Accio, truth! Emma Watson is pulling back the curtain on why she traded the glitz of the red carpet for a much quieter life.
The -year-old Harry Potter star, who became a household name at just years old, is opening up about her long-running break from Hollywood and the “soul-destroying” pressures that come with being a global icon.
In a candid new interview with Hassan Akkad for Hollywood Authentic, the actress—who was last seen on screen in ’s Little Women—revealed that stepping away from the spotlight has been the best decision she ever made.
“I am maybe the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been,” Watson shared, reflecting on her current distance from the acting world.
For Watson, the struggle wasn’t necessarily the craft of acting itself, but the massive “public persona” that came attached to it. She described the exhaustion of maintaining an identity that “needs constant feeding and sprucing and glamorizing,” calling the entire process “very energy-intensive stuff.”
The actress, who famously reunited with costars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for the Return to Hogwarts special, admitted that the business side of the industry eventually took a heavy toll on her spirit.
“I’ll be honest and straight-forward, and say: I do not miss selling things,” Watson confessed. “I found that to be quite soul-destroying.”
While she hasn’t missed the high-stakes press tours or the pressure of “selling” her art to the masses, she admits there is still a void where the creativity used to be.
“I do very much miss using my skillset, and I very much miss the art,” she noted. “The minute the camera rolls… getting to just completely forget about everything else in the world… it’s such an intense form of meditation. It’s so freeing. I miss that profoundly.”
However, fans shouldn’t expect her to jump back into a blockbuster franchise anytime soon. Even a recent low-stakes project with her inner circle reminded her exactly why she needed a breather from the professional world.
“I did a small thing for a play, just with my friends. I was like, ‘Bloody hell, this is stressful!’” she joked. “I don’t miss the pressure.”
Watson’s vulnerable comments come at a major turning point for the Wizarding World. While she has clearly moved on from her days as Hermione Granger, Warner Bros. is currently hard at work reviving the franchise with a brand-new TV series for HBO that will fully reboot the original books.
While Watson didn’t comment on the upcoming series or the new casting, her focus seems firmly planted on her own journey of self-discovery.
By stepping away from the often “fractured” life of a child star, she’s finally finding out exactly who Emma is when the cameras aren’t rolling. And for this witch, that’s the real magic.
