Emma Watson: From child actress to world beauty icon and Gucci’s boss

Emma Watson is a rare case in Hollywood with a solid reputation and huge fortune at the age of 32. Watson’s acting career is associated with the success of the Harry Potter franchise , but in recent years, she widely known as a star with a strong voice supporting movements for social progress. She is one of the inspirational icons for young people.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Emma Watson’s assets as of 2022 are 85 million USD. Even though she is a millionaire, Watson’s image in front of the media is always that of a woman with a simple personal life, busy with community activities.

Audiences have never heard of Emma Watson participating in lavish parties and festivals, splurging on expensive items or getting involved in noisy love affairs. On the contrary, people hear that she goes to school, gives speeches, calls for a change in community awareness and action in the face of painful realities… Since 2020, she has been appointed to the collective management board. Kering luxury fashion group – the business that owns the brands Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen.

The British star’s simple, secretive lifestyle reflects exactly what she once shared: “Wearing cheap clothes doesn’t mean I’m poor. Remember, you need to feed your family, not manipulate others.” society”. Knowing what she needs, what she wants and doing her best for those goals, Emma Watson deserves to be an inspirational symbol of life for young audiences.

Wearing cheap clothes doesn’t mean I’m poor

The audience easily loves and praises child stars. But every love comes with expectations. The heavy pressure from early fame and expectations from the audience have contributed to many child artists falling into the tragedy of “blooming early and fading late” while many others have spent years struggling to find their identity. Emma Watson belongs to a group of not many stars who successfully overcome that crisis period.

The role of witch with normal human blood as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter has turned Emma Watson from a girl from Oxfordshire (UK) with a passion for acting into a star with global influence. But the reputation from a popular movie franchise is still not enough for the British star to maintain his reputation in the hearts of the audience all this time – especially when the last part of Harry Potter was released in 2011.

After Harry Potter, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint chose three different career paths.

The success achieved through Harry Potter is a favorable step for Emma Watson to continue her acting career. Along with her journey of pursuing her passion, the 20-year-old girl spends time on an equally important goal in life – cultivating knowledge.

Sharing with Access Hollywood in 2007, Watson said: “People don’t understand why I don’t want to be a full-time actor. But school helps me keep in touch with friends. It helps me understand reality, makes me I feel like I’m normal. Let’s be honest: I have enough money to not have to worry about working, but I never expected that. Studying gives me motivation.”

Although not encouraged by the management company, since 2009, Watson has divided his time between acting and studying. In 2014, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the prestigious Ivy League Brown University. Watson also studied at Worcester College at Oxford University and returned here as a visiting scholar in 2016. Emma Watson and her eagerness to learn are a rare case in the world of screen superstars. image.

While her reputation was rising thanks to the success of Harry Potter, Emma Watson still chose to spend time studying at university. She shared that she wanted to retire when she was 18 years old.

Not only famous for her eagerness to learn, Emma Watson is also a model of a simple lifestyle. In an interview with British Vogue magazine, the actress shared that it was not until she was 18 years old that her father revealed the huge amount of money she had earned thanks to Harry Potter . “I didn’t know. I felt nauseous and had complicated emotions,” Watson revealed his first reaction to that amount of money. She had to quickly take a financial management course at Coutts Bank to learn how to control this wealth.

With millions of dollars in hand, Emma Watson does not think about luxury brands or lavish parties. The actress used her Harry Potter salary to buy two essential items – including a laptop and a mid-range car – and pay for a trip to Italy with her father. According to Watson, the car she chose to buy at that time reflected her true self – “not the most beautiful car on the road, but environmentally friendly. It was reasonable and boring, like me.” In the following years, for safety and work reasons, the actress continued to buy two more cars, but none of these vehicles had a value exceeding $100,000.

Emma Watson is a star famous for her simple lifestyle and discreet love story.

South China Morning Post commented that Emma Watson’s spending habits are “mature”. Since 2014, after having problems with stalkers, the actress has spent $150,000 a year to hire a personal bodyguard. She of course spent a significant amount of money on her college education. Emma Watson is also a philanthropist. The actress donates a significant portion of her fortune to charities and social organizations. According to SCMP, the British star spent about 1.4 million USD to support victims of sexual abuse.

Gucci’s big boss with a mission to serve sustainable fashion

Working in the entertainment industry, Emma Watson does not limit herself to a single role. During the past 17 years, in addition to acting, Emma Watson has also been a model favored by fashion brands. Modeling helps female artists have the opportunity to learn and recognize existing issues. in the fashion industry and urged her to start finding a solution. Over the years, Emma Watson has become one of the famous advocates for the development of sustainable fashion. 

The great achievement that Watson achieved on the journey to pursue this mission is being appointed to the board of directors of luxury fashion group Kering – the business that owns the brands Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen. Appointed alongside Watson in June 2020 were Ms. Jean Liu – director of Chinese shipping company DiDi Chuxing and Tidjane Thiam – former CEO of Credit Suisse. 

