It’s been a while since we’ve seen Emma Watson on screen. Six years, to be exact. After her role in ‘Little Women‘ back in 2019, the ‘Harry Potter‘ star seemed to have taken a step back. Apart from a short return for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary special and a few public appearances, she’s been largely off the radar.
Naturally, fans have wondered: where did she go? Why did she leave? And is she ever coming back to Hollywood? Now, in a recent interview, Emma has opened up about her reasons.
Emma Watson On What It Takes To Survive In Hollywood
While most actors start their journeys from the bottom, Emma started at the top. Since she landed in Hollywood as the 11-year-old Hermione Granger in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone‘. And the rest is history. She never had to look back.
When ‘Harry Potter‘ ended, many expected her to continue chasing stardom full-time. And for a while, she did. She chose her roles in ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ ‘The Bling Ring,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and finally, ‘Little Women.’ And, we loved her in all. In between, she also attended university, became a UN Women goodwill ambassador, and kept voicing her opinions.
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But despite the ‘seemingly‘ perfect balance, everything wasn’t right. And, Watson has finally spoken up about it. In her interview with Hollywood Authentic, Emma talked about what actually led her away from acting. “I do not miss selling things,” she said. “I found that to be quite soul-destroying.”
Turns out, for Emma, the hardest part of being in the film industry wasn’t acting; it was promoting. The interviews. The press tours. The red carpets. The constant pressure to smile, charm, explain, and sell a story, even when she had little control over how that story was told.
Referring to the stress, she said, “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.” And that’s the part that started to wear her down.
It wasn’t just that she had to promote films. But the fact that she often had to speak on behalf of something she didn’t write, direct, or edit was really challenging. Yet she was expected to fully own it and answer for it.
Emma Felt Trapped In The Spotlight
Even today, with years of distance from Hollywood, Emma opened up how ‘that‘ pressure hasn’t left her. She shared an incident from when she recently worked on a small project with her friends and still felt the stress creeping in. She said, “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.”
During the ‘Harry Potter’ reunion in 2022, Emma also opened up about how hard it was to grow up under a microscope, and how isolating it often felt.
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Right now, there’s no official word on whether Emma Watson will return to acting. If she does come back, it’ll likely be under very different circumstances. In the meantime, she has been focusing on other passions, including writing, directing, fashion, sustainability, and causes she believes in. All of it on her own terms.
Emma has not yet completely given up acting. The way she talks about being on set makes it clear she still misses it. She just can’t take all the noise that comes with it. If Emma Watson comes back, it’ll be on her terms. If not, she’s already given us more than enough.
