Emma Watson, the “Harry Potter” actress, recently spoke to the Financial Times about her absence from Hollywood for nearly five years.
The 33-year-old actress hasn’t acted since the filming of “Little Women” wrapped up in late 2018.
In the interview, Watson explained why she took a break from acting and whether she plans on returning.
“I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest,” Watson said. “I think I felt a bit caged. 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. To stand in front of a film and have every journalist be able to say, ‘How does this align with your viewpoint?’”
“I was held accountable in a way that I began to find really frustrating because I didn’t have a voice, I didn’t have a say,” she said. “And 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, in a way that didn’t make me hate myself, ‘Yes, I screwed up, it was my decision, I should have done better.’”
Despite taking a break from acting, Watson is not ruling out returning to the industry. “Yes, absolutely,” she said when asked if she planned on returning to acting. “But I’m happy to sit and wait for the next right thing. 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. And I just don’t want to switch into robot mode any more. Does that make sense?”
In addition to acting, Watson is also interested in working behind the camera.
She wrote and directed a Prada campaign last year and is planning on directing a music video for a popular artist. “Being a director seemed unattainable. I don’t think I had any confidence in that. I know it seems weird. I mean, I grew up on a film set,” she shared.
Watson’s decision to take a break from acting is not uncommon among celebrities who feel the need to reassess their lives and careers.
As actress Reese Witherspoon once said, “Sometimes you have to take a break from the spotlight and concentrate on yourself and what makes you happy.”
For Watson, taking a break from acting allowed her to explore other interests and figure out what she wanted to do next.
Interesting!
