Emma Watson, the movie star known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, has revealed what she doesn't miss about acting. The 35-year-old was last seen in a Hollywood production when she played one of the March sisters in the 2019 adaptation of Little Women. Since then, she has taken a break from the spotlight, and now details what she doesn't miss about being one of the most recognizable child stars in the 2000s.
Watson recently talked to Hassan Akkad for a piece in Hollywood Authentic. "I am maybe the happiest and healthiest I've ever been," Watson says when explaining her current distancing from the acting craft. "I think what's interesting about being an actor is, there's a tendency to sort of fracture yourself into multiple personalities. I'm not just talking about the roles you play, but having the weight of a public persona, that sort of needs constant feeding and sprucing and glamorizing. It's very energy-intensive stuff."
In 2022, Watson was seen reuniting with her Harry Potter co-stars for a TV special that aired on HBO Max. Nevertheless, it was only a special appearance during her hiatus from acting. The following year, she revealed that her break was because she wasn't very happy. During the interview, she confirms what she doesn't miss from those days in the fantasy franchise that changed her life:
"In some ways I really won the lottery [with acting], and what happened to me is so unusual. But a bigger component than the actual job itself is the promotion and selling of that piece of work, this piece of art. The balance of that can get quite thrown off.
"I think I'll be honest and straight-forward, and say: I do not miss selling things. I found that to be quite soul-destroying. But I do very much miss using my skillset, and I very much miss the art. I just found I got to do so little of the bit that I actually enjoyed. The moment you get on a film set, you don't get very long for rehearsal. But the moment you get to talk through a scene–or I got to prepare and think about how I wanted to do something–and then the minute the camera rolls, and getting to just completely forget about everything else in the world other than that one moment–it's such an intense form of meditation. Because you just cannot be anywhere else. It's so freeing. I miss that profoundly.
"But I don't miss the pressure. I forgot it was a lot of pressure. I did a small thing for a play, just with my friends. I was like, 'Bloody hell, this is stressful!' And that wasn't even for a real public audience or anything. I don't miss that."
The 'Harry Potter' Franchise Is Now in the Hands of a Different Team
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in Deathly Hallows
After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Watson bid farewell to her most famous role, and the fantasy franchise created by J.K. Rowling went dormant for a few years — at least in the film format. The stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child formally continued the series with a very popular play.
However, Warner Bros. has now revived it, and is currently developing a TV series that will fully reboot the Wizarding World. Though it sounds exciting for some fans, others are not entirely happy with the HBO reboot, and WB now faces one of the studio's most important challenges in decades. Emma Watson had nothing to say about the new TV adaptation, although the subject wasn't brought up during the interview.
