on 21 january, my mum and i participated in the women's march in washington dc. millions of people marched that day in the name of human rights and i'm proud to say that i was there. for a day without a woman/international women's day, i played book fairy and placed feminist novels at monuments dedicated to important women throughout history. these may be some of the smaller things that i've done, but i believe that anything counts when you are standing up for what you believe in. i am well aware of the fact that there are people out there who assume that i am just another foreign import attempting to impose my beliefs on others, but in the name of the feminist movement and as the un women goodwill ambassador, i don't speak on behalf of any one country. the lack of equality for ALL is an issue that affects most countries, and some are devastatingly worse than others.
as a self-proclaimed feminist, i find it important to emphasise such ideals in my work as an actor. i wasn't nearly as outspoken when i was younger and known largely as a witch called hermione. that was largely joanne's doing as an author, but having the opportunity to bring such a strong female character to life was quite an honour. in many respects it helped to mould me into the woman that i am today, and i will forever be grateful to jo for that.
i've since chosen many of my roles wisely, and i've become more apt to voice my opinions, just enough to get my point across, but not quite to where they'd rather fire me for being a bit too adamant. i had more freedom working on beauty & the beast than i've ever really had in the past. had belle truly been a victim of stockholm syndrome, i never would have taken the role. i wanted my freckles. i wanted my figure. i wanted her to be the inventor. most importantly, i needed her to exude intelligence and she absolutely had to be independent.