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Emma Watson Felt Pathetic Filming Hermione's Best Goblet of Fire Scene

Emma Watson Felt Pathetic Filming Hermione's Best Goblet of Fire Scene
Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Though it was one of the most beautiful moments for her character.

Summary:

  • The Harry Potter franchise is known for dealing with serious existential questions, but even fun scenes are not always fun for everyone involved
  • Emma Watson, who’s famous for portraying Hermione Granger in the film series, has shared her mixed feelings about shooting one famous scene that became crucial for her character.
  • The actress revealed that the scene had become a real challenge for her as she was aware of its importance and of the need to make it perfect, but still felt pathetic while filming it.

As Harry Potter’s story mostly has to deal with serious and dark matters — sometimes even too serious for a school pupil and his friends, even if they’re all wizards — some particular scenes that unite the characters at joyful moments may have brought joy to the actors as well. Though it doesn’t seem like all episodes like this were fun for absolutely everyone.

As it turned out, Emma Watson, who portrayed Hermione Granger in all the films of the famous franchise, found it very hard personally to film the scene of the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Why Is the Yule Ball Scene So Iconic?

The ball itself reunites the Hogwarts’ wizards with other magicians from different magic schools and takes place in Hogwarts ahead of the Triwizard Tournament which, unexpectedly for all, made Harry Potter its competitor.

Emma Watson Felt Pathetic Filming Hermione's Best Goblet of Fire Scene - image 1

Though the plot generally revolves around Harry and his adventures, in this scene it’s Hermione that takes the lead and becomes one of the essential images. Known as a bookworm and an invariable A-student, Hermione, to everyone’s surprise, appears at the ball in a majestic pink dress that symbolizes her stepping into the spotlight not as a talented magician, but rather a charming young woman.

Emma Watson Hated Filming The Pink Dress Reveal Scene

And however charming the scene itself seemed to the viewers, for Emma Watson it became quite a challenge. The actress has recently revealed that she felt pathetic as she had to follow director Mike Newell’s tons of different instructions on how she could’ve walked down the stairs flawlessly — and even received some harsh criticism.

Emma Watson Felt Pathetic Filming Hermione's Best Goblet of Fire Scene - image 2

While Watson also knew it was a crucial moment for her character — “the duckling becomes a swan moment”, as she called it — the expectations that the crew had about her impeccable performance became a real burden for the actress.

Eventually, as everyone saw, Emma Watson did nail the scene — and thus forever captured one of the most memorable scenes of the film while also gently presenting her character’s growing and flourishing femininity.

Source: Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts