Emma Watson has come out to share why we no longer see her on screen since her whirlwind childhood career.
If you’ve been living under a rock, you probably missed that Watson was everyone’s childhood heroine and was an absolute staple in the magical world of Harry Potter.
Playing the role of Hermione Granger in each film, fans got to watch her grow from a tiny child to a fully fledged adult right before their eyes.
As well as being in the eight of the films, Watson also went on to make a name for herself outside of the wizarding world.
Not only was she in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but also the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast and the best impression of a real-life person during her role in Bling Ring.
But it was after playing Meg March in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019) that she seemingly vanished from our very eyes.
So, what gives?
She addressed why she keeps rejecting Hollywood roles as she approached six years since her last film.
Watson revealed to Financial Times early last year that she took a step away from acting because she ‘wasn’t very happy’.
“I think I felt a bit caged,” she explained. “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.
“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.”
The film star felt she ‘didn’t have a voice’ while being interviewed about her work and began to realise what she wanted.
“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’.”
Nowadays, her main work is the wine-inspired gin she launched with her brother Alex, named Renais.
Oh, and she’s pretty into directing too.
In 2022, Watson not only starred in a short film to promote a new fragrance from Prada, but also directed, wrote and narrated it.
She described this as a ‘very’ big moment for her and also teased directing a music video for someone we will ‘definitely have heard of’.
But, if you’re a big fan of seeing her acting in the cinemas, you don’t have to worry too much as Watson ‘absolutely’ will return to acting in the future.
“But I’m happy to sit and wait for the next right thing. I love what I do,” she explained. “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?”
