Emma Watson grew up onscreen in the Harry Potter movies, playing Hermione Granger for all 10 years of the very British franchise.

However, Watson said she's really embraced the other side of the pond.

"I've always loved America," the actress told the June/July 2013 issue of W Magazine. "When we came here with Harry Potter, everyone was so warm. Eventually, all of my friends were American."

The love she has for the U.S. seems to be dictating her career moves. Watson's portrayed American characters in two of her most recent movies, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Bling Ring, the latter of which is from Sofia Coppola's and currently making rounds at the Cannes Film Festival.

In Bling, Watson plays Nicki, a would-be actress who's much more effective as a burglar to the rich and famous; the film is based on a series of real-life home invasions by L.A. teenagers who targeted the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton (the hotel heiress even makes an appearance in the film).

"I was attracted to playing Americans, even extreme ones like Nicki," Watson said. "When I'm presented with a character, I think, Hmmm... I have not had this experience. I don't really know what this would be like. I'll have the experience through the character.

"With Nicki, I was really taking on a character. Some of her lines are so crazy and absurd-making sure she wasn't a parody was a challenge. [And] I was dying to play her," Watson admitted. "[She] is so different from me. How do I try and understand a young woman," so obsessed with designer clothes and jewelry, "that she is prepared to commit crimes to have them?"

American film always served as an influence for Watson, even in her youth: she recalled that the first film she remembered was Pretty Woman.

"I was 7, which was way, way too young. That was when I started loving Julia Roberts and American movies."

The American films she watched growing up perhaps even affected her taste in men. She said her "cinematic crush" has been the same since she was 12: Kevin Costner. When she met him in an elevator recently, Watson said she "couldn't even speak."

He said hello, because he is lovely like that, and I couldn't say anything back," she added. "Kevin Costner is forever. And America too!"

Watson has even embraced the American education system -- the actress is an Ivy Leaguer, studying English at Rhode Island's Brown University. She's hoping to use that experience to try to retain some normalcy in her life, something she's wanted all along. She admitted that she lived in denial of her fame for a long time.

"Until the age of 18, I would take the Oxford Tube, which is a public bus. Then it got to the point where the fact that I was on the bus would spread from one end to the other," she said. "I'd think, Why am I doing this to myself? Ignoring fame was my rebellion, in a funny way. I was insistent on being normal and doing normal things.

"It probably wasn't advisable to go to college in America and room with a complete stranger. And it probably wasn't wise to share a bathroom with eight other people in a coed dorm. Looking back, that was crazy."

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