Emma Watson has admitted that she was scared of life as a child actor.
She added that getting away from the public eye by attending Brown University in the US after her long stint in the “Harry Potter” films was the best decision she ever made.
Emma looked stunning at a recent event. Credit: Getty
“The level of questioning that I got, being so young, people were asking me, ‘What do you think about this? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?'” the 25-year-old actress told Porter magazine.
“I felt so helpless because I still didn’t have the answers, and I had so many friends who had a clear sense of self.
“Who knew they liked certain things, like the smell of grass or their favorite colors? I was jealous of those girls because I had low confidence in myself.”
“I questioned everything. I was frightened by the level of interest in me.”
Emma in a still from the Harry Potter series. Source: Yahoo US
She enrolled at Ivy League school Brown University in 2009 after “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and before the release of the series’ final two films, “Deathly Hallows.”
“I moved to the other side of the world, I was in a place with no support, I was sitting on the side of the bus going everywhere, and it felt really lonely at times,” she said.
“But I’m so glad I did. Throwing myself into that furnace was the best thing I could do. It gave me refuge, a space to negotiate with myself and time to understand who I am.
“I’ve spent more than half my life pretending to be someone else. While many of my generation were dyeing their hair and figuring out who they were, I was figuring out who Hermione was and how best to play her.”
Emma’s appearance has matured over the years. Credit: Getty Images
“I needed privacy and time to understand myself, so I spent most of my time convincing everyone that I was an incredibly boring person.
“On the red carpet and stuff, I had to numb myself and shut myself off just to get through it.”
But now she says it was all worth it.
“Now that I’m 25, I feel like for the first time in my life I have a sense of self that I’m happy with,” she continued.
“The truth is, I have something to say and I want to be myself. There shouldn’t be a huge divide between my public and private life.”
“It’s certainly a harder path to walk, but it’s arguably the most rewarding in the end.”
United Nations Women’s Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon pose for a photo after attending the launch of the HeForShe campaign at the United Nations. Credit: Getty
In recent years, Watson has gained prominence for her work promoting gender equality and girls’ education, visiting countries such as Bangladesh and Zambia.
She spoke at the United Nations for the HeForShe campaign in 2014, garnering attention from millions of people around the world, and has also visited Uruguay as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Women’s Agency.
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