English actor Emma Watson has discussed the pressures of starring in the Harry Potter franchise as a child, saying it left her feeling “caged”.
“I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest,” Watson told the Financial Times. “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.”
Watson continued: “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.”
Elaborating on her point, 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.’”
In other Harry Potter news, a new series based on the books was announced to be airing on Max in the future. Each book will make up a full television series, and JK Rowling will serve as executive producer on the project. It’s currently unknown when it’ll air on Max.