Emma Watson is a British actress famous for her roles in big movies and smaller, independent films.
She had a very successful career, starring in all eight Harry Potter movies, as well as popular films like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Beauty and the Beast.
However, in recent years, she has been away from acting. Now, she has finally shared the reason why.
Watson had never acted before she was cast as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies.
In an interview with Interview Magazine, she said: “There was no open audition – they went all over England to find these characters, and not just drama schools.
“They came to my school and asked if they could put forward a group of 20 children between the ages of 9 and 12. They took my photograph in the school gym, and then I got a call three weeks later.”
After a long and tough audition process, Watson got the role that changed her life, making her famous and financially stable.
But her time in Harry Potter wasn’t always easy.
Watson once shared that she almost left the Harry Potter series when “the fame thing had finally hit home in a big way.”
Her co-star Rupert Grint revealed this during the Harry Potter reunion, saying: “You were considering pulling out. I’ve never really spoken to you about that.”
“I think I was scared,” Watson admitted. “I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.'”
Daniel Radcliffe also shared his thoughts: “We never really spoke about it. I guess we were just going through it at our own pace. We were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn’t really occur to us that we were all probably kind of having similar feelings.”
Watson added: “No one had to convince me to see it through. The fans genuinely wanted me to succeed, and they all genuinely have each other’s backs.”
After the success of Harry Potter, Watson starred in several movies, with her most recent being Little Women, which came out in 2019.
Since it’s been a few years, many fans have taken to social media to ask why she seems to have stopped acting.
One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Come on, come back. We miss you already.”
Another said: “Hope she’s doing well.”
In an interview with the Financial Times, Watson shared why she decided to step away from the spotlight.
“I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest,” Watson admitted. “I think I felt a bit caged. The thing I found really hard was that I had to go out and sell something that I really didn’t have very much control over.”
She particularly struggled with promoting projects she was part of.
She explained: “To stand in front of a film and have every journalist be able to say, ‘How does this align with your viewpoint?’ It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things where I didn’t get to be involved in the process.
“I was held accountable in a way that I began to find really frustrating, because I didn’t have a voice, I didn’t have a say. And I started to [realize] that I only wanted to stand in front of things where if someone was going to give me flak about it, I could say, in a way that didn’t make me hate myself, ‘Yes, I screwed up, it was my decision, I should have done better.'”
Now, after working on a Prada campaign, Watson has discovered a new creative passion for writing and directing.
The actress has shared if she plans to act again.
She told the Financial Times: “Yes, absolutely. But I’m happy to sit and wait for the next right thing. I love what I do.
“It’s finding a way to do it where I don’t have to fracture myself into different faces and people. And I just don’t want to switch into robot mode anymore. Does that make sense?”
