Emma Watson: I hate my new character - she's superficial, materialistic, vain and amoral

Emma Watson says she couldn't identify with her latest film role as Nicki in The Bling Ring (Getty Images)

"I was open-minded about doing anything, but the one thing I didn't want to do was get myself into a corset because I was worried I would never get out again," says Emma Watson.

The actress, who made her name as a child star in the Harry Potter franchise, recently passed up a period drama fearing she would be forever typecast.

Instead her latest role is as Nicki in The Bling Ring was chosen because was a “big departure” that would prove a challenge for her as an actress.

Watson, 22, said in an interview with GQ magazine: “When I read the script and realised that essentially it was a meditation on fame and what it’s become to our society, I had to do it.”

She took the part in the film, directed by Sofia Coppola, precisely because it was such a stretch. “The character is everything that I felt strongly against – she’s superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral,” she says.

“She’s all of these things and I realised I hated her. How do you play someone you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job or my role as an actress could be.”