Emma Watson Explains Why She Took a Break From Acting

Emma Watson has been associated with some of the biggest film franchises of the 21st century, from the Harry Potter movies to the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. To the surprise of some fans, Watson has yet to act onscreen since Greta Gerwig’s 2019 remake of Little Women — and as she revealed in a recent interview with the Financial Times, there was a good reason for that.

“I think I felt a bit caged,” Watson explained in the interview. “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. 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.’”

“Yes, absolutely,” Watson said, when asked if she would return to acting. “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 any more. Does that make sense?”

Why did Emma Watson almost quit Harry Potter?

In the times since the Harry Potter films first launched, one rumor has been that Watson threatened to quit her role as Hermione Granger in the franchise around Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Watson subtly confirmed that during last year’s Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special, and explained why she almost made that choice.

“I think I was scared. 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,”‘ Watson said. 

What do you think of Emma Watson’s new comments about her acting hiatus? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!