From Harry Potter to punk rocker as Hermione wants to be Patti Smith

The 21-year-old actress, who played Hermione Granger in the hugely successful movie franchise, said her attempts to continue with her education got in the way of filming and admitted she was a "pain in the butt" for Warner Bros.

Watson, who appears on the front of the July issue of US Vogue, told the magazine she was impressed by Smith's memoirs of life in the counterculture of 1970s New York.

She said: "I want to live like Patti. I want to write like Patti.

"The book was so honest and brave. I loved the way she sees the world. I really felt that life was more beautiful after I read it and I felt more hopeful."

The book tells of Smith's doomed affair with the gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and her rise to fame with the release of her 1975 album Horses.

Watson, who announced earlier this year she was taking time out from her studies at Brown University, has previously denied claims bullying drove her to take a break from university.

Struggle

But she admitted her attempts to get an education had caused problems for her film career, saying: "I have felt for the last 10 years I have had this battle; I've been fighting so hard to have an education.

"It's been this uphill struggle. I was Warner Bros' pain in the butt. I was their scheduling conflict.

"I was the one who made life difficult."

Watson recently finished filming Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the final instalment in the JK Rowling stories, which has its world premiere in London next month.

She told the magazine she never had to "research a role" because the character of Hermione was so like her.

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