Single? For Emma Watson, actor considers herself ‘self-partnered’

LONDON -- Actor Emma Watson has given up calling herself single and now describes herself as "self-partnered" as she faces down societal pressure to marry and have a family, she said in an interview published on Tuesday.

The "Harry Potter" star told with British Vogue magazine she had battled anxiety as she approached age 30 without a stable career, partner or baby.

"I never believed the whole 'I'm happy single' spiel," she told the magazine, saying she had gradually changed her views.

"It took me a long time, but I'm very happy. I call it being self-partnered."

Women have long faced particular pressure to partner up and start a family, rights campaigners have argued, with older single women more likely to be seen as an object of pity while men tend to be perceived as free and enjoying bachelor life.

Watson, 29, said she had struggled with anxiety and stress as she approached her 30th birthday, eventually realizing it was because she was facing an "influx of subliminal messaging".

"If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you're not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career ... There's just this incredible amount of anxiety," she said.

Watson is a leading women's rights activist and a goodwill ambassador for U.N. Women, championing the HeForShe campaign, which urges men to advocate for gender equality.

She has also spoken out about her own experiences of sexism, recalling suffering gender-based discrimination from age 8, and has said as she grew into adulthood she was sexualized by the media in a way that her male "Harry Potter" co-stars were not. 

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Emma Watson plans legal action over stolen photos

"Beauty and the Beast" star Emma Watson is planning legal action over photos said to have been leaked online, but her representatives on Wednesday denied reports that the pictures showed the British actress nude.

"Photos from a clothes fitting Emma had with a stylist a couple of years ago have been stolen. They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further," her publicist said in a statement to Variety and the BBC.

Social media and blog posts have claimed that naked images of Watson have been posted this week on an anonymous document-sharing network. It was not clear what action her lawyers are planning, or against whom.

Watson, 26, who made her name as a child star playing Hermione Granger in the "Harry Potter" movies, found herself at the center of a social media controversy earlier this month over a photo shoot she did for Vanity Fair magazine that included a picture in which parts of her breasts were exposed.

Critics called Watson, who is also a United Nations goodwill ambassador on women's rights and equality, hypocritical and said she was betraying her feminist ideals.

Watson hit back, saying feminism was about choice. "It's about freedom, it's about liberation, it's about equality. I really don't know what my tits have to do with it," she told Reuters.

Watson appears in the live action version of the Disney classic "Beauty and the Beast," which opens in movie theaters around the world this week and is expected to take some $200 million at the box-office, according to box office analysts.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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LOOK: Emma Watson wears Pinoy-made shoes

MANILA – Actress Emma Watson, star of the upcoming movie “Beauty and the Beast,” was spotted wearing shoes by a Filipino designer.

Bianca Moran took to Instagram to express her happiness after seeing Watson wear her Hey Simone mid-heel sandals at the Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit held last week.

“Someone pinch me,” Moran wrote.

The Hey Simone shoes from Moran’s Susi Studio is named after French philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir. Susi Studio markets itself as a shop that offers “sustainable footwear.”

Watson, who rose to fame because of the “Harry Potter” film series, is also a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.

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Review: Satanic suggestions in 'Regression'

For a long time, Alejandro Amenabar has been one of my favorite writer-directors for the twisted suspense thrillers. He was quite prolific at the turn of the century -- "Thesis" (1996), "Open Your Eyes" (1997) and his English-language debut "The Others" (2001). His biographical drama "The Sea Inside" won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004.

Since then though, his output had been sparse. That was why when I heard that he will be releasing a new film this year entitled "Regression," I made sure I went to watch it.

Seventeen-year old Angela Gray accuses her father of sexually abusing her. Detective Bruce Kenner is assigned to her case. The father meekly admits to the crime, but does not actually recall doing it. Kenner seeks the help of Psychology professor Kenneth Raines to elicit his repressed memories, as well as those of the other members of the Gray family, via hypnotic regression. What is revealed from these sessions are diabolical confessions of such disturbing nature that Kenner himself could not get them out of his own mind.

Ethan Hawke is such a good actor, really. From his feature debut in "Dead Poet's Society," then "Before Sunrise" (and its series), "Gattaca," "Sinister" to his Oscar-nominated performances in "Training Day" and "Boyhood," this guy can really portray the most ordinary characters and wind up making them very memorable. His intense take of the obsessed Bruce Kenner was riveting and infectious. His visions become our visions, his beliefs our beliefs. He had a flawless interactive rapport with Amenabar's camera, registering and conveying the anger, paranoia, confusion, and fear of his character so well onscreen.

