I’ve always appreciated Rupert Grint as an actor in the HP series. Ron is usually a fan favorite among Book readers but the movies did him dirty by stealing his best lines and handing them to Hermione/Emma Watson.. Even then, Rupert’s performance still made Ron quite lovable, which says a lot about his talent.

I've always felt this way about her acting. You can always see the acting in plain sight, it breaks any immersion

As actors turn more to Botox to achieve looking younger, she may be one of the last Eyebrow Actors of our generation. Lmao

She doesn’t move like Belle should move. She’s always too self aware to really become the characters.

She just moves her eyebrows up and down, it's eyebrow acting

The music is a huge distraction.

I think beyond the Harry Potter movies it is very evident that Emma didn‘t have dreams of becoming a top-tier actress. When you watch interviews with Daniel Radcliffe, he talks so very passionately about acting and about crafting his skill. He has said it himself that he dropped out of uni because he very quickly knew that he never wanted to do anything besides acting and it shows. He really puts in the effort of learning new skills and listening to more experienced colleagues . Very early in his career, there are clips of the fifth Harry Potter where he consults Gary Oldman, who he always saw as a sort of career mentor. He wasn‘t afraid to take risks and do bold, over-the-top things like when he did Equus in the West End. He was never scared to „look silly“ as you put it and I think it really shows. He has evolved into a great actor that puts his heart and soul into every project and doesn‘t really mind if the movie doesn‘t do well financially as long as there was artistic integrity involved. Emma on the other hand I think further pursued acting after Potter because it was sort of expected of her and obviously she was handed the parts. She was never really sure if this was what she wanted to do for life, unlike Daniel, which is why her performances always feel a little insecure and unsure, she is afraid to let go because she isn’t even sure if this is what she wants to be doing. If you watch her interview with Jay Shetty, she talks incredibly passionate about learning and her Creative Writing MA that she‘s doing at Oxford and she doesn‘t really bring the same passion to talking about acting. She was a curious and talented kid that really loved theatre and landed Hermione because she was incredibly good at that part but as an adult I don‘t really have the impression that she really wants to be an actor. She wants to be a writer and an academic and a political activist, those are the things that she talks most passionately about. On Jay Shetty she has also talked about wanting to direct something that she has written so I see her more as someone that creates the art instead of actively starring in the art. I personally think it is a good thing that she has tried various things and found her passion and gravitates towards that and not towards what is evidently expected of her, being a movie star and makes room for much more passionate actresses that really want the parts that she plays. To me it seems like she has truly found herself and we can expect to see great writing pieces and academic work from Emma in the future.

Emma Watson hasn't been a child for a long time so she is fair game to critique.

Came for the title, left for the music.

I feel bad for child actors because I think sometimes what is really good acting for a child is not good acting at all for an adult. And if child actors don’t grow in their skill, it’s very noticeable.

I say that as someone who doesn’t think she’s exceptionally bad. She’s just not as good as we would expect as someone who’s been around as long as she has and who we have basically watched grow up.

That being said as someone who loved Little Women and who actually really enjoyed Greta Gerwig’s version, I did think Emma’s acting was the weakest of the four sisters and I low key have wondered if that’s why Meg didn’t have as much focus as the other three sisters. I mean, that movie very heavily focused on Amy which is truly unusual for any adaption of Little Women… but I also would focus heavily on any character played by Florence Pugh because she’s such an acting powerhouse.

10:17 And her body language… Emma is slouching, in the animated version Belle walked with her head up and chest out, she was confident, proud of who she was and her background, Emma... is not confident.

Someone pointed out Emma's eyebrows to me and now I can't unsee how much she moves them while acting lol

I think you nailed it with her playing it safe and not actually being willing to let go and look silly.

I said she was a bad actor when she was 17 and everyone acted like I stabbed a puppy

Beauty and the beast exposed her the most. Her posture, lack of physical or facial acting, the extreme levels of pitch correction on her voice.... She sounds like a robot and doesn't look like she belongs on set... just wandering around. In that hill scene you showed, she's just standing there and doesn't know what to do with her arms or anything. It looks completely amateur and I can't believe she couldn't try to emulate what she saw the other actors doing while they were singing, or that the director couldn't get her to do literally anything else.

I love how Rickman described the trios acting - 'frowning and panting' lol

I hate that belle was supposed to be such a geek but in the film was so boring and kinda mean, i think an actress who does theatre would've been so much better

I’m a singer - they totally over-produced her voice for Beauty and the Beast. I’m not a fan of her acting, I agree totally with the critiques of not wanting to take risks, not wanting to look silly, not being fully engaged with the performance, etc.. But especially with Beauty & the Beast I think the creative team thought they were “taking a risk” by casting her because she’s not a trained singer like the rest of the cast so they felt they had to overproduce every aspect of her singing. I think she likely has a fine singing voice and for someone who can carry a pleasant tune, it is more than possible (especially in a big budget movie) to train someone to sing very well for the part they need to learn. But they wanted her to sound “just as good” as professional singers and ended up ripping any remaining soul out of her singing which she desperately needed. I genuinely don’t think a “big name” was needed for casting Belle. If they had devoted more time to costuming the ball gown especially, kids and adults alike were going to go feral for the ballroom promo pics regardless of who was in it. But I also am in the camp of the fewer live action remakes the better, so what do I know?!

As an actor Emma Watson is shallow and two-dimensional. She lacks passion and fails to emote freely and convincingly. She never disappears into roles but wears them like oversized and stiff clothes that don't fit so the viewer is always aware it is Emma Watson on the screen rather than the character she's meant to be playing. Other than Hermione where she personally identified with the character she seems quite uncomfortable in all the roles she's had.

"The only way to be serious about acting is not to be serious about yourself" (c)