out? Most people cry or go into shock,”’ she told
Entertainment
Weekly
. ‘But I was very calm. I knew it was the right thing.’
She left the salon alone – and prepared herself for the comments and criticisms that would inevitably follow. ‘I knew everyone was going to have an opinion and I couldn’t deal with it. I have to get myself into a good place to deal with people saying things like, “It’s terrible! She looks like a boy!”
‘I’m 20 now, so I’m not a child any more,’ she told the
Daily Mail
. ‘I’ve been on Harry Potter for ten years now, so I felt the need to mark the end of it in some way – I needed some way to say to myself, “Right, you’re entering a new phase of your life now. I needed a change.” And that’s what the haircut is about.’
Dad Chris soon heard about the haircut. ‘He was away when I had it done and I got this phone call … Emma, what have you done? He said don’t get carried away – you’re not Audrey Hepburn yet. He loves it now. He’s eating his words.’
Column inches across the world were filled with opinion about Emma’s new look – there were 16,000 comments and ‘likes’ on her Facebook page and she would be near the top of most fashion writers’ most-stylish list by the end of the year. Hair experts were drafted in to the debate to give their opinions on her makeover and whether
anyone could get away with the ‘Emma Pixie Cut’. ‘She is clearly making a big style statement and experimenting with her hair and look,’ said Toni & Guy international artistic director Cos Sakkas. ‘It strikes me as a coming of age and mature step away from her long pretty look and embraces something far edgier that opens her up to new acting roles. Of course, with an extreme short cut like this you need the facial features to pull it off – which Emma clearly has,’ he added.
‘Emma Watson’s new super-short pixie crop is perfection,’ said British Hairdresser of the Year Mark Woolley. ‘It’s cute, playful and a touch rebellious, and has totally updated her style. The soft layers in Emma’s hair emphasise her pretty, delicate features beautifully. Channelling the look of the sixties, she’s clearly leading the way with a style which will be one of the biggest hair trends this autumn.’
Despite taking the initiative with her online postings, Emma was indeed snapped by the paparazzi, crossing a New York street, but she’d taken the sting out of their value by jumping the gun on the press. Emma’s Potter
co-stars
were also dragged into the debate. ‘Emma had sort of hinted that she was going to do that,’ Daniel Radcliffe told the Scholastic website. ‘So I wasn’t as surprised as perhaps the rest of the world was, but I think she looks fantastic. It’s a very, very cool haircut. But, to be honest, the girl could look pretty with a plastic bag over her head, you know. I mean, she’s a beautiful girl, so any haircut I’m sure would look wonderful.’
Many commentators were looking for deep psychological
reasons why she would do something so drastic. They even claimed she’d done it to win the part of Lisbeth Salander in a forthcoming remake of the Swedish film
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
. To Emma, though, the reason was a simple one: ‘I haven’t been able to change my hair for ten years. Some people don’t like it, they think it’s an outward expression of my inner torment, my Britney Spears moment. Honestly! I just had a haircut.’
But some commentators thought that the timing of the ‘The Haircut’ was about something else. At the very time she grabbed the headlines with the pixie cut, it was claimed another chop was taking place. E
MMA
W
ATSON AXED BY
B
URBERRY
, said the headlines – on the very day that Emma’s cropped picture was released on Facebook.
Despite a 23 per cent jump in Burberry profits after she started working with the brand, it was claimed that she was being replaced by model and face about town Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. The 20-year-old had been voted
Elle
’s Model of the Year in 2009 and had already worked for Ralph Lauren, DKNY and lingerie firm Victoria’s Secret. She’d also established herself as a tabloid favourite as the girlfriend of action-movie star Jason Statham. Just to add more showbiz spice, Huntington-Whiteley had just been cast as Megan Fox’s replacement in the new
Transformers
movie. The company’s creative director Christopher Bailey was diplomatic: ‘Emma is a big part of the Burberry family and is also a wonderful friend … I have huge admiration for her both personally and professionally and everything she’s achieved.’
But ‘The Haircut’ and her changing relationship with
Burberry did little to dent Emma’s popularity. Shortly afterwards, she was voted the sexiest British actress under the age of 30, beating the likes of Sienna Miller, Keira Knightley and Emily Blunt. She was clearly doing something right.
But the darker side of fame reared its head again for Emma in 2010 when a court in Manchester banned a 38-year-old man from contacting her for five years after he superimposed pictures of the actress’s face on to indecent images of children. John Cavanagh was found to have 2,000 images of Emma on his computer when police called at his flat in Didsbury, south Manchester. He also had 1,300 indecent images on his laptop and in some pictures Emma’s face had been spliced together with those pictures. He’d also doctored pictures from Harry Potter films, replacing Daniel Radcliffe’s face with his own to make it look like he was sharing the scene with Emma.
Police – who came to the flat to talk about non-payment of rent – also found an indecent picture of a young girl lying on top of a pile of soft toys in a wardrobe. They also found games wrapped as presents and a ‘dossier’ of women he knew with young children. Judge Anthony Hammond gave Cavanagh a three-year community order with three years’ supervision and an order to attend a sex-offender programme. He was also told to have no contact with Emma or use the Internet for anything other than applying for a job.
In court, the judge said, ‘[Of] the images I have seen … The few that purport to show the actress Emma Watson are crude images and not the sort of thing that would have,
in my view, any commercial value. There is no evidence that you have been spreading these around. These are pathetic images kept for your own purposes. You are not allowed to have them because quite simply children are harmed in the making of these photographs.’
It was another example of the kind of unwanted, disturbing attention someone as high profile as Emma could attract. There would be more. Fake pictures of her started being passed around from computer to computer at Brown. It’s believed they ‘showed’ Emma topless with a towel round her waist. A spokesperson for Emma told the
Daily Mail
, ‘There have been a number of nude fakes over the past two months. Emma has seen them and finds them tiresome. People should know better.’
While this was going on, the film industry was caught by surprise by a change of heart on
Deathly Hallows
. It had been announced that the first part would be released in 3D, despite the fact that it hadn’t been shot in that format. It was then announced that the producers had changed their minds. The film industry had experienced a shot in the arm thanks to 3D. The Film Distributors’ Association believed that cinemagoers donning their glasses had increased overall box-office takings by 8 per cent so far in 2010, with the top three films all appearing in the 3D format. But there had been criticism of studios ‘converting’ 2D into three dimensions to cash in on the trend – reviewers were particularly scathing about sword-and-sorcery film
Clash of the Titans
, which had been released in April after undergoing conversion.
By sticking to 2D, the studio behind the Potter films
were potentially losing out on a bumper payday – tickets for 3D films are more expensive – but saving some credibility among film fans. ‘Despite everyone’s best efforts, we were unable to convert the film in its entirety and meet the highest standards of quality,’ a statement from Warner Brothers said. ‘We do not want to disappoint fans who have long anticipated the conclusion of this extraordinary journey. We, in alignment with our filmmakers, believe this is the best course to take in order to ensure that our audiences enjoy the consummate Harry Potter experience.’