Ever since the very first installment into the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (or Philosopher's Stone, depending on your locale), it was evident that young actress Emma Watson was brimming with potential. And every further Harry Potter film only made that point further. So then, it was no surprise that once the Harry Potter series finally came to a close, the world was waiting with bated breath to see what projects Watson would choose in the future.
Becoming a successful child actress is clearly no guarantee that one will find success in adulthood, but Emma Watson has clearly done extremely well for herself. Her resume in the post-Harry Potter years has been impressive and varied, and she really got to show her chops in all of her most recent films. So here are all of Watson's films since Harry Potter, along with their Rotten Tomatoes score.
My Week With Marilyn - 83%
For Emma Watson's first foray into filmmaking after the conclusion of Harry Potter, she chose an independent film called My Week With Marilyn. The movie follows a young aspiring filmmaker named Colin (played by Eddie Redmayne) who lucks into a job working with the incomparable Marilyn Monroe.
Emma's appearance in the film is in a relatively brief supporting role. She plays a young wardrobe assistant named Lucy, who meets Redmayne's character, and the two begin dating after hitting it off on set. But as Colin grows more and more infatuated with Marilyn, Lucy begins to notice, and she ultimately decides to call things off with Colin.
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - 86%
After the end of the Harry Potter franchise, obviously Emma could really afford to be picky when it came to new roles. So it comes as no surprise that the second post-HP film was an adaptation of the classic coming of age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
The movie was actually directed by the writer of the novel, Stephen Chbosky, and Emma plays the character of Sam. After the protagonist, Charlie, is released from a mental institution and finds himself back in a normal high school, and she immediately hits it off with Sam and her stepbrother Patrick.
The Bling Ring - 59%
This list of recognizable and nearly iconic directors who every actor dreams of working with is pretty short, but Sofia Coppola is definitely one of them. Emma is an undeniably and extremely talented actress, but she was still pretty lucky to score the lead role in The Bling Ring.
The Bling Ring was a fictionalized version of the real-life series of super high profile break-ins that were actually committed by a bunch of Los Angeles high school students. Watson's character was based on the real-life star of E!'s short-lived reality series Pretty Wild, Alexis Neiers.
This Is The End - 83%
One of the more interesting points on Emma Watson's acting resume was her role in This Is The End, a comedy about the apocalypse in which Emma plays an imaginary version of herself.
This Is The End is the story of actors Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson trying to survive in Hollywood after the literal rapture, and they have a pretty eventful run-in with Emma Watson after the world has completely fallen apart. Emma Watson's appearance in the movie was relatively brief, but it was certainly memorable, and it was great to see Emma show off her acting chops.
Noah - 76%
One of Emma's quirkier role choices was definitely when she decided to take the role of Ila in Noah, Darren Aronofsky's unsurprisingly insane big-screen adaptation of the Biblical Book of Genesis.
The movie, as anyone might be able to guess, was actually about the events surrounding Noah's Ark, and Emma's character was the wife of one of Noah's sons and the mother of his two twin granddaughters. As such, Emma's character basically becomes the new mother of the entire human race, which is a pretty interesting and cool role to take on, even if it's only for a Hollywood movie.
The Colony - 26%
The Colony, or Colonia as it is sometimes known, was a really interesting historical thriller that Emma starred in alongside German actor Daniel Bruhl. The film takes place during the era of Chilean President Salvador Allende's overthrow, and Bruhl plays a young man who is abducted by Augusto Pinochet's secret police.
His girlfriend Lena (played by Watson) tries to find him and eventually finds him at Colonia Dignidad. Dignidad is a nearly inescapable and isolated colony where dissidents are kept, tortured, and killed. Eventually the couple does manage to escape, and they escape with photographic evidence of the atrocities that are going on at the colony.
Regression - 15%
Regression is one of the lower-profile roles that Emma has taken on in the interim between Harry Potter and the present day, but it definitely has interesting subject matter, so it's no surprise that she decided to take the role.
Emma plays the character of Angela, a teenage girl who's father has admittedly sexually abused her but who has no actual memories of the abuse. She begins seeing a professor who tries to use recovered-memory therapy on her, and this regression therapy leads to Angela recalling that the abuse apparently involved some kind of Satanic cult. And surprisingly, the story only gets stranger from there.
Beauty And The Beast - 71%
There are very few stories that are more iconic and well known than Beauty and the Beast, and Emma Watson proved that she was an absolutely perfect Belle in the live-action Disney adaptation of this legendary fairy tale.
Emma is undoubtedly a really brilliant woman in her own right (she did go to an Ivy league school, after all), but the fact that she is ingrained in the minds of millions as the face and voice of Hermione Granger undeniably must have helped her in not only getting this role but in playing it so believably and making the movie such a huge success.
The Circle - 15%
Emma Watson's most recent feature is The Circle, a movie in which she co-stars with Tom Hanks. It focuses on a somewhat suspicious social media and technology company that Emma's character Mae works at. The Circle is basically Facebook on steroids, and Watson's character is just a call center intern.
But her enthusiasm for the program leads her to rise quickly within the organization, and after some positive experiences with the tech she decides to go "transparent," letting the app and its technology see literally every aspect of her life. And although the people around her are put off by it, Mae's commitment is intense.
Little Women - 96%
Apparently Watson's ability to pick good projects may be getting better over time, at least if her latest project is anything to go by. Although the latest adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women hasn't even been released yet, the critical response to it has been very good. With a staggeringly high rating of 96%, this Greta Gerwig-directed movie looks to be the best adaptation of Little Women yet.
Emma plays the role of Meg March, the oldest sister in the March clan and a young lady who is a near-perfect woman in the eyes of the rest of the world.