It may seem strange that one of the most anticipated films of 2017 should be a live-action remake of a Disney cartoon about Stockholm syndrome, but Beauty and the Beast has already built up the kind of fan base that is normally reserved for rebooted sci-fi franchises and adaptations of erotic bestsellers. When the first trailer went online in November, it was viewed a record 127m times in 24 hours, beating the previous leaders in that particular field, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Fifty Shades Darker. Stranger still, 27m of those views were on the Facebook page of the film’s star, Emma Watson.

　　2017年最受期待的电影之一竟然是一部讲述斯德哥尔摩症候群式故事的真人重制版迪斯尼动画电影，这不免让人啧啧称奇。《美女与野兽》尚未上映便已坐拥庞大的粉丝基础，如此规模的粉丝基础唯有重启的科幻电影系列与畅销情色小说改编的电影方能望其项背。去年11月，该片的第一支预告片上线，短短24小时内的观看次数就达到了创纪录的1.27亿次，让《星球大战：原力觉醒》和《五十度黑》的成绩相形见绌。更有甚者，其中2700万的观众都在脸书上关注了片中一位女星，这位女星正是艾玛·沃特森。

　　That figure might suggest that the 26-year-old who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series is now a bona fide superstar. But Watson’s celebrity status is slightly more complicated. As a Hollywood player, she isn’t going to give Jennifer Lawrence or Scarlett Johansson sleepless nights, but as an actor-activist she has the kind of influence that would have been unimaginable a generation ago.

　　这些数字似乎表明，现年26岁的艾玛·沃特森，那个曾经出演《哈利·波特》系列中赫敏·格兰杰一角的童星，已然是名副其实的超级明星。然而艾玛的明星地位来得却更为复杂一些。艾玛作为好莱坞演员的地位尚不足以让詹妮弗·劳伦斯和斯嘉丽·约翰逊等人夜不能寐，但是其演员活动家身份带来的这种影响力在几十年前是难以想象的。

　　For proof that Watson isn’t yet an A-lister, you just have to glance at her filmography since she hung up her Gryffindor robes. Broadly speaking, she has taken supporting roles in ensemble projects, such as Simon Curtis’s My Week with Marilyn and Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, and above-the-title roles in films that vanished without trace. Alejandro Amenábar’s repressed-memory chiller Regression didn’t recoup its $20m budget, and Colonia (AKA The Colony) pulled in a grand total of ?47 in its opening weekend in the UK. Meanwhile, she turned down the title role in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella, and accepted then dropped out of La La Land, thus handing Emma Stone the part that may well win her a best actress Oscar. In the years between Harry Potter and Beauty and the Beast, in other words, Watson was better known for films she wasn’t in than for films she was.

　　艾玛不是一线大咖，只需大概浏览一下《哈利·波特》系列后她的电影履历，这一点便可见端倪。广泛来说，艾玛出演了一些配角，在西蒙·柯蒂斯的《我与梦露的一周》以及达伦·阿罗诺夫斯基的《诺亚》，也主演了几部影片，但都石沉大海，反响不佳：亚历桑德罗·阿曼巴的《回溯迷踪》票房扑街，未能收回2000万美元的成本;《尊严殖民地》英国周末首映票房惨败，仅为47英镑。艾玛还推掉了《灰姑娘》中的同名角色，先是答应参加随后又退出了《爱乐之城》的拍摄，此举极有可能一手将爱玛·斯通送上奥斯卡影后的宝座。从《哈利·波特》系列到《美女与野兽》，这些年艾玛因故无法出演的电影远比出演的电影名头更响。

　　In contrast, Kristen Stewart followed her stint in the Twilight series by embracing arthouse cinema and being embraced right back: she was the first American female actor to win a César award for her performance in Clouds of Sils Maria. And Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, has grabbed every possible acting opportunity, from big-budget capers (Now You See Me 2) to indie curios (Swiss Army Man), from television (A Young Doctor’s Casebook) to theatre (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead). Compared to them, Watson is barely trying.

　　与此相反，克里斯汀·斯图尔特在《暮光之城》系列后乘胜追击，开始出演艺术电影并很快收到了回报：她凭借在《锡尔斯玛利亚》中的精彩表演成为了首位获得凯撒奖的美国演员。而在《哈利·波特》系列中出演主人公哈利·波特的丹尼尔·雷德克里夫更是不放过任何一个演出机会，无论是在大成本制作《惊天魔盗团2》还是独立影片《瑞士军刀男》，或是电视剧《一位年轻医生的病历簿》亦或是话剧《罗森·格兰兹与吉尔·登斯顿之死》之中，都有他的身影。相比之下，艾玛几乎称得上碌碌无为。

　　But there is more on her mind than acting. Having stepped away from the business to study for an English degree at Brown University in Rhode Island, she now spends as much time on feminism as she does on films. In 2014, she became a UN Women goodwill ambassador; in 2015, she was named on the Time 100 list of world’s most influential people, and last year she continued to make headlines by, for example, leaving feminist books around the London Underground system.

