From playing the bookish Hermione in the Harry Potter movie adaptations, to portraying book-loving Belle in the highly anticipated upcoming Beauty and the Beast film, it’s no surprise to discover Emma Watson’s own affinity with books. Speaking in the March issue of Vanity Fair, she describes the personal impact books have had on her throughout her life.
Following her parent’s divorce when she was just five, Watson describes how books became a crucial link between her and her father, Chris Watson, who she saw only on weekends at the time. She divulges how books and reading became ”sacred” to her, when it came to preserving their father-daughter relationship through this difficult time. As Watson explains it:
”Books gave me a way to connect with my father… I just remember him reading to me before bed and how he used to do all the different voices. I grew up on film sets, and books were my connection to the outside world.”
Source: Popsugar
This idea of books not only connecting Watson to her father, but also to the world outside of a film set, is additionally an important memory for the actress. Spending much of her childhood filming Harry Potter, sometimes spending long stretches of time away from her friends; books became an essential basis for normality:
”They were my connection to my friends back at school because if I was reading what they were reading we’d have something in common.”
Watson goes on to describe how books can also empower people, as well as connect them. This is something she demonstrated as part of the Books on the Underground campaign late last year, where she participated by leaving copies of Maya Angelou’s memoir on the tube. This project is designed to bring books to a wider audience, as well as to spread the message of reading being a way of connecting everyone, wherever they are.
Source: The Guardian
Emma Watson has highlighted here the power of books to connect, empower, and help out everyone. How have books and reading changed your life for the better?
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Featured image via HDQ Walls
h/t Evening Standard