Yikes. 😳
Whoa, Emma Watson Just Revealed The 'Soul-Crushing' Part Of Making Movies
Chloe Williams serves as B+C’s Entertainment Editor and resident Taylor Swift expert. Whether she’s writing a movie review or interviewing the stars of the latest hit show, Chloe loves exploring why stories inspire us. You can see her work published in BuzzFeed, Coastal Review, and North Beach Sun. When she’s not writing, Chloe’s probably watching a Marvel movie with a cherry coke or texting her sister about the latest celebrity news. Say hi at @thechloewilliams on Insta and @popculturechlo on Twitter!
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Can I just say how much I miss Emma Watson. The Harry Potter actress has been taking a break from Hollywood while she directs Prada commercials and gets her MA in Creative Writing like the absolute star she is, but dang I miss seeing her face. So you can imagine my glee when a brand new interview with the actress and director dropped on Hollywood Authentic — and Emma revealed the parts about acting she misses AND the "soul-crushing" parts of the biz she doesn't miss at all.
Here's what Emma Watson said about Hollywood in her new interview with Hollywood Authentic.
Why did Emma Watson quit acting?
Emma Watson revealed that the hardest part about making movies for her was promoting them; essentially she had to sell a product (the movie) that she didn't really have any creative control over.
"In some ways I really won the lottery [with acting], and what happened to me is so unusual. But a bigger component than the actual job itself is the promotion and selling of that piece of work, this piece of art," she says. "The balance of that can get quite thrown off. I think I’ll be honest and straight-forward, and say: I do not miss selling things. I found that to be quite soul-destroying."
Well, Emma I can promise you that if I ever get to interview you, it will not be painful.
But despite its challenges, Emma said she does miss the actual process of bringing a story to life. "I do very much miss using my skill-set, and I very much miss the art," she continues. "The minute the camera rolls, and getting to just completely forget about everything else in the world other than that one moment – it’s such an intense form of meditation. Because you just cannot be anywhere else. It’s so freeing. I miss that profoundly."
She said a recent stint in a friend's play reminded her how much pressure there is! "I did a small thing for a play, just with my friends. I was like, ‘Bloody hell, this is stressful!’" she jokes. "And that wasn’t even for a real public audience or anything. I don’t miss that."
In a 2023 interview with Financial Times, Emma Watson also promises she'll "absolutely" act again, but "I’m happy to sit and wait for the next right thing...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."
And considering the Little Women actress revealed she's got a project up her sleeve at the moment, we could see her again sooner rather than later. "I’m working on – actually, I’m not going to say what, because then people are like, ‘Well, when is it happening? What’s going on with this thing?’" she continues. "So I’m just going to say that I’m working on something that I’ve never done before. So I feel a bit like a person who’s in the dark, stumbling around, looking for the edges of something, and hoping. It sounds like I’m trying to find a light switch. But it’s good. That’s the process. That’s the process of making things, isn’t it?"
Check out Emma Watson's Daily Journal Prompts Will Change Your Life for even more on your favorite actress!
