Emma Watson Reveals The Part Of Being An Actor She Hates Amid Acting Hiatus

The acting world wasn’t all magic for Emma Watson. The Harry Potter star has stepped away from showbiz in recent years, and now she’s shedding some light on why she’s happy with her decision. Watson revealed the one “soul-destroying” aspect of the job, but added that she is still interested in returning to the acting world someday.

Watson has been acting in major motion pictures since she was a preteen starring in the first Harry Potter movie, but she’s taken a prolonged break from the profession. Her last movie was 2019’s Little Women. In 2024, she clarified that she had not retired from acting despite her hiatus. “I don’t see myself as having stepped away from acting,” she told British Vogue at the time. “I just see myself as wanting to expand what I do and being able to be in things that I have written or directed or produced.”

As she plans her next move, Watson got real about how she never enjoyed doing press for her movies. “A bigger component than the actual job itself is the promotion and selling of that piece of work, this piece of art. The balance of that can get quite thrown off,” Watson said in a Sept. 12 Hollywood Authentic profile. “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.”

While Watson loves the artistic process of filming movies, she confessed that was oftentimes overshadowed by the elements of the job she didn’t like. “I do very much miss using my skill-set, and I very much miss the art. I just found I got to do so little of the bit that I actually enjoyed,” Watson said. “I don’t miss the pressure. I forgot it was a lot of pressure. I did a small thing for a play, just with my friends. I was like, ‘Bloody hell, this is stressful!’ And that wasn’t even for a real public audience or anything. I don’t miss that.”