Emma Watson Chats Harry Potter, Feminism, Taking A Year Off, And More With Bell Hooks

Emma Watson recently chatted with Bell Hooks for Paper Magazine. The young actress revealed quite a few interesting things in this intimate interview between the ladies. Highlights can be found below.

On Hermione being an important character representation for girls: “I think it is. She’s important because she — well, certainly when I was reading Harry Potter, I started reading Harry Potter when I was 8 — I just really identified with her. I was the girl in school whose hand shot up to answer the questions. I was really eager to learn in an uncool way. In a super uncool way, actually. And then the character of Hermione gave me permission to be who I was.”

On taking a year off to focus on gender studies: “I’m taking a year away from acting to focus on two things, really. My own personal development is one. I know that you read a book a day. My own personal task is to read a book a week, and also to read a book a month as part of my book club. I’m doing a huge amount of reading and study just on my own. I almost thought about going and doing a year of gender studies, then I realized that I was learning so much by being on the ground and just speaking with people and doing my reading. That I was learning so much on my own. I actually wanted to keep on the path that I’m on. I’m reading a lot this year, and I want to do a lot of listening.”

You can check out even more from Emma’s interview here.

What a great interview! Bell is such an amazing woman and Emma must have loved being interviewed by her. However, I am not too happy with this whole taking a year off thing.