Emma Watson took a multiple-year break from acting, years after she played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films. Now, she’s back in the spotlight with a lengthy sit-down interview.
In a new interview with Jay Shetty for his podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Watson opened up about her life after the Harry Potter films, and her current acting career. At the same time, she also opened up about her relationship with J.K. Rowling, especially after the author’s recent criticism. Watson is a longtime activist and has publicly shown her support for the transgender community, which Rowling has been denouncing for years.
Around the 2:26:00 mark, Shetty brought up the different opinions the Harry Potter stars have versus Rowling. That led to a very vocal backlash from the author. In April 2024, she responded to an X post claiming, “Just waiting for Dan [Radcliffe] and Emma [Watson] to give you a very public apology … safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them.”
She replied, “Not safe, I’m afraid,” Rowling’s post stated. “Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”
Earlier this year, Rowling seemingly shaded Watson, Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint again. She alluded that seeing the Golden Trio actors in a movie “instantly ruins a movie” for her. She said, “Three guesses. Sorry, but that was irresistible.”
Responding to J.K. Rowling’s criticism, Emma Watson shared, “I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, mean that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I, that I had personal experiences with.”
She explained, “I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don’t get to keep and cherish. To come back to our earlier thing. Like I just don’t think these things are either or. I think it’s my deepest wish that I, I hope people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”
“I think that’s a very, very important way for me that I need to able to move through life. I guess I really do believe in having conversations and that those are really important and that it’s not so much what we say or what we believe, but very often how we say it.” She continued, “It’s really frustrating and now what yo hear when you’re angry and upset with someone.”
Emma Watson Admitted Acting After Harry Potter ‘Broke Her’
Hermione Granger fends off Death Eaters with some creative spells in order to escape their clutches in Harry Potter.Image via Warner Bros.
Watson made her acting debut as Hermione in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, and played the character in eight films until the film series ended in 2011. She later went on to play Belle in Disney’s 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast, and Meg March in 2019’s Little Women, which marked her final role before her acting break.
In the new interview, she also reflected on how unprepared she was to star in other films after Harry Potter, around the 34:50 mark. “I was coming to those sets with an expectation that I think I had developed on Harry Potter, which was that we were, the people I worked with were going to be my family, and that we were going to be lifelong friends. I came to work looking for friendship, and that was a very painful experience for me.”
She continued, “Outside of Harry Potter and in Hollywood, like, bone breaking, really painful, um, because most people don’t come to those environments looking for friendships. They’re looking for, this is my chance, this is my role, this is what I want out of it. I’m focused, this is my job, this is my career. Like, let’s go. And I was not of that mindset.”
Watson detailed, “And so I found, the rejection really painful. I think it was so unusual to make a set of films for 12 years, and we were a community. Like we, we really were. And so I took that as an expectation into my, into my other workplaces. And I just got my, I just got my ass kicked. I really did. It, yeah, it broke me.”
The Harry Potter 8 Movie Collector’s Edition poster features the art from all eight movie film posters, all of which prominently feature Harry Potter.
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