Princess Pea Speaks!
Emma Watson talks about her role in The Tale of Despereaux
Emma Watson (top) becomes Princess Pea (bottom) in The Tale of Despereaux. (Photos: (top) Gerri Miller, (bottom) Courtesy Universal Pictures)
This holiday movie delight is based on the award-winning children's book The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo and Timothy Basil Ering. Matthew Broderick is the voice of the gentleman mouse, Despereaux; Dustin Hoffman is the voice of Roscuro,; and Emma Watson is the voice of Princess Pea. Scholastic News Online was able to sit down and speak with our favorite Harry Potter heroine, Emma Watson, and talk about Princess Pea, her favorite books, and of course, Hermoine's life outside of Hogwarts!
Scholastic News Online: What did you like about Princess Pea?
Emma Watson: She's very beautiful; she lives in the land of Dor, and everything's great. But she loses her mother and what makes it worse is she also loses her father because he goes into a state of grieving and locks himself away from his people and responsibilities and his role as a father. So she's pretty lonely, and pretty isolated. She's literally locked up in a tower and she can't really be part of the real world. I thought it was interesting, and I felt really sad for her. I thought that the conversations that she had with Despereaux were really charming. I really fell in love with the script and the book more than the character.
SNO: Did you worry about Hermione from Harry Potter creeping into this voice?
Emma: There were points where I had an awareness of it because I've played her for so long, and she is so distinctive. She is so much part of me. So I definitely was aware of it. But Pea was more gentle, and I definitely felt different playing her. So it worked out OK.
SNO: Is it hard to act in a recording booth? Did you have to get used to it?
Emma: Yeah, it did take me a little bit of time. My performance was quite physical in the film—I'm being kidnapped, and there's a rat in my room—so it was hard to try to get all of that into my voice, to be emotional and out of breath and screaming. It was fun. I was actually given a toy Despereaux that I could speak to, so I had kind of a substitute. So it was really interesting and great fun.
SNO: Can you compare this kind of fairytale with Harry Potter?
Emma: The land of Dor feels quite magical and has that in common with Harry Potter. And it's also based on a book. But apart from that, I feel they're very different stories and have very different messages. Despereaux has such a strong character and identity. And it was fun for me to work in a different medium, doing animation. I'd never done that before. It was fun, and I'm massively proud of it.
SNO: What's the movie's message?
Emma: There are so many good ones. I love animated film and it felt really different from anything I'd seen before. It wasn't patronizing to children. The messages in the film feel really profound and philosophical and I loved the ending, about forgiveness. I thought that was incredible. A chain reaction happens where the king was hurt so he hurt his daughter and she was hurt so she hurt the servant girl and Roscuro, and the whole thing just kind of took off. By one person saying "‘sorry'" and really meaning it, everything was restored. Another favorite message is every girl is a princess. Mig in her father's eyes is a princess. I think that's beautiful. I really love it. It works on lots of different levels. It's not just a children's film. I think anyone can go see it and get something from it.
SNO: What were some of your favorite books as a child and more recently?
Emma: I just finished Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, which is an amazing book and I'm really glad I read it. When I was younger I loved His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I loved those books.
SNO: What others to recommend?
Emma: I read all of the Roald Dahl books, and I'd recommend any of those.
SNO: Is there a literary character you might like to play?
Emma: There's already been a Jane Eyre, but I love Jane Eyre. I'd love to do that.
SNO: Do you like poetry?
Emma: I love poetry.
SNO: Do you have a favorite poem?
Emma: For sentimental reasons, "The Sea" by James Reeves because I won a poetry competition with it. I love T. S. Eliot. I love William Blake.
SNO: If Hermione Granger and Princess Pea were in a room together, what would they talk about? Would they get along and like each other?
Emma: I guess Hermione would be discussing prejudice against rats in the land of Dor, because she's such a pioneer for rights. I think Hermione might find her a bit bland but I don't know.
SNO: What is it like to bring such popular book characters to the screen? Is there more pressure with that?
Emma: Actually I did the Ballet Shoes for British TV too. It's lovely, it's nice to have the books to work from.
SNO: What do you love about reading?
Emma: Reading is really important, particularly when you're young because it develops your imagination and your own senses and you're forced to create your own world in your head and see the characters your own way. It's very personal to you, it's like you're making your own film.
SNO: What would you say to a kid who isn't interested in reading to get them to pick up a book?
Emma: I would say it's more fun, it's more creative, it's you—yourself—you can make any character how you want them to be, and I think that's fun. And you can take a book with you anywhere. There's something very nostalgic about books. I love the smell of the paper in old books. My father has this wonderful habit where he always writes the time and the place where he bought a book inside the front, and so I have lots of books that have inscriptions from him in the front. It reminds you of the time and place you read them, and there's something nostalgic and sentimental about that.
SNO: Do you like to write?
Emma: Yes.
SNO: What do you write?
Emma: I write a bit of poetry, I used to keep a journal. I just finished my A Levels so I wrote vast quantities of essays on different books.
SNO: What's Hermione up to in Half-Blood Prince?
Emma: I finished it a long time ago ... . . . she is pretty angry with Harry for a lot of it because he becomes addicted to this potions book, which she thinks is dangerous, and of course she's always right. It does turn out to be very dangerous. And she gets very upset with Ron. She and Ron have a big argument because he's dating this silly girl.
SNO: She's jealous?
Emma: Yes.
SNO: And what about the final one, Deathly Hallows, the two movies?
Emma: I can't wait to make them. It's going to be fun to be out of Hogwarts and the Hogwarts school uniform. They're going to be sort of rebel refugees. Ron and Hermione leave school.
SNO: What Hermione souvenir would you like to have when Harry Potter is over?
Emma: I'd quite like her Time Turner.
Gerri Miller is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.
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