EMMA WATSON: CREATIVITY IS HER DRVING FORCE

Finding her niche outside of HARRY POTTER has been EMMA WATSON’S most challenging role to date.

“I have lived in a complete bubble,” she admitted in the JULY issue of VOGUE.

“And now I’m desperately trying to find my way through it.”

A stint as an Ivy Leaguer, seeking refuge in the arts (“I love it and have a need to do it,” she said of painting) and side projects have helped define her off screen character.

“I was Warner Brothers’ pain in the butt. I was their scheduling conflict,” she said of making time for extracurricular fashion projects, including designing three collections for PEOPLE TREE.

“I was doing twelve hour days on Harry Potter and then coming home to work for two more hours, sizing and cutting designs.”

But her time on set inspired her, too; she grew close to makeup head AMANDA KNIGHT and would spend hours experimenting with cosmetics in the makeup trailer.

“That was my playground. I would sit and play with lipsticks, foundations and eye shadows and every now and then Amanda would let me do the extras’ face paint for the Quidditch matches.”

Perhaps not so coincidentally, EMMA is now the face of LANCOME. But despite her busy off set schedule, she is still finding time for new projects. She recently landed the role of SAM in THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.

“Sam is such a different girl than who I am. Hermione is so close to who I am as a person that I’ve never really had to research a role. I’m literally rediscovering what it means to be an actress.”