In a new interview with Total Film, Emma Watson discusses her latest roles. First, she talked about Colonia, which will be released later this year. The full interview can be found in the May issue of Total Film, available March 13th. Below are some snippets via The Irish Examiner.

‘It really challenged me. It really pushed me to the brink, this role. I got sent the script and my agent sent me the Wikipedia page on Colonia Dignidad. I immediately went, ‘Oh my God, I’m not sure!’ it was really, really, really heavy and really awful subject matter, but the script was such a page-turner and so well written and I’m really a big fan of Daniel Bruhl. I really liked the director [Florian Gallenberger]. It all just kind of felt right: a really intelligent female leading role character. It felt like the right thing to do.”

“I’ve just always been aware that it was a bit of a double-edged sword. I think I never really thought necessarily I’d become an actress or become famous. It’s something I felt very passive in. It was something that happened to me. They came to my school. They saw me and they took photographs of me. I was taken up to London to audition. I just happened to be picked up and put in one of the biggest film franchises of all time. I wanted to feel active in what happened to me in my life. I wanted to be able to move myself into a place where I felt like I was driving my career and my life, rather than just responding to things that happened to me. I wanted to try to make it my own.”

She added: “It feels like I was building a portfolio over the last five, six years. Now I feel like I’m ready to really be carrying films. I’m really just ready now to focus on my career full time and go full steam ahead. It’s exciting at the moment.”

Second, she was asked about the upcoming live-action version of Beauty and the Beast film which also stars Luke Evans as Gaston and Dan Stevens as Beast.

“I sing, so that’s really unexpected,” she said. “I’ve never had to do that for a film role before, and I think people will be interested to see me do something very different like that. It gives me a different challenge, really. That’s terrifying in and of itself!”

Finally she mentions The Queen of Tearling, which we reported about some time ago:

When asked about her future career plans, she hinted a job behind the lens could soon beckon.

She is working with Harry Potter producer David Heyman, in an executive producer role on a multi­part adaptation of fantasy series Queen Of The Tearling in which she will also star.

“I really like it,” she told the magazine. “For me, to want to sign up to a series again, I wanted to have a certain amount of autonomy and control within that. Working with David’s been great. I’d love to direct something one day. I’d love to produce as well, so it’s quite a nice way to start learning about that. Yeah, just dipping my toes into that world.”