Emma Watson, who'll forever be known as Hermione to Harry Potter
, wants to do some Shakespeare. She cites a desire to tackle Juliet, or Ophelia. A little bold, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't it be cool to start her out in A Winter's Tale? "Starring Hermione as ... Paulina." (You thought maybe I was going to say Perdita? ;)) In fairness, I take her quote to mean something more like "It would be a dream to tackle Juliet or Ophelia" and not "Yeah, I think that if I were to do Shakespeare, I'd have to be Juliet or Ophelia." I'd think for a young woman that's a young man diving right in with Hamlet.
This story reminds me of a really random bit of trivia. Harry Dean Stanton stars in Stephen King's The Green Mile
which also features a character named Dean Stanton. Dean Stanton is played by Barry Pepper. Harry Dean Stanton plays a character named Toot-toot.
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12 comments:
What else would you suggest for her to start with? She has the acting chops, and is the right age for roles like Juliet and Ophelia. She could also, I suppose, go for some of the comedic heroines like Immogen, Miranda, or Rosalind. The roles she'd need to be older for are more worldly-wise heroines like Beatrice and Portia.
How about Cordelia? A challenging role to be sure, but she's only in half the play, it's not like she needs to carry it like a juliet would. I wasn't saying she couldn't do it, just wondering if those are the appropriate roles to get started with.
I second Alexi. There's a slew of parts she could play. Is the implication that you need to have experience with other Shakespearean roles before tackling the well-known ones? I think she'd play either character very well, or many others, just because she has proven herself to be a smart and dedicated young actress.
Cordelia is not a bad idea, actually. Maybe she should try for that in the Al Pacino King Lear. :)
Honestly? Yeah, a little bit. Being a smart and dedicated actress doesn't necessarily translate to being able to pull off Shakespeare. I'm just thinking that you might not want to build up an entire production around a girl whose primary acting claim to fame is that she was lucky enough to score a contract for an 8 movie series.
Don't get me wrong, she may be wonderful. I've never seen her in anything but Harry Potter, so I can't really say much about her acting range. Are we really suggesting that we can judge her acting ability by playing the same role over and over again? IMDB has her rumored to play Cosette in the new Les Mis movie, I'd be intrigued by that.
My point, and it wasn't even a terribly serious one, is that there are lots of roles to choose from, and everybody seems to always jump to the most famous ones first. Consider Mel Gibson. The man's won 2 Oscars, he's got skills. But there aren't too many people pointing to his Hamlet as a great example of what to do with the role. Meanwhile Glenn Close, an equally talented actress, did a fine job as Gertrude in that film. She'd just come off Oscar nominations for Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons, but there was no "She's a good actress, therefore she has to go straight for Lady Macbeth!" rule.
I'll admit to the fangirl in me that wanted to defend Emma, but I seriously was unclear on the implication. People jump straight to the well-knowns just because they ARE well known. You don't hear many young women just salivating to play Helen or Isabella though they're entirely juicy complicated roles. No one really knows about them. Anyway, with a huge pot of rumored upcoming Bard feature films maybe she'll get her chance and we'll all find out!
I would consider casting Emma as Viola in "Twelfth Night, or What You Will" and Cressida in "Troilus and Cressida."
She's been acting since the age of six. While I wouldn't want to gainsay the great amount of practical experience she's obviously accrued, the fact that the major focus has been film work and also not classical material gives me pause. I wonder what her experience, if any, with acting verse has been, or, if she intends to pursue any additional training in the techniques in preparation for her stated goals.
In most cases, the Shakespearean actors we lionize, but also respect, on the screen, have had a great deal of training and/or stage experience as prelude. The "others" took, as a qualification or challenge, being famous to it's illogical conclusion: that a famous role in something Shakespeare is the apparent "next step".
She's obviously very talented. I hope she's judicious enough, as many have not been, to not set herself up for a stunning failure.
CGriff: Helen? In Troilus and Cressida? She's only in one scene. Do you mean Helena?
she would make a lovely cordelia.
she's still so young... i bet she'd be great in that role.
i always picture paulina as older. she's too young for that.
give her time, she'll find her role! and she'll make good for it. yay!
Alexi - Helen in All's Well. I'd like to see someone give her a reason to be in love with the stunning ass, Bertram!
CGriff: That's a good idea. My script calls the heroine of All's Well "Helena," so I didn't know whom you meant by Helen.
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