Emma Watson Reveals Why She Hasn’t Acted In Almost Five Years
Emma Watson has paused acting because she says she felt "caged" and wasn't happy.
It wasn’t that long ago that Emma Watson was one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to the downright magical success of the Harry Potter films. However, Watson hasn’t actually appeared in a film since she starred in Little Women, the movie by Barbie director Greta Gerwig. According to Variety, Watson said that she took a break from acting because she “felt a bit caged” and “wasn’t very happy,” but she made a pledge to fans that she would “absolutely” act again someday.
The last part shouldn’t be that surprising because based on her comments, it’s clear that Emma Watson still loves performing and acting, but she had started to get sick of how Hollywood approaches creating and marketing films. For example, she points out that when promoting a new movie, studios always expected her to effectively be the voice of the film whenever journalists had questions. She eventually got sick and tired of having “to go out and sell something that I really didn’t have very much control over.”
In fact, the crux of the matter seems to be that Emma Watson would like more control over the roles she takes, both in terms of bringing that role to life and honestly discussing her performance with the world. That last part is very important to the young actor: she said that she wanted the opportunity to stand up in front of the world and admit, if needed, that “I screwed up, it was my decision, I should have done better.’”
That would be a more honest way of approaching criticism, she seems to think, than having to just be a studio mouthpiece for nosy and overly critical reporters.
Selfishly, we’d love to see Emma Watson star in more movies because, like her Harry Potter costars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, she is a very talented actor. In the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, she managed to steal every scene she was in (which was particularly impressive since Ezra Miller was chewing as many scenes as possible). And while we still don’t love the trend of live-action remakes of Disney animated films, Watson’s performance helped to make Beauty and the Beast the very best of these adaptations so far.
And while many of her performances are relatively light and even comedic, we really loved seeing Emma Watson show off her dramatic chops in films like Darren Aronofsky’s Noah and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Given her immense talent and the reason she gave for giving up acting, the solution seems simple: Watson needs to be the main star in her own indie drama. This would give her the chance to explore the depths of her talent as an actor while outside the umbrella (and the pressures) of major studio projects.
Ultimately, the most striking thing about Emma Watson’s career as an actor is just watching her get better and better at it with each new film. When the Harry Potter films first began coming out, many fans couldn’t help but wonder if these child actors would have careers that could stand the test of time or if their performances would be limited to these movies adapting the books of J.K. Rowling. In the case of Watson, we’re convinced she must have stolen a Time-Turner from the Harry Potter set because her latest performances can only be described with one word: timeless.
