Emma Watson had to really change things up with her recent turn as a lead character in "The Bling Ring," and for inspiration, we now know that the young British actress turned to the definitive source on all things Los Angeles -- the Kardashians.
During a press conference at Cannes where her film is debuting this week, Watson let reporters know that footage of the famous Armenian family provided useful information about accent and behaviors of Angelenos. According to Perez Hilton, here's what Watson had to say about her marathon viewings of "Keeping Up":
"I watched a lot of Keeping up with the Kardashians and The Hills, and I tried to understand the psychology of this kind of girl as much as possible… I didn't want her to be just a parody. The accent was hard as it was a particular kind of dialect. I also thought a lot about what her parents must have been like."
By "this kind of girl," we assume she means native Angelenos, not thieving teenagers, since as far as we know Kim K has not added burglary to her otherwise hugely impressive resume.
Anyway, so far we know that the film made Paris Hilton cry, and has garnered this tepid review from The Hollywood Reporter:
Perhaps even more here than in her other films, Coppola’s attitude toward her subject seems equivocal, uncertain; there is perhaps a smidgen of social commentary, but she seems far too at home in the world she depicts to offer a rewarding critique of it. At the same time, she’s too unemphatic a filmmaker to deliver what could be construed as an exposé from the belly of the beast. It’s more like a teasing, mildly titillating pulling-down-the-covers off some naughty but hardly grave adolescent behavior...
Speaking Valleyese with impeccable banality, the ensemble cast delivers comprehensive portraits of superficiality and moral cluelessness. It’s fun to see Watson departing so decisively from her smartypants Hermione identity, while Chang marks herself as someone to watch.
Meanwhile,
IndieWIRE had some slightly more encouraging words:
[it's] the director's lightest, unobtrusive work, and makes it possible to both comprehend its characters' limited worldview while considering its vanity from a distance.
Either way, the Kardashians will no doubt be thrilled to have their names in the news, even if it is for being the inspiration for some of the most self-involved, vapid characters to grace the big screen in recent memory. Well played, the Kardashians. Well played.
