Emma Watson Misses Acting, But One Soul-Destroying Reality Keeps Her Away
Emma Watson says she misses acting — but not the soul-destroying part of the job. In a new Hollywood Authentic interview, she opens up about why she stepped back and what might bring her back to screens.
Emma Watson has been off movie sets for a while, and now we know the part of the job she absolutely does not miss. Spoiler: not the acting.
What Watson actually misses (and what she really doesn’t)
In a recent chat with Hollywood Authentic, Watson was asked if she misses acting, since we haven’t seen her on screen since 2019’s Little Women. Her answer splits the job in two. She misses the craft: building a character, working a scene, the total focus when the camera’s rolling. What she doesn’t miss is everything around it — the part where you have to be the face of the product and sell it to the world.
"In some ways I really won the lottery [with acting], and what happened to me is so unusual. But a bigger component than the actual job itself is the promotion and selling of that piece of work, this piece of art."
"I think I’ll be honest and straight-forward, and say: I do not miss selling things. I found that to be quite soul-destroying."
She also talked about how little time actors get to actually do the part they train for. Rehearsal windows are tiny, the prep gets squeezed, and then you’re expected to turn it on instantly. For her, the moment when the camera rolls is the payoff — she called it an intense kind of meditation — but there just isn’t enough of that compared to the promotional grind. Not exactly a shocking take if you’ve ever watched a junket montage, but hearing her call it soul-destroying is blunt in a way most actors avoid.
Where she left off
Watson hasn’t appeared in a film since Little Women in 2019. That’s her most recent onscreen role, and she’s been on a semi-hiatus since.
The quick career refresher
- Hermione Granger across the Harry Potter films (the role that made her a global name)
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- The Bling Ring
- Noah
- Beauty and the Beast (2017)
- Little Women (2019)
What she’s been up to
Even while stepping back from acting, Watson has kept busy with philanthropic work. No timeline on a return to sets, but it’s clear the part she loves — the actual art — is still calling. The press circus? She’s not nostalgic for that at all.