　　然而艾玛脑中考虑的绝不仅仅只是表演。艾玛曾一度离开表演行业，前往罗德岛的布朗大学攻读英语学位。如今艾玛致力于宣传女权主义，女权事业和出演电影占用了艾玛同样多的时间。2014年，艾玛成为联合国妇女亲善大使;2015年，她入选《时代》杂志的全球最具影响力百强人物。去年，在各大报刊的头条上，艾玛仍是常客，例如她曾在伦敦地铁站藏下宣传女权书籍之类的报道。

　　None of that may appear very remarkable: Watson isn’t the first film star to double as a political activist. But few stars can have been as reassuring or inclusive in their consciousness-raising. When Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio signed up to humanitarian and environmental causes, for instance, they were already untouchably glamorous demigods whose lives seemed a million miles away from their fans’, and whose jet-setting activism seemed almost as distant. Watson is different. She may have flown to Bangladesh, Uruguay and Zambia on behalf of the UN, but she doesn’t come across as if she is lecturing her fans from on high – more as if she is learning alongside them.

　　上述新闻听上去也许并非如此惊天动地：艾玛并非首位成为政治活动家的电影明星。然而此前无人在帮助提升人们意识的活动过程中像艾玛表现得如此让人放心，如此富有包容心。比如，安吉丽娜·朱莉和莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥在分别成为难民署亲善大使与和平大使时都已是魅力非凡的半神半人，可望而不可及，其日常生活也与影迷存在着天壤之别，富豪般的日常活动在常人看来太过遥远。艾玛则截然不同。她会以联合国的名义前往孟加拉﹑乌拉圭和赞比亚，然而在粉丝眼中，艾玛并不像高高在上的导师，反而像是和自己一同学习的同学。

　　The first reason for this is that Watson’s fans feel, with some justification, that they know her. Not only have they watched her growing up onscreen in eight blockbusters, but they have heard her admit that the character she played in those blockbusters was just like her. In an interview with feminist author bell hooks in Paper magazine, she said that when she started reading JK Rowling’s novels, at the age of eight, “the character of Hermione gave me permission to be who I was,” ie, “the girl in school whose hand shot up to answer the questions”. But when she was cast as Hermione she used her earliest interviews to deny she was that girl: “At first I was really trying to say, ‘I’m not like Hermione. I’m into fashion and I’m much cooler than she is,’ and then I came to a place of acceptance. Actually, we do have a lot in common. There are obviously differences, but there are a lot of ways that I’m very similar. And I stopped fighting that!”

　　这种感觉形成的第一个原因是粉丝在一些佐证的支撑下认为自己了解艾玛。粉丝们不仅在《哈利·波特》系列八部影片中亲眼见证了艾玛在荧幕上的成长，还听到了艾玛亲口承认赫敏与自己存在相似之处。在与女权主义作家贝尔·胡克斯共同接受《Paper》杂志访谈时，艾玛表示自己在8岁读《哈利·波特》时，“赫敏的形象让我仿佛得到了允许，允许我去做我自己”也就是“在学校经常举手回答问题的女生”。饰演赫敏时，艾玛却在最早的采访中否认自己就是赫敏“起初我确实试着说：‘我和赫敏不一样，我非常时尚，比她酷得多了’。而随后我慢慢开始接受这一点。实际上，我和赫敏确实存在许多相同之处。我们二者的差异非常明显，但是她的很多方面都让我感到非常熟悉，我不再对此感到抗拒!”

　　If Watson-watchers believe she is just as earnest, studious and intelligent as Hermione, then, they have her permission. Whereas so many former child stars have shattered their youthful images, either by going off the rails in their personal lives (eg, Drew Barrymore) or choosing to play edgy, sexualised roles on film (eg, Dakota Fanning), Watson has been brave enough to carry on being the school swot. The youngsters who identified with her when they saw her in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001 can feel that she has yet to let them down, nearly 16 years later.

　　倘若艾玛的影迷认为艾玛像赫敏一样认真学习﹑刻苦用功并富有智慧，艾玛本人并不排斥。然而许多童星在长大成人后却完全颠覆了自己的幼年形象，或是像德鲁·巴里摩尔一样私生活如野马脱缰，或是像达科塔·范宁一样在电影中出演性别特征明显的边缘化角色。艾玛却像一股清流，继续勇敢地做自己的学霸。2001年的《哈利·波特与魔法石》，许多青少年看到当时的艾玛仿佛找到了共鸣;16年后，共鸣依旧。

　　Even her activism is bound up with that swottiness. Rather than manning the barricades, Watson has focused on reading, discussion, and chronicling her studies on social media, thus making them accessible in a way that would once have been impossible. Last year, she set up a Goodreads online book club, Our Shared Shelf, which recommends a text to its 168,000 members every two months. Its current book is Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. “There is so much amazing stuff out there,” Watson enthuses on the club’s homepage. “Funny, inspiring, sad, thought-provoking, empowering! I’ve been discovering so much that, at times, I’ve felt like my head was about to explode.”

　　即使是她组织的活动也与学业紧密相连。艾玛并未一门心思冲破这种障碍，反而专注于阅读﹑探讨并在社交媒体上记录自己的学习经历，让人们更容易接受这些内容，而她所采取的方式在以前看来简直是天方夜谭。去年艾玛在网上成立了优秀书籍推荐阅读俱乐部“我们的共享书架”，每两个月向168,000名会员推荐一部作品。最近上榜的是伊娃?恩斯特的《阴道独白》。“让人惊叹的书籍实在太多了”艾玛热情洋溢地在俱乐部的主页上写道“引人发笑﹑催人奋进﹑惹人泪下﹑发人深省﹑授人力量，种种情感不一而足!我的发现实在太多了，有时觉得自己的脑袋都要炸开了。”

　　Again, these are hardly the pronouncements of a Tinseltown divinity, but the sincere effusions of someone who is really getting into her homework project, and who wants her friends to get into it, too. It is no wonder Watson’s fans have taken to feminism with her. And it’s no wonder those fans are so thrilled about her starring role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.

　　还是那句话，别指望好莱坞神化的大明星说出这样的话，如此真情流露的文字只会出自对作业乐在其中并欲与朋友分享此乐的学霸之手。难怪艾玛的粉丝愿意跟随艾玛宣传女权主义，听到艾玛即将出演《美女与野兽》中的贝儿一角欢欣鼓舞。

　　Watson rejected the part of Cinderella, she has said, because the passive character didn’t “resonate” with her. But Belle is a more Hermione-ish heroine. In the original 1991 cartoon, she wasn’t content to do the housework with the help of some chirruping bluebirds: she strolled through town with her nose in a book. And Watson told Total Film magazine that she had pushed the character even further from the traditional Disney doormat, so as to ensure that she is “the kind of woman I would want to embody as a role model”. She isn’t just Belle, but bell hooks. Never before has there been such continuity between an actress’s online persona and her two most iconic roles.

　　艾玛说自己拒绝灰姑娘的原因在于这个逆来顺受的角色无法与自己形成“共鸣”。在1991年最初的版本中，贝儿不满意叽叽喳喳的蓝鸟帮助自己做作业：她在镇上散步时，脸也埋在书本中。艾玛告诉《Total Film》杂志，自己推动这个角色摆脱传统迪斯尼模式的束缚，确保这个角色成为“我希望塑造为角色模板的那种女人”。艾玛不仅是贝儿，也是贝尔·胡克斯。一名女演员的网络形象与自己两大最具代表性的角色具有如此程度的连续性堪称前无古人。

　　Of course, Watson is still playing a fairytale heroine in a film with “Beauty” in the title, so she isn’t exactly dismantling the patriarchy. “She’s a very useful figure for feminism, because she attracts people who might not be drawn to it in another form,” says Professor Diane Negra, the author of What a Girl Wants: Fantasising the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism. “But she is a particularly palatable version of a feminist celebrity. She is a very glamorous and polished figure with all the markers of privilege. She is clearly not an activist of the old school.”

　　当然，艾玛仍然在一部标题冠以“美”字的电影中饰演童话中的女主角，因此她实际上并未摆脱男权社会。“艾玛的形象对女权主义来说作用极大，不会为其他形式的女权主义所动的人也会因她而受到女权主义的吸引”《女孩想要什么：在后女权主义时代幻想开垦自我》一书作者戴安娜·奈格拉教授说道“若论女权主义名人，她是上佳代表，魅力非凡，优雅从容，荣誉等身。显而易见，她绝非旧时学校的活动家。”

　　One way to understand Watson’s very 21st-century celebrity activism is to see her as a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur in the vein of Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s just that instead of using her brand to promote her own range of perfumes and cookbooks, she is using it to promote gender equality. And if Disney gets a ton of free advertising along the way, so be it. For every hundred Watson fans who go to see her in Beauty and the Beast, there will be one who reads The Vagina Monologues on the bus home

　　了解艾玛这种极具21世纪特点的名人活动方式，途径之一便是像看待碧昂斯和格温妮丝·帕特洛一样看待艾玛，将她视作涉足颇多的企业家。只是她推销的并非自己品牌的香水或者烹饪书籍，而是性别平等。如果迪斯尼因此一分钱不花就做了广告，就当作便宜它了吧。每一百位到电影院观看《美女与野兽》的艾玛的影迷，其中就有一位会在回家的公交车上品读《阴道独白》。

（编辑：何莹莹）