Lin-Manuel Miranda and Emma Watson had a conversation for #HeforShe, the U.N. gender equality initiative for which Emma is a vocal and active representative. The interview, in four parts, is about an hour(!) long, and really becomes an in-depth discussion of Hamilton, the references, the inspirations…all through a ‘feminist and equality’ prism. The alternate title above was going to be ‘Feminist Fan Porn’

In fact, if you don’t know Hamilton yet or aren’t a fan, this interview might be a little lost on you—although it  highlights Emma Watson as interviewer in a way I’d never thought of her before. She’s really, really natural and comfortable. File that away in your back pocket. But though there is a lot of discussion of Hamilton from a feminist perspective, the interview really becomes mutual masturbation over education.

I’m trying to be inflammatory, yeah, but I’m also not wrong. Emma and Lin-Manuel discuss Hamilton’s incredible brain, the references Angelica makes, a million books they’ve read and shows they’ve been in (charmingly, she keeps referring to Hamilton as a “play”), and more than once he gets so excited about an idea or a concept he starts tripping over his words, and more than a few times, hearing a great line or idea, she sighs ecstatically—almost orgasmically.

Which tells you a lot about Emma Watson, who readily admits she really is Hermione Granger, and just as much about Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is understood to be an actual genius.

I can’t get enough of this. Two hugely popular, extremely wealthy, good-looking and successful celebrities—and we’re celebrating their brains. This is way too rare. That they get to be ‘out’ about their intellect is exciting.

Sometimes I think we’re past the point where celebrating geekdom is necessary. That it’s not nerdy-in-the-bad-way anymore to want to read, to connect references, to sigh romantically like Emma does over the line “I may be said to be building castles in the air, but we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant”, that the real Hamilton wrote to a friend when he was only 14.

But then I look around at the world and what’s happening, and the comments section of just about anywhere, and the celebrities and Real Housewives and notables who are most popular, and think…no, we’re still not celebrating education enough. We’re still not celebrating reading and books and the way they can expand your life, and the stories about women that have not yet been told, enough. 

So, come for the feminist examination of Hamilton, stay for Watson and Miranda giddily dividing the Hamilton characters into Hogwarts houses. Check Emma’s rationalization of Aaron Burr in Slytherin: she thinks he could have been Hufflepuff, ‘a late bloomer’, but he ‘turned toward Slytherin’. This is fascinating. Do only people in Slytherin have the potential to go bad?

Watch all four parts of the interview here.

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