Emma Watson, the 20 year-old actress who has been playing Harry Potter’s best friend Hermione Granger for over a decade, has revealed that she first drank wine when just seven years old. But she insists that it has helped her form a healthy attitude to alcohol when she goes to wine online or off.
‘I was seven when I had my first glass of wine, mixed with water and with a meal’ she told The Sunday Times Magazine. She was also expected to join in with adult conversations and when eating out, the children’s menu was strictly forbidden by her father Chris. She added ‘I was never not allowed to have alcohol’. She believes that having access to alcohol from this early age actually kept her from seeing the appeal later in life. ‘I found it really strange when I got to school and everyone was like, ‘Ooh, we’ve got alcohol!’ I wasn’t interested’.
In the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, a study was recently published that contradicted Ms Watson’s opinions. It found instead that drinking earlier was more likely to result in a dependency on alcohol later in life. To repeat the bizarrely specific study, just round up 6,200 Australian twins. You can then buy Australian wine online to find out what effect it does or doesn’t have.
As the publicity wagon get into high gear for the final part in the move series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the international press is increasingly asking for insight into the lives of the child actors, who have spent most of their lives working on the project. Emma Watson was supported by her parents Chris and Jacqueline through the series, though they had divorced several years prior to her casting in it.
Perhaps now as the series draws to a close, she and her co-stars will buy Chardonnay and chocolate frogs whilst slipping in disc after disc of their favourite Hogwarts moments.. Displaying the highest level of decorum, naturally. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One is in cinemas from 18th November 2010.