Emma Watson returns on her trajectory to becoming a serious movie actress after being sidelined by unfortunate roles in "This is the End" and "Noah." The talent and the promise are there, but the connection with her role as the troubled Angela was not as convincing as that of Hawke's. Her best performances were still those for Hermione Granger. Her young adult performances in films like "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "The Bling Ring" had a certain unnatural stiffness in them, as it was again here as well.

Credible supporting performances were given by David Thewlis as the authoritative Prof. Raines and David Dencik as Angela's repentant father John. Going a bit over the top was Dale Dickey and her exaggeratedly demented performance as Angela's grandmother Rose. The strangest casting decision was that of Lothaire Bluteau as the priest Reverend Murray. He exuded such a creepy vibe, which of course may be the director's intention.

While "Regression" was still not on the same level of excellence as "Open Your Eyes" or "The Others," Alejandro Amenabar returned to form with this comeback project of sorts. The script, though weak and flawed in certain aspects (like motive, for one important example), was still logical and grounded despite dealing with controversial religious and psychological matters. The storytelling engages you despite the dark unpleasant topics and relentlessly morbid atmosphere. I am looking forward to the next Amenabar opus. I hope it does not take so many years anymore. 7/10

This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."

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Emma Watson sheds Harry Potter image for Cannes film

CANNES, France - "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson abandons magic for pole-dancing and cat burglary in Sofia Coppola's latest movie, one of two Cannes contenders on Thursday with twists on the girls-gone-wild theme.

"The Bling Ring" is based on true events in fame-fixated Los Angeles where a gang of teenagers in 2009 broke into the mansions of celebrities including Orlando Bloom, Lindsay Lohan and Megan Fox.

Snatching millions of dollars' worth of jewelry and designer frocks, they sought to grab a piece of the A-list lifestyle, becoming minor social media stars themselves in the process.

"The story couldn't have happened 10 years ago and so I thought it was an interesting story for a movie that said so much about our culture today," Coppola told reporters.

The British Watson puts on a Valley Girl accent to play Nicki, the product of New Age home-schooling and flashy consumer culture who links up with a group that learns that globe-trotting stars often don't bother much with home security.

Watson said moving from her role as Hermione in one of cinema's biggest franchises to an unsympathetic mall rat required her to take in hours of reality television.

"I watched a lot of the Kardashians, I watched a lot of Paris Hilton, I watched a lot of 'The Hills'," she said.

"It would be very easy for Nicki to feel like a parody, not real, and somehow I had to understand and empathize with her and that was really my biggest challenge, second to getting the accent down -- it's a very specific dialect."

Paris Hilton, who leaves her house keys under her doormat, is an early victim and Coppola's camera ogles her wardrobe of slinky dresses and hip-hop-caliber baubles, and a private nightclub festooned with animal prints.

It is there that Nicki gives Hilton's dance pole a spin, prepping for nights out clubbing when she hopes to get noticed by a producer and be cast in a music video.

Watson said Coppola allowed her to ad-lib and let her hair down on set, which she described as a welcome change.

"It was nice to work with someone that's really spontaneous as well and I could work in a way that was a lot more loose than I was really used to -- I'm used to really having to stick to my lines," she said.

When the ring is finally caught thanks to grainy security video at another star's home and their own selfies (photographs of oneself taken with mobile phones) on Facebook, Nicki proves a master at media spin.

Opening Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar section for edgy new cinema, "The Bling Ring" drew polite applause at a packed press screening ahead of its red-carpet premiere. Hilton, who lent Coppola her home for the filming, has said she plans to attend.

Britain's daily Guardian called it "an interesting surprise".

"It puts you inside the unwholesome opium den of celeb-worship, and when the gang infiltrate Hilton's bizarre home, a Tutankhamun's tomb of kitsch, there is a real frisson," it said.

FRENCH-STYLE GILDED YOUTH

Meanwhile, in the main competition, France's Francois Ozon unveiled "Young and Beautiful" set among Paris' gilded youth with their own ennui-driven lives on the edge.

Seventeen-year-old Isabelle spends a sun-kissed family vacation in southern France where she loses her virginity to a sweet German fellow tourist.

Once back at school, Isabelle -- played by Marine Vacth -- inexplicably begins turning tricks, promoting herself online.

One regular John is a Viagra-popping married man in his 70s. When he has a fatal heart attack during one of their trysts, Isabelle is questioned by the police and her double life comes to light.

No one, least of all Isabelle, can articulate why she turned to prostitution but the sly smile that crosses her rosebud lips when clients flood her phone with text messages provides a vague clue.

"In all the films, French and others, I had the impression that youth was idealized while I have a painful memory of my own adolescence," Ozon said after a well-received screening.

"The idea was to create a portrait of a young girl today rooted in a certain reality but not to give all the answers, sharing the mystery (of Isabelle) with the audience."

"Young and Beautiful" is one of 20 films in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes which wraps up on May 26.

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