11 Perfect Times Actors Went Incredibly Dark

2. Emma Watson - The Bling Ring

Bling Ring
A24

Darkness doesn't always have to manifest itself in murder or outright malevolence. It can be gnawing, insidious and a creeping toxicity that personifies everything wrong with an entire vapid sub-culture. And as Emma Watson proved with The Bling Ring, it can come from the most unexpected of sources.

Having made her name as Hermione - the morally unquestionable, goody-two-shoes hero of the Harry Potter universe - Watson took a leaf out of co-star Daniel Radcliffe's book on avoiding career typecasting to play the anti-Hermione. As Nicki, she's the ultimate narcissistic, vapid Valley Girl, hungry for fame and almost enthusiastic about being able to step on others' heads to get there.

She manages to be both brainless and calculating and if it turned out in a sequel that her petty juvenile criminality had blossomed into something more deadly, absolutely nobody could be surprised.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

WhatCulture's former COO, veteran writer and editor.