Emma WatsonTORONTO — Emma Watson is living out another fantasy — the life of a high school kid that she missed out on growing up in the Harry Potter fold. For her first major film role since leaving the world of Potter behind, Watson chose “The Perks of Being a Wallflower," in which she plays an American teen who's part of a clique of hip outsiders at a Pittsburgh school. The 22-year-old British actress said it gave her a taste of a whole different life considering her cloistered upbringing on the set of the Potter franchise, in which she was cast as bookish young hero Hermione Granger at age 9. “It felt pretty exotic to me. It really did. It was a very painful experience," Watson said in an interview Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where “Perks" played ahead of its US theatrical release Sept. 21. — AP
