Emma Watson Channels Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’ on Magazine Cover

The Juice

There's no question Emma Watson is a pretty woman, whether she's walking down the street or posing for photos. But the former "Harry Potter" star's latest magazine cover takes that to a whole new level.

Watson appears to be channeling Julia Roberts from the 1990 rom-com classic, "Pretty Woman," as she graces the cover of the May 2013 issue of GQ U.K., complete with the hardware connecting her super-short skirt to her super-tight top. Yowza!

It's an undeniable far cry to the way we're used to seeing the typically demure 22-year-old actress, that's for sure.

Of course, there's always a movie at the heart of the explanation for a makeover this drastic, and Watson is no exception. She's starring in "The Bling Ring," directed by Sofia Coppola, out in limited release on June 14 in the U.S. The movie follows the true story of a group of fame-obsessed teens who tracked celebrities' movements and then robbed them when they weren't home. Watson plays one of their leaders.

"When I read the script and I realized that essentially it was a meditation on fame and what it's become to our society, I had to do it," she told the magazine. "The character is everything that I felt strongly against - she's superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral. She's all of these things and I realized that I hated her. How do you play someone you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be."

Watson also confessed that she took the role because she feared following in many young British actresses' footsteps (ahem, Keira Knightley!) and only being offered period dramas.

"Really I was open-minded about doing anything, but the one thing I didn't want to do was get myself into a corset because I was worried I'd never get out again," she said. "I had to dive into something really different. This has been a really big departure for me; it's a really big character. That's so exciting for me because it meant I was really acting."