Dressed in skimpy clothes and baring her midriff, sporting a spotted tattoo near her hip, Watson represents the pole-dancing "Valley vixen" of the notorious Hollywood Bling Ring, the youths who authorities say burglarized celebrity homes in 2008 and 2009. A Vanity Fair article about the ring serves as the true-story source material for director Sofia Coppola's film.
"When I read the script and I realized that essentially it was a meditation on fame and what it's become to our society, I had to do it," Watson told GQ. "The character is everything that I felt strongly against -- she's superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral. She's all of these things and I realized that I hated her. How do you play someone you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be."
She's talking about Alexis Neiers, a Bling Ring member who was outed during her E! reality show "Pretty Wild." Neiers pleaded no contest in 2010 to second-degree residential burglary and was also paid by Coppola to consult on the film. She was given probation after serving 30 days of a 180-day sentence.
The 22-year-old Watson said she prepared for the role by watching "a ton of reality TV."
"I was doing an English course [at Brown University]. So I would go from reading Virginia Woolf to [watching] Kim Kardashian. I kind of loved it, this mix of super-high and super-low culture. I think it was a nice balance."
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