Emma Watson (Paris, 33 years old) has opened up about the reason why she has been away from the cinema for five years, specifically since her role as one of the protagonists of little women (2019), the film by director Greta Gerwig. In a recent interview with Financial Timesthe interpreter, who rose to fame as a child thanks to the saga of Harry Potter, opened up about why he disappeared after his last film, in which he worked with Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet or Meryl Streep. “She wasn’t happy, to be honest,” she confesses in the interview. “I think I felt trapped. What was very difficult for me was that I had to go out and sell something that I didn’t have a lot of control over.
In particular, he didn’t like the obligation he felt having to promote the movies he was working on. The last papers of him before little women included putting himself in Bella’s shoes in the remake live action Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Mae Holland, star of The circle (also 2017). The promotion of the first was especially demanding, requiring Watson to participate in an intense press tour that took her all over the world.
“Defending a film and having to answer questions from journalists like: ‘How does this role align with your point of view?’ It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things in whose process she was not involved, ”explains the actress about those experiences. “I felt responsible in a way that was very frustrating for me, because I didn’t have a voice. I realized that I just wanted to be doing things that if someone criticized me, I could say in a way that didn’t make me hate myself, ‘Yeah, I was wrong, and it was my choice. I should have done better.”
In those years of absence from the film industry, it has not stopped. During his break from acting, Watson has collaborated on a family project: the launch of a gin brand, together with his brother, Alex, and his father, Chris. The brand, which is called Renais, is the brainchild of her brother, who has a lot of experience in the spirits sector, having worked with major brands such as Tanqueray gin, Ketel One vodka and Johnnie Walker whiskey. Renais is that it is a gin flavored with the skin of grapes picked from the Chablis region of France, where her father, a wine connoisseur, has had vines for thirty years. The grape skins, along with other ingredients, are later combined at a distillery in England. It is a tribute to her family history, in which she crosses her British blood with a passion for the French land where the Watsons have owned vineyards for over three decades.
Emma Watson is one of the shareholders of the business and has contributed to the project by bringing her personal experience working with start-ups. Specifically, he oversees the creative direction of the brand. All aspects of imaginary and design go through it. “I couldn’t let someone else take care of this part because it’s our family, our history,” she has shared about her new business venture with Financial Times. “We have to sell a product, but I think it would hurt my soul if it was done in a way that wasn’t personal.”
During the confinement due to the pandemic, he began to write poetry and essays about love, friendship and relationships, and from that hobby one of his next projects was born: next September he plans to start a creative writing course at the University from Oxford. She also during this time she voluntarily moved away from the cinema she has directed an advertising campaign that she wrote and directed for Prada. As the interpreter also now reveals, this first directing project, carried out last winter, was an important moment for her: “People always told me that I should direct and produce, even when I was still at Potter,” she recalls. “I was worried that the directing job was only technical, not creative, and that I wouldn’t be able to bring what I think is my best skill… Being a director seemed unattainable. She had no confidence in it. I know it seems strange, because I grew up on a film set.
Regarding his plans for the future, Watson confirms that he “absolutely” intends to return to acting as soon as the right opportunity arises, but he is in no rush. “I’m content to sit back and wait for the next right project. I love what I do. It’s about finding a way to do it where I don’t have to fracture into