From Wizards to Wallflowers

Watson was in this leafy suburb of Pittsburgh,filming a movie set at Peters Township High School. Every day she arrived at the campus,with its swim team and banners promoting reading,to experience the youthful rites that,as the Oxfordshire-bred star of the Harry Potter franchise from age 10 to 20,had otherwise eluded her.

Oh my goodness,so many firsts, she said. I did the prom! We all get dressed up and we go in a limo,and get photographs. All these things that Ive always sort of said to my American friends,Oh,that looks amazing,that looks so fun,Im jealous. And I get to do it for this movie.

The film,an adaptation of the young-adult novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower,a coming-of-age tale of 1999,will be the next starring role for Watson,21,and practically her first that doesnt involve a cast of wizards and trolls. Watson has never played a regular girl,let alone a suburban American.

Set loosely in the pre-Internet age of the early 90s,the film is the closest Watson has come to playing a contemporary character,she said. Like her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint,Watson has been defined by J K Rowlings Harry Potter. Radcliffe is now making his name in theatre,Grint has a slate of films. And Watsons move away from Potter begins with My Week With Marilyn,a micro-biopic starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. Watson has a small part as the wardrobe girl who gets involved with Laurence Oliviers assistant on the set of his film with Monroe,The Prince and the Showgirl.

Watson spent only a few days on set for Marilyn,nothing like the time and preparation that Perks entailed. Its been the most intense five weeks of my life, she said. She plays Sam,a feisty,precocious high school senior on the cusp of a new life. Perks had something of the same effect on Stephen Chbosky,the writer of the book and the movie and first-time director. Told in letters by a shy loner,Charlie played by Logan Lerman,it follows him,Sam and her stepbrother,Patrick,as they navigate the perils of adolescence in 1991.

It was a quick sensation after it was published,earning cult status. Perks found the right collaborator in John Malkovichs production company. Nonetheless the film version did not have the necessary financing until Watson came on board. Chbosky insisted that the film be shot in Pittsburgh,as a tribute to his hometown.

Watson,accustomed to acting in a story she had known for a decade,started freaking out, she said. She worried about how to create a bond with this new,unfamiliar clique. Finally,they just hung out. They formed a hotel-room band: Miller drummed,Lerman played guitar,and Watson sang. They jokingly called themselves Octopus Jam. Friends dropped by. Before she knew it,the world of Hogwarts had receded.

Thats a different chapter of my life,which,kind of through doing this,feels like its closed, she said. She pointed to a scene in Perks as symbolic of her new beginning: standing in the back of a pickup truck,she and her high school crew take a late-night joyride.

Summit didnt want me to do the stunt,but I insisted, she said,even though she was scared. The cars moving at 60 miles per hour,I had one little thing attaching me to the truck, she recalled. She ended up going through seven or eight times,screaming her guts out. Oh my God,it was so fun, she said. One of the best nights of my life,without a doubt.