Emma Watson is pulling back the curtain on her decision to step away from Hollywood.
The Harry Potter alum, who turned in April, recently opened up in a deeply personal interview with The Financial Times about why she hasn’t appeared on screen since ’s Little Women. For fans wondering where the star has been, the answer is simple: she just wasn’t happy.
“I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest,” Watson told the outlet while promoting her brother Alex’s new gin brand, Renais. “I think I felt a bit caged.”
The actress, who grew up in the spotlight as Hermione Granger, explained that the pressure of being the “face” of projects she didn’t have creative control over began to take a toll.
“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,” she admitted.
Watson noted how difficult it was to sit through press junkets and have journalists ask how a film aligned with her personal viewpoints when she wasn’t involved in the actual filmmaking process. She shared that she felt “held accountable” in a way that became “really frustrating” because she didn’t have a voice in the room.
“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… ‘Yes, I screwed up, it was my decision, I should have done better,'” she added.
While she’s been away from the cameras, she hasn’t been idle. In , Watson made her directorial debut with a short film for a Prada campaign—a move she previously thought was “unattainable” despite growing up on film sets.
She even teased that she’s been tapped to direct a music video for a top-secret artist!
But for those missing her on the big screen, there is a light at the end of the Great Hall. Watson confirmed that she “absolutely” plans to act again. The Financial Times reported that she is slated to begin production on a new, unannounced film in early .
Until then, she’s hitting the books, with plans to begin a master’s degree in creative writing at Oxford University this September.
“I’m happy to sit and wait for the next right thing,” Watson said of her future roles. “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.”
In a final, relatable moment that has fans cheering on social media, she added: “I just don’t want to switch into robot mode any more. Does that make sense?”
It makes perfect sense to us, Emma!
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