The Unusual Promise That Convinced Emma Watson to Join The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Emma Watson did not jump into The Perks of Being a Wallflower for the paycheck. She jumped in because Stephen Chbosky told her it would matter. And, for once, the sales pitch actually matched the experience.

A promise kept, and a gift that stuck

Chbosky made her a promise before filming:

You will have the summer of your life and meet some of your best friends.

Watson later said that is exactly what happened.

More than a decade later, in 2023, she pulled out a keepsake on camera: a limited edition copy of T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Chbosky gave it to her to mark her graduation from Brown University. She showed it in a Vogue video, clearly moved, and read his inscription:

For Emma on her graduation. These words by T.S. Eliot are forever. So is your passion for learning, for living, for literature... You, my dear Sam, are infinite.

Watson summed up her feelings about the guy in one line: "He is just the nicest man in the world." Also, book inscriptions are her favorite thing. Hard to argue with that one.

The film, the kids, the impact

Chbosky adapted his own 1999 novel for the 2012 movie, which centers on Charlie (Logan Lerman) trying to survive high school while dealing with buried trauma. He finds his people in Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Watson). The movie is tender without being sappy, honest about the mess without being exploitative. It made $33.3 million on a $13 million budget, grew into a cult favorite, and critics singled out the cast (Watson included) for playing it straight from the heart.

Why the book keeps getting pulled off shelves

The novel does not flinch. It talks about sexual assault, drug use, and mental health crises like they actually happen to real teenagers, because they do. That honesty has made it a recurring target for bans and restrictions in U.S. schools and libraries for two full decades.

• Timeline: From 2003 through 2023, schools across the U.S. restricted or removed the book.
• Reasons commonly cited: profanity, sexual content, drug references, and references to homosexuality.
• Chbosky’s take: the bans are painful because he wrote the book to break silences around tough issues, and he has the letters from readers to prove it mattered.

So, about a sequel...

People have asked for years if there could be a follow-up. Back in 2012, Chbosky admitted he has thought about it. Not as a straight adaptation of the book (there isn’t a sequel novel), but because he loves these characters and would like to reunite them. If it ever happens, you can safely assume Watson, Lerman, and Miller would be the core trio again.

Chbosky has also been open about how personal and stressful it was to adapt his own work the first time. In short: he really did not want to blow it. He didn’t. And whatever he does next, he says he writes characters first, then finds the right people to play them. He’s eyeing another adaptation, this time in the horror lane, built on that same character-first approach.

Where to watch

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is streaming on Max.