Emma Watson explains why she stepped back from acting: “I felt a bit caged”

Emma Watson has discussed her decision to step back from acting, saying that she “felt a bit caged” by the experience.

The Harry Potter actor hasn’t starred in a film since Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which finished shooting at the end of 2018.

Speaking about taking a break from acting in a recent interview with Financial Times, Watson said: “I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest. 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?’ It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things where I didn’t get to be involved in the process.”

She added: “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. And I started to realise 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.’”

Since 2011’s Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Watson has starred in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The Bling Ring, This Is The End, Noah, Little Women and Disney‘s live-action remake of Beauty And The Beast.

The actor, who wrote and directed an advertising campaign for Prada last year, hasn’t ruled out making a return to the big screen.

“Yes, absolutely,” Watson said. “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?”

Last year, Watson appeared in the HBO special Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts, where she reunited with co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.

Speaking about filming the reunion special in 2021, Watson described it as an “unexpected joy”.

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