Emma Watson Cried With Joy Watching Someone Else Play Hermione In 'Harry Potter And The Cursed Child'

When you spend most of your formative years playing an iconic character, it's easy to see how it would feel as if they were a part of you, and how difficult it may be to see the role passed on to someone else.

Emma Watson recently experienced this with Hermione Granger, whom she spent her youth playing, once the story of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was brought to life onstage in London. While doing press for #BeautyandtheBeast, Entertainment Weekly asked her how it felt to see someone else play the role that she had spent her young life bringing to life.

While there were fans who took issues with the casting of Noma Dumezweni as Hermione, given that they believed she should be white like Emma to stay true to what their vision of Hermione Granger should be (a vision that J.K. Rowling emphatically shot down as not necessarily being canon). Emma had already spoken out on behalf of the actress on Twitter saying

After seeing the play herself, she told EW, things didn't change:

It was so strange. It was so emotional seeing Noma’s performance in a way that I had not anticipated at all. She walked in the room and I just spontaneously burst into tears. … I had played that character so intensely up until that point, that to know that Hermione was going to be okay — I know it sounds crazy — but to know that everything turned out all right and everything in the world was okay, that there was someone else carrying her on and carrying her forward … it was just such a relief.”

While they are too very different interpretations, an older and more experienced Hermione with a family as opposed to a young student helping her friends, the two will always be connected by the common bond of playing such a strong and independent character.

And just in case you haven't gotten enough of how delightful Emma Watson is, here she is singing 'Belle' from Beauty and the Beast:

What a lovely human being she is.

[Source: Entertainment Weekly]