Tag: daniel radcliffe

sonnenscheintraum:

headcanonsandmore:

ronandhappiness:

astoriamalfoys:

“When Steve Kloves (who wrote the majority of the Potter screenplays) met J.K. Rowling for the first time, he told her straight up that Hermione was his favorite character. Rowling admitted to being relieved, and who could blame her? It was more likely for Hermione to end up disrespected on screen—she wouldn’t be the first female hero to get butchered in the reels. But this resulted in an undercutting of Ron’s entire character from the first movie. Don’t believe it? When the trio go after the Philosopher’s Stone, they face a series of tests that demand each of their skills in turn. Time likely demanded that this sequence be cut down, and so Hermione’s test—solving Professor Snape’s potion riddle—was removed entirely. To make up for this, she gets them out of the Devil’s Snare, Professor Sprout’s deadly plant. Hermione shouts to Harry and Ron to relax so the foliage will release them—but Ron continues to panic and moan (in campiest fashion possible because he’s played by a child actor and these things are always requested of them), requiring Hermione to blast the thing with a sunlight spell. In the book, Hermione is the one who panics. She remembers what her lessons taught her—that the Devil’s Snare will recoil at fire—but balks at their lack of matches while they are being strangled to death. Ron immediately shrieks to the rescue YOU ARE A WITCH YOU HAVE A WAND YOU KNOW SPELLS WHAT ARE MATCHES. It’s a simple change, but it makes such a marked difference in how both characters come off to an audience. Rather than a near-infant, incapable of following the clearest directions, Ron is the even-keeled nitty-gritty one. He’s a tactician, the one who will find the simplest answer to a problem provided that the situation is dire enough to ensure his clear head. Ron is good under pressure and brave to boot. He’s also hilarious. It is easy to write this off as an actor problem; Emma Watson matured and improved much faster than her costars in terms of talent—and Steve Kloves liked her portrayal so much that he started giving her many of Ron’s important lines. During The Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black is trying to get to Peter Pettigrew (currently disguised as Scabbers the Rat), but Ron and Hermione are convinced he’s after Harry. In the book, Ron stares up defiantly from his mangled, broken leg and tells Sirius Black that if he wants Harry, he’ll have to get through his friends first. Yeah, my leg hurts way too much, Hermione. You take this one. But say it’s from me. And in the film, it’s Hermione who boldly steps in the line of fire while Ron sobs in pain and babbles incoherently. These rewrites not only depict Ron as an idiot coward—they also make him an outright jerk. When Professor Snape snaps at Hermione yet again for being an insufferable know-it-all, movie-Ron gives her a look and drawls, “He’s right, you know.” Wait, what?! Harry, why are you friends with this prick? Well, maybe because the Ron Weasley that J.K. Rowling put on paper was in that exact same situation, and immediately leapt to Hermione’s defense when she was being abused by a teacher—“You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don’t want to be told?””

— Erased by Time and Blockbusters—The Cautionary Tale of Ron Weasley (via burntlikethesun)

Fuck you, Steve Kloves. Fuck you. I’ll never forgive you for how you treated Ron, you evil git.

I’m with all of this except for 

 “Emma Watson matured and improved much faster than her costars in terms of talent”

I’ve always thought Emma’s acting talent improved the least out of the three main leads. Granted, she was okay in POA and GOF, but so was Dan, and he continued to improve with each film. To me, Emma seems uninterested and somewhat bored in the last four fi;ms. Rupert, of course, was brilliant from the very first film, and continued to get better with every instalment (at least, in the small scraps of book!Ron that he was allowed to portray).

I mean sure, between films one to three she may have improved faster, but in my honest opinion, the climax of her acting improvement is slapping Malfoy in the face. That’s it. She does improve but both Dan and Rupert overtake her especially in films five and six. Coming into the seventh film, I’m not sure if she lacks the skills, or if her portrayal of Hermione is as narrow minded as Steve Kloves’ was when writing her character, or Rowlings in the last books. Her portrayal of Hermione is bland.

Meanwhile, as @headcanonsandmore has already pointed out, Rupert imrpoved so much and is still improving to this day, which, from an actor’s perspective is the goal. No matter how many people tell you your acting is perfect, it never is. Finding new ways to portray characters and to grow on your own is, at least to me, one of the reasons why I want to do the job. Sorry, for the small ramble. Rupert has shown the biggest improvement from film one to eight. There’s one scene which, imho, portrays that perfectly:

When Harry brings back Ron to Hermione, Rupert’s face shows more emotions than Emma in the latter series.

Furthermore, I am incredibly disappointed with every character I have seen Emma portray: each and every one of them seems like a bland copy of Hermione (leaving aside that she cannot sing at all, this is one of the reasons why I really dislike the Beauty and the Beast remake – she relies on the books-smarts, without faults, etc.  Same goes for her character in The Circle)

The other Harry Potters, and especially Dan and Rupert are trying their best to do different things, do theatre, tv, films.

Don’t get me wrong, Emma has an important voice for women and what she does there is good and vital, however, her acting lacks and I just cannot help growing tired of the big Hollywood roles being thrown at her, while others, especially Rupert are overlooked. I’m happy that Rupert does so many projects, but the availability of his works is much more limited to the UK than Emma’s.

@sonnenscheintraum I am 100% behind behind your arguments. 

I think Emma’s (to my mind, at least) bland portrayal of Hermione in the last four films was based around a few things. Like you say, Steve Kloves’ writing of the character didn’t give her a lot to work with, as well as the fact that she was apparently losing interest in the series. Her contract came up for renewal during the filming of the fifth film, and she was seriously considering leaving the series. 

There’s never been a clear reason given as to why she stayed, but, after she decided to stay, she was (apparently) given a lot more leeway from the production team. I’ve heard from mutuals on Tumblr that the production team often changed filming schedules around based on what suited Emma, a luxury that wasn’t really given to anyone-else. Not to mention that she was allowed to write some of her own lines (rumour has it that she penned the ‘actually I’m highly logical’ line herself), another luxury not given to her other co-stars. 

I’m sure she’s a lovely person IRL, but I personally find her acting iffy at best. To my mind, she was a typical child actor in the first two films, just about okay in the third and fourth, and bland in the last four. Compared to, say, Daniel Radcliffe (who got better with each film, especially POA and afterwards) and Rupert Grint (who was brilliant in the first film, and continually got better throughout), I never thought Emma’s acting was anything to write home about. 

I also agree with you on her acting in other projects. The few of her non-HP projects that I’ve seen left me distinctly underwhelmed. And, like you say, I don’t think her singing is very good. Her acting range seems to be far less than those of her former HP co-stars, especially Rupert and Dan. 

It’s interesting that the actor out of the three HP leads with possibly the least amount of acting range became the most popular in Hollywood. Maybe Hollywood thought she was the most marketable? Considering how badly many of her projects have gone down, that wasn’t a good decision in hindsight. Good thing she was able to go into charity work and feminist discourse; which is maybe a better fit for her (I wouldn’t know, since I’m a man, and therefore don’t have much right to criticise people about their feminism). 

Having said that, as a Brit, I like that Rupert still works mainly in the UK. It’s like I’m part of a small group of people who stumbled upon something that most people don’t know about. Yes, I would like Rupert to get more recognition for his talents, but I also get the sense that he’s genuinely happy with what he’s doing. He’s not an especially egotistical individual, and enjoys staying away from the spotlight. He’s an actor, first-and-foremost, and I’m glad that he’s finally being recognised as such, instead of ‘that bloke who played Ron Weasley’.