Emma Watson reveals her experience of vulnerability during filming of The Circle

Emma Watson said that filming her new movie The Circle, was a tough and vulnerable experience which probed ethical issues and challenged the boundaries of privacy in this increasingly public age. 

The 27-year-old superstar who grew up as a child actress in the widely acclaimed Harry Potter movies added that she had not contemplated the implications of a mass data collection in real life and other online activities, such as the posting of hate content and the stake in personal freedom, before making the movie, reports The Straits Times

She told the audience after the premiere of the movie at the Tribeca film festival in New York last week:

"It was a very vulnerable experience for me making this movie... 

“(It) was very hard for me and very meaningful.”

The movie is based on a book of the same name, written by Dave Eggers, and paints a chilling vision of how social media giants control and monitor personal information, although the data may be used… for more nefarious means. 

It is slated to be released in Singapore on July 6. 

Many astute readers have referenced the fictitious company to Google, Facebook and Twitter, which have in turn, drawn criticism over the lack of policing on their sites.  

Watson’s character on the movie, Mae volunteers to become ‘fully transparent’, donning a marble-sized camera which streams her activities online — 24/7. 

This in turn leads to online hounding, tracking and even the death of a close friend, who had tried to shun social media. 

Watson confessed:

“I didn't think about most of this stuff before. 

"Trust me, I have grilled Dave Eggers. 

“Really, I have taken him to a room and said: 'What do we do?’

"A lot of friendships have a hard time surviving in the pressure cooker of the world that we live in and how public everything is. 

“It's really tough."

The Straits Times

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