Free Emma Watson by David Nolan

school is all right,’ she told Newsround . ‘I go to a very big school and some people give me a bit of stick. They walk past and go, “ Wingardium Leviosa ” [one of the famous spells in the Potter films] for the billionth time that day, and I go aagh! But apart from that most people are really nice about it. My close friends just treat me normally. They ask questions about it because they’re curious, but it’s OK. It’s funny mixing the two worlds, but I still do everything I used to do. I still play hockey and do all my sports.’
    Daniel Radcliffe says he too was bullied, but the slightly built young actor used his growing confidence and sense of humour to avoid real trouble. ‘Because I’d been on set with some really genuine witty people over the last few years,’ he later explained to Esquire magazine, ‘I could turn round to these idiots and try to tear them apart. I’m not saying I was Oscar Wilde at 14, but I had a line for anything they could throw at me.’
    Typically, the easy-going Rupert Grint seems to have floated over any such problems, despite seeming like a natural target with his flaming red hair. ‘My friends have been great – they treat me normally,’ he told CBBC. In fact, Grint’s only complaint seems to have been people at schoolbeing too nice to him. ‘The teachers suck up, they really do. But other than that it’s been fine.’
    ‘I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t any difficulty at school,’ Emma told BBC Radio 4 in 2009. ‘Hey, it can be tough but I stuck it out. I always loved school. I think it was different for the boys – Rupert and Dan never really liked it. I weirdly did. But even if I wasn’t in a film, a bit of teasing and a bit of banter is just part of being at school. It’s normal and you have to learn to get on with it.’
    The person who seemed to have suffered the most was Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton. ‘I would miss months of school and then return with bright-blond hair,’ he told Heat in 2010. ‘Needless to say, there was bullying. I wasn’t beaten up daily, but there was name-calling and jealousy. You have to bear in mind that Harry Potter wasn’t cool. I wasn’t part of the Terminator franchise.’
     
    In February 2003, the team started work on the third film in the series. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was the book Emma was reading when she got the part of Hermione. ‘It’s my absolute favourite of the books so far,’ she said. ‘Loving the third book so much is probably a bit selfish on my behalf because it is such a great part for Hermione. She really comes into her own in this novel. We get to see several different sides of Hermione.’
    Daniel Radcliffe agreed. ‘This is my favourite of the books,’ he told USA Today . ‘It’s a weird one because it almost reinvents the character. He’s more hostile. He’s got a lot of teenage aggression, which all people at 13 do.’
    The book had been published in July 1999 and J. K.Rowling would describe it as the easiest book that she would write. The book marked the true globalisation of the Potter phenomenon. To promote it, Rowling went on a three-week coast-to-coast US promotional tour of signings, appearances and TV interviews. To dispel any final doubt about how far her creation had become ingrained in popular culture, in October 1999, Harry Potter made the cover of Time magazine. ‘I have a very weird life at the moment,’ Rowling told CBS News. ‘Half my life is exactly as it was in the past. I spend my time doing housework, looking after my daughter and writing novels. You could describe it as dull. Then suddenly I come to America and it’s wonderful. The number of people at the signings, the interviews and publicity is enough to make my head spin.’
    With the new film, a very different kind of filmmaker was to be found in the director’s chair: Mexican born Alfonso Cuarón had taken over from Chris Columbus, who would take on a producer’s role for the new film.