Growing up, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter was a major part of every child’s life, and Emma Watson was no exception. Mesmerized by the magical story development by Rowling, Watson even starred as Hermione Granger in the epic franchise. Appearing as a young and ambitious person just like her character, Watson simply devoted herself to the movies.
However, eventually, her commitment to the movies turned her life upside down when she failed to adjust to her life outside the franchise. Appearing as Hermione Granger at the age of 9, Emma Watson spent a major portion of her life on the set of Harry Potter. Thus, appearing for an interview with Elle, Watson expressed how her passion and focus on her job came at the cost of her identity.
Emma Watson Failed To Adjust To Life After Harry Potter
Auditioning at the early age of 9 for the first installment, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, Emma Watson played the role of the young scholarly witch, Hermione Granger. Playing the same role for the entirety of the franchise, Watson dedicated a major portion of her life to the same role. Spending more than a decade, filming eight Harry Potter films, the actress and the entire cast, along with Warner Bros created a blockbuster franchise that has its own universe and a massive fanbase.
Although Harry Potter has been the biggest achievement and the breakout role for Emma Watson in her whole entertainment career, she faced certain issues at the completion of the film series. Dedicating herself entirely to the series and bringing out her character with passion, Watson admitted to losing her identity over the course of years. Expressing how she was affected by the role of Hermione Granger, Watson mentioned facing stunted growth of her personal self.
Failing to adjust to her life outside the Harry Potter set, Watson stated, “[I’ve] spent more than half of my life pretending to be someone else”. Comparing her life with her fellow actresses, Emma Watson stated, “While my contemporaries were dyeing their hair and figuring out who they were, I was figuring out who Hermione was and how best to portray her.” Thus, investing a major portion of her childhood and teenage years into the epic franchise, Watson mentioned facing difficulty with self-identity.
Emma Watson Wanted Her First Kiss To Be In Real Life
Discussing with Elle, how the Harry Potter film series took a huge chunk of her life, Emma Watson claimed feeling overwhelmed with her life outside the franchise. “Doing the Potters was such a bubble and then having to figure out how to function in the real world has been a challenge” Watson stated. Although the actress found immense success following her accomplishment as Hermione Granger, she admitted how the portrayal got mundane at times.
Envying her fellow actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart, Emma Watson claimed how difficult it was for her to maintain a normal lifestyle outside of her celebrity persona.
“I have school friends, a group of people around me…they ask, ‘Oh what are you doing tomorrow?’ and I say, ‘I’m going up to see Mario [Testino] in Notting Hill, he’s shooting me for the new Lancôme campaign.’”
Overwhelmed by the attention she got everywhere she went, Emma Watson mentioned, she didn’t want to experience certain things on set. Discussing the extreme measures she took to ensure her first kiss didn’t happen on set, Watson recalled reading a thing from Elizabeth Taylor.
“It really struck me. I don’t know how or why, but I had this sense that if I wasn’t really careful, that could be me: that my first kiss could be in somebody else’s clothes.”
Thus, refraining from ruining her once-in-a-lifetime experience in the Warner Bros studios, Emma Watson opened up being gutsy enough to have her first kiss outside of her Hermione Granger character.
Watch the entire Harry Potter film series on HBO Max.
Source: Elle