Emma Watson has repeatedly stepped onto the red carpet of events in outfits made from environmentally friendly materials.

In the Kering empire, Emma Watson holds the position of chairwoman of the Sustainable Fashion Development Committee. She contributes to the development of the luxury fashion brand chain as an independent director and is the youngest face compared to five peers. In this position, Watson does not contribute capital to invest in Kering, is not part of the group’s executive team, or interferes in how the organization operates. Emma Watson’s responsibility is to advise Kering on business decisions and promotional campaigns with a focus on human rights and women’s rights. According to information from Kering, Watson will continue to take on this responsibility at least until December 2023.

Emma Watson becoming a member of Kering’s board of directors at the age of 30 is an unusual event, but completely deserved. In Emma Watson, the values ​​of intelligence, beauty and mass influence converge. Business Insider once called Kering’s recruitment of Watson a “wise choice”, because the group needed a star with enough name, talent and stature to retain young people and revive the business in the midst of a recession. many economic and social changes due to Covid-19.

Emma Watson pursues a mission to raise public awareness of gender equality and women’s rights.

On the professional side, Emma Watson shared with Vogue India that she started learning about sustainable fashion at the age of 12, when participating in promotional events for the Harry Potter series . In 2010, Watson went to Bangladesh at the invitation of sustainable fashion brand People Tree. Since then, she has contributed to building many campaigns to raise awareness about this consumer trend. Watson’s experience and understanding of sustainable consumption are the “weapons” that help Kering compete with other brands in the “green fashion” race. In addition, decades of experience as a photo model and fashion model for many famous brands also helped Watson accumulate a certain amount of knowledge about how this industry operates.

Before shaking hands with Kering, Watson cooperated with Eco Age, a sustainable brand consulting company founded and run by Livia Firth since 2009. In 2016, Watson was one of the first artists to respond. Green Carpet Challenge movement when wearing a dress made from recycled plastic bottle fabric to the 2016 Met Gala. Next, while promoting Beauty and the Beast, Emma Watson created an Instagram page called The Press Tour to show off to fans a 100% eco-friendly red carpet wardrobe.

In 2018, Emma Watson attracted attention with the “Time Up” tattoo. Fake tattoos with obvious grammatical errors helped popularize Time’s Up – a movement against sexual harassment in the film industry – with the public.

Over the years, with her influence and knowledge, Watson has also contributed to building action programs and community campaigns for the development of women and gender equality. Watson’s gender equality views once made her suspected of having a bad attitude towards author JK Rowling, the mother of the Harry Potter book series. In 2020, during an interview, Watson received a question from transgender journalist Paris Lee whether the actress felt comfortable sharing a bathroom with him. Watson replied: “Oh my god, of course it’s comfortable. It’s all a natural human need. I understand the feeling of being afraid of things you don’t know. But we have to step forward and learn.. .”

This answer was considered “slapping” Rowling. The female author once expressed on social networks that she felt uncomfortable sharing the bathroom or changing room with transgender women. In March, on stage at the BAFTA awards ceremony, Emma Watson’s statement “I’m here to represent all witches” was also considered by fans to be a jab at JK Rowling’s transphobic views. . Although the public supports Watson, there is still no shortage of critics, saying she is ungrateful to the people who supported and helped her get to where she is today.

Recently, rumors appeared on the Internet that Emma Watson agreed to return to the Harry Potter series with one condition that Rowling must be removed from the project. The information continued to cause her to receive criticism from public opinion. All three times she got into trouble, Emma Watson chose to stay silent. The silence does not mean tacit acknowledgment but rather shows the actress’s “not having to show off to society” point of view. In fact, many of Watson’s co-stars from Harry Potter spoke up to confirm that the star always had respect and love for Rowling.

Every item worn by Emma Watson when appearing in front of the media comes from brands pursuing sustainable, environmentally friendly fashion trends.

“If people see me quieter in the future, it’s not like I’ve retired or retired! I’ll still do my job, but in a different way (less red carpet events and more conferences) more) This is a moment that only comes once in a lifetime and I intend to seize the opportunity it brings to create change,” Emma Watson shared with Vogue India in 2020 about the new direction in her career.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character Captain America (Chris Evans) once challenged Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) with the question “You’re just a big guy in a state-of-the-art armor. Take it off and you’ll still be fine.” What?”. Iron Man replied with a calm expression: “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” This is a detail designed to be funny, but raises a real problem. The true value of a person does not lie in external ornaments, but in the qualities within the soul.

With Emma Watson, behind the aura of a movie star and young millionaire, she is a young woman with a lot of character. Watson is talented and intelligent, skillful and wise, ready to stand on the side of the weak, like the character Hermione Granger she played on screen. She knows what she needs and tries her best for that goal, even if it comes at the cost of the glory and reputation that acting brings.