Emma Watson Says She ‘Profoundly’ Misses Acting Except for One ‘Soul-Destroying’ Part of the Job

Emma Watson hasn't acted in a movie in over five years, and while she misses the art form, she does not miss other aspects of the job.

The star, 35, told Hollywood Authentic in a rare interview published Sunday, Sept. 21, that she feels promoting and selling movies after starring in them is a negative experience compared to the bliss she finds from actually working on a set.

"In some ways I really won the lottery [with acting], and what happened to me is so unusual," Watson said, when asked if she misses acting.

The Harry Potter child star last appeared on the big screen in 2019's Little Women and last acted in a 2022 short film that she also directed for Prada. 

"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 straightforward, and say: I do not miss selling things. I found that to be quite soul-destroying," she said.

"But I do very much miss using my skill set, and I very much miss the art. I just found I got to do so little of the bit that I actually enjoyed."

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In the interview, Watson said while actors are not usually provided "very long" to rehearse, she finds significant value in losing herself in the moment while actually acting through a scene.

"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," she said. "I miss that profoundly. But I don’t miss the pressure. I forgot it was a lot of pressure."

Watson noted that she found herself feeling pressure when she "did a small thing for a play, just with my friends," in recent years. "I was like, ‘Bloody hell, this is stressful!’ And that wasn’t even for a real public audience or anything," Watson said. "I don’t miss that."

In the interview, Watson also suggested she is "working on something that I've never done before," though she declined to elaborate on what that project looks like.

She also said she is "maybe the happiest and healthiest I've ever been" despite holding her acting career at arms' length in recent years.

"I think what’s interesting about being an actor is, there’s a tendency to sort of fracture yourself into multiple personalities," she said. "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. And shedding the multiple identities has freed up so much space, I think, for me to be a better sister, daughter, friend, granddaughter and then artist. And someone who’s trying to do some critical thinking of her own."