31-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE Oar-kward! Emma Watson swaps Rowling for rowing as she lands role coxing her Oxford college team... but gets trounced
As swotty Hermione Granger, she had a reputation as one of the bossiest pupils at Hogwarts.
Now that same forceful spirit is helping actress Emma Watson in her new role – coxing her Oxford college rowing eight.
Our exclusive pictures captured her yelling instructions at the New College women's third team yesterday. But unfortunately her efforts were in vain, as her crew lost three of their four races across the week.
To add insult to injury, rivals from Jesus College celebrated their victory by playing the Harry Potter theme tune – though the actress took their teasing in good spirits.
And when her team lost the last race, she remained sportsmanlike when conceding defeat, giving her Somerville College opponents the thumb-ups.
Ms Watson has been at Oxford since 2023, when she decided to take a hiatus from acting to take a master's degree in creative writing at Lady Margaret Hall.
She has since reportedly progressed to a DPhil – Oxford's version of a PhD – at New College.
As cox, the 35-year-old steered her crew along the Isis – as the Thames is called in Oxford – in the university's annual Summer Eights competition.
She wore Ray-Ban sunglasses and a white baseball cap, while her crew had donned purple face paint and tied their hair back with purple ribbons, the boat club's colours.
Crews start one-and-a-half boat lengths apart, and the aim is to catch up, or 'bump', the team ahead.
The actress's team was bumped three out of four times, meaning they narrowly missed out on the humiliation of 'spoons' – the term when a boat is bumped every day.
The performance may not have been helped by Ms Watson failing to attend the compulsory cox briefing before the competition began – as sources allege – because she was at the Cannes Film Festival.
It was a rare appearance at the event for Ms Watson, whose last film was Little Women in 2019.
While at Oxford, Ms Watson is said to be dating Kieran Brown, who just finished his doctorate at the university. They were spotted kissing at a Gail's Bakery in the city last year.
Ms Watson, who is also a Prada ambassador and co-founder of the gin brand Renais, has been at loggerheads with Harry Potter creator JK Rowling over the author's views on trans issues.
Last week a new Hermione was announced. Arabella Stanton, 11, will take over the role in the much-anticipated Harry Potter TV series for American broadcaster HBO, which is set to be filmed this summer. She previously took the title role of Matiltda on the West End stage.
