Actress Emma Watson and Hamilton creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the music for the musical which has taken Broadway by storm, sat down for a chat about Hamilton. Watson loves Hamilton and Harry Potter, which Miranda said inspired him as he was working on Hamilton, according to People. They also made a bit of “sweet music” together, with Watson providing the beat-box accompaniment and Miranda rapping a feminist rap to it. Check out the video, below!
When Emma Watson and Lin-Manuel Miranda met, it was to discuss and promote HeForShe, Watson’s United Nations gender equality initiative, in her role as UN Women’s Global Goodwill Ambassador, according to Rolling Stone. The two stars found out that they they shared common interests, like their love for music and rapping. Also, they are both feminists and supporters of gender equality, with Miranda suggesting that Hamilton will likely be performed at high schools around the country, with female students playing the lead character, Alexander Hamilton.
Emma Watson and Lin-Manuel Miranda Do Amazing Beat-Box Feminist Rap
Lin-Manuel Miranda was quoted as saying by Broadway.com, “I think there’s going to be so many lady Hamiltons once this thing is in schools and regional productions. It’s gonna go gender-blind into the world.”
Miranda compared his take on Alexander Hamilton to Harry Potter. He said to Watson, “Structurally, I steal a little bit from Harry Potter, I have to tell you. Hamilton meets Aaron Burr. And he says, ‘Aaron Burr. Help me. I want to be in this world.’ And Burr gives him the opposite advice of who he is. And then [Hamilton] meets his real friends: Mulligan, Lafayette and Laurens. It’s exactly Harry Potter meeting Draco Malfoy [before Ron and Hermione].”
As their discussion progressed, Lin-Manuel Miranda agreed to participate in a free-style rap with Watson, but only if she would provide the beat for him with her beat-box skills. To go along with their discussion, and in honor of International Women’s Day, the subject of the free-style rap was gender equality.
Emma Watson turned a bit red and said, “This is going to be so embarrassing.”
About ready to begin, Watson paused for a second, and she asked Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Are you a feminist?”
“Yeah, absolutely!” the star of Hamilton replied.
Watson rapidly overcame her initial embarrassment and with her hand over her mouth, in the traditional beat-boxing manner, she launched into the beat that Miranda free-style rapped to in the video below. Miranda embraced the topic, and seemingly effortlessly came up with lines like “Women are half of the people on Earth/And yes, they should’ve been equal since birth.”
Emma Watson laid down a nice rhythm, despite her having told Miranda that she had never tried to beat-box before. She told Miranda, “English school kids, we do that all the time, we just beat-box.”
After Miranda closed out their “rap session,” by free-style-rapping the lines, “Holy cow this is such a meme/This is the beat-box dream team,” Watson said that she was “literally the color of a tomato.”
Emma Watson and Lin-Manuel Miranda, from the looks of it, became Best Buddies Forever, or BFFs, after they met and discussed gender equality and Watson laid down a beat-box rhythm while Miranda free-style rapped to it. Their collaboration, a thing of beauty for fans of both Watson and Miranda, can be seen below.
By John Samuels
Photo Courtesy YouTube