Emma Watson Teased, Taunted At Brown: Report

It certainly is not easy being the smartest girl in both fictional and non-fictional school. Sources tell the New York Daily News that Harry Potter star Emma Watson may have had a good reason to leave Brown University: her classmates constantly teased her with Harry Potter references.

The Daily News reports:

Watson didn't shy away from class participation and often would "answer something in class and get it right," calling the 21-year-old actress "really smart." Unfortunately, this brought out the sophisticated wit and cinematic expertise of her Ivy League peers.

According to the source, her classmates "would respond [to her answer] with a quote from 'Harry Potter.'" The most popular choice was "Three points for Gryffindor!" - a reference to the movie's dormitory system, and a congratulatory phrase in the films when a student got a correct answer.

In a Vanity Fair interview last year, Watson described her first days in college as "awful." "I was like, I must be mad," she said. "Why am I doing this?"

The young star eventually appeared to find her footing at Brown, acting in a Chekov play and taking European women's history courses.

Read the full scoop on Watson's brief collegiate career over at the Daily News.

Comments

[Pembrokelib]

05:35 PM on 04/24/2011

The Daily News is a rag given to slanted sensationalism. No one should believe anything from the News and HuffPost should not be republishing their so called news. Why doesn't the Post hire more of their own reporters? Perhaps they don't like paying for news? The story above is completely false.

[murphthesurf3]

08:23 AM on 04/28/2011

And you know it is false based on........?

[Pembrokelib]

09:32 AM on 04/28/2011

My statements were based on opinion, not facts. However, I live near Brown and know a number of students and professors all of whom said that she was accepted and that she seemed happy. She also said in interviews that she loved the college.Brown students are very liberal and none of the kids from famous families have ever had problems there. ( since it's my Alma mater I may be biased!)

[sobriquet87]

11:09 PM on 04/23/2011

She's transferring to NYU. No bullying involved.
The media's love of reporting false stories is ruining a school's reputation.
Emma loved Brown and the students there. She's transferring, because NYU offers more opportunities.

[jsomerville5]

11:09 PM on 04/24/2011

Brown is a much better school than NYU. Hands down. The excuse that NYU offers more opportunities is hogwash.

She just couldn't hack being in Providence in the winter.

[Megandale]

08:03 PM on 04/23/2011

Most kids at Brown probably couldn't care less that she is famous, this it their way to tease her - most people get teased at some point in their lives. Silly story.

[Johnny Thrash]

11:57 AM on 04/28/2011

Do this in grade school and it's called bullying. and their are threads here now about how we must pass laws to 'end the nightmare' should her classmates be 'dealt with'?

[Parallel8]

01:09 PM on 04/23/2011

Brown is not Hogwarts, nor are teasing Brown students anything but 'muggles.' Of course, that is exactly what muggles do. In Roustabout, Elvis 'The King' Presley sang about The Poison Ivy League. I'm sure Emma is too classy and aware to make a show of what J K Rowling really knows, and Rowling is the wealthiest person in Britain. Success is the best revenge, and all it takes is a magic wand. Muggles will never see it.

[realpragmatist]

09:52 AM on 04/23/2011

Emma seems very happy in her sophomore years at Brown:
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2010/09/29/emma-watson-sophomore-year-brown-university/

Poor Emma, Brown University, and her fellow Brown peers all seem to have got a bad rap in pure precocious speculation!

I am personally done with this news.

[sobriquet87]

11:10 PM on 04/23/2011

Same. I'm done with it as well. I feel bad for the students at Brown and the school. The media seriously needs to use common sense before they start reporting their bullshit stories.

They're tainting a school's reputation just because they want a good story. So lame.
Hopefully Emma will be able to do some damage control while she's promoting Deathly Hallows Part II.

[realpragmatist]

09:43 AM on 04/23/2011

Latest News:
Emma Watson has commented positively about her experience at Brown, said no bullying, and is appreciative of the other friends/students at Brown.
She has also said that she is transferring to some other school (not specified) this spring.

She has said that she wants to do something not offered at Brown. I am sure that she would have researched and known that when she chose Brown two years back over Yale and Cambridge.

My speculative opinion is that she was unable to handle the academic pressure at Brown (relatively easier amongst the very demanding Ivies and Ivie caliber universities like Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT) and is transferring out. This is understandable considering that she had her movie commitments, modeling, etc.

Or maybe she broke up with her fellow Brown student (Spanish actor and rock musician) and is taking a practical life decision of moving out.

Whatever, the University that gets her is lucky, and I hope that she benefits from the experience. Best of luck to her in everything.

[lightbulb10]

08:51 AM on 04/23/2011

Some teases are meant to make you more part of the group, than not.

[Daisytoo]

03:20 AM on 04/23/2011

Now that it's become fashionable, HP needs to insert teasing/bullying into every headline possible.

[Geauterre]

02:43 AM on 04/23/2011

I'm sure Emma Watson has the right stuff to let water roll down her back.

[shieldvulf]

12:21 AM on 04/28/2011

I'm sure I'm not the only greasy old pervert waiting eagerly for that Utoob.

[realpragmatist]

10:36 PM on 04/22/2011

My final post on this:

I have great faith in Brown University and its students and I definitely trust and believe that it has been a mutually satisfying experience for Emma and the University students.

I am basing this on what she herself previously in her blogs and tweeted. Let us give this storied Ivy League University a break and wait for Emma or someone directly connected to give an answer.

Till this, the university and the Brown University students deserve a break. Fair enough?

We can be comforted in the fact that any (and I mean ANY) university in the world (Harvard, Brown, Oxbridge, or Sorbonne) will be glad to have the honor and free publicity of a student like Emma Watson in their University. So, it is ultimately up to her. She is a smart and intelligent girl and will know what to do in her best interests.

[meg tudor]

10:13 PM on 04/22/2011

Ivy League college age students teasing and taunting a popular movie star. It's disgraceful. If true, those students should be ashamed. They're not in elementary school for pete's sake.

[Clare53]

09:55 PM on 04/22/2011

I stopped reading at "sources tell the NY Daily News."

[realpragmatist]

10:32 PM on 04/22/2011

Smart Clare.

Seriously. If everyone had done that, so much of time and space would not have been wasted in commenting and pure speculation, myself included!

[Wintersoldier7020]

09:08 PM on 04/22/2011

I can't imagine Watson leaving leaving school because of teasing, that's too cowardice and she doesn't seem like the type.

[pepper1311]

06:53 PM on 04/22/2011

Sad little rich kid... Check into a clinic,like all movie people do. She was admitted to Brown?

[neverdeadned]

05:47 PM on 04/22/2011

What are we in 5th grade? Grow up

[Davey Johnson]

07:20 AM on 04/23/2011

Let's not have higher expectations, right? All in the gutter, together ... that's some personal philosophy.