Emma Watson on Pregnancy: The Insight That Transformed Her Respect for Women

Emma Watson once had to play very pregnant on a giant boat full of animals, and it changed the way she thinks about, well, the whole pregnancy thing. An old interview just resurfaced, and it’s a good reminder of how far she went on Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 biblical epic 'Noah' to make one birth scene feel real.

The old interview that resurfaced (and what she said)

@EmmaWatsonUpdates dug up a throwback video where Watson is asked if giving birth on screen in 'Noah' made her think differently about kids and pregnancy. Short version: yes. She said the experience gave her a whole new level of respect for women, and that while she was excited to have kids someday, she also understood how painful it looked and would be thinking very carefully about it.

It has been more than a decade since 'Noah' hit theaters. Watson isn’t married and doesn’t have children, and she keeps her personal life pretty locked down. Draw your own conclusions, but to me that just sounds like someone not rushing big life decisions. Fair enough.

Why people thought she was actually pregnant during 'Noah'

In the movie, Watson’s character Ila is pregnant with twins while stuck on the ark. To sell it, she wore a prosthetic belly. Not a lightweight one either. Watson asked the costume team to build a fake stomach that felt like the real thing would, twins and all.

Reality hit fast. After one day with the heavy rig, she told the costume department she was wiped out. Their response: what she’d just carried was only the weight of one child. She called her mom to complain, and got the most mom reply possible: you don’t get to complain, you only faked it. The whole exercise left her with a bigger respect for women and motherhood. Also, yes, those on-set photos of her with the bump sparked real-life pregnancy rumors at the time. No, she wasn’t actually pregnant.

How far she went to nail the birth scene

Watson didn’t stop at the weight. She trained for the ark birth scene like a sport. She practiced contraction sounds on her apartment floor (her flatmate was not thrilled walking in on that), watched natural birth videos on YouTube till 1 a.m., and even brought in a midwife to coach her. That midwife was there on set when Watson shot the scene. It sounds intense because it was.

'I see so many births in films, and I’m like, That didn’t look like she just gave birth. She isn’t even sweating! She didn’t break a sweat! This is ridiculous! So I wanted it to look authentic.'

The result? Even people who were split on 'Noah' often singled out Watson’s work. Critics were generally warmer on the movie than audiences, but either way, her performance reads as fully committed.

'Noah' in one glance

• Year: 2014
• IMDb: 5.8/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 75% Tomatometer, 41% Audience Score
• Budget: $125 million
• Worldwide box office: $359.2 million
• Where to watch now: Paramount+

Bottom line: Watson went method on a fake pregnancy and came away with a real appreciation for what it actually takes. And if you remember the birth on the ark feeling a little too real, that’s because she did the homework.