Emma Watson Is Sticking Up For Taylor Swift & Compared Her Label Issues To ‘Little Women’
Emma Watson has Taylor Swift's back. The 29-year-old is already an activist for women's rights and gender equality, so it makes sense that she would be standing behind Swift's allegations of record label issues. Emma Watson's comment about Taylor Swift's label drama is so supportive — and what's more, it's empowering.
In an interview with Variety at the New York City premiere of Little Women, Watson was discussing women's rights within the context of her new film, directed by Greta Gerwig. Although Watson plays Meg March in the film, she took a moment to bring up the main character, Jo March, and her resolution to ask for the copyrights to her debut novel. “It’s about believing in yourself and knowing your worth and owning your worth," Watson said. For a modern example, Watson brought Swift into it. "Right now, the Taylor Swift situation is a great example of, you know, you’re young and you’re talented and someone wants to buy your work," she said. This is a subject that Watson is obviously passionate about, continuing to say, "having ownership at the end of the day is super, super important because you don’t know what someone’s going to decide to do with that.”
Swift's own music rights recently experienced a little speed bump, with her allegations that Big Machine Label Group was denying her rights to use her own music catalog. Specifically, the blame was pointed at the new owners Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, both of whom she initially claimed had told her she could not use any songs from earlier discography during her live AMA performance and in the anticipated Netflix documentary. For now, it seems as though the situation has been resolved, as Swift did perform a medley of past tunes at the AMAs after all.
Watson's commentary on the situation is clearly showing support, and at one point, she compared owning the rights to your work as a Monopoly game. “I think people undervalue ownership. You know when you play Monopoly and you have a decision and you want to own something or get cash fast," she stated. She makes it pretty clear that she thinks the way to win IRL is similar to the game: "The way to win Monopoly, everyone, is to own stuff. I’m just saying.”
As an advocate for women — Watson has been a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador since 2014 — it only makes sense that Watson would also tell the publication that she identified most with the character Jo, rather than her own character, Meg. Of the four March sisters, Josephine March is arguably the most feminist for the time period and the most determined to live her life independently from men. Jo, however, is played by Saoirse Ronan. Watson told Variety that her role of Meg “is a really important kind of foil, or counterbalance to Jo" and although she "loved playing that," she ultimately resonates most with the strong protagonist, Jo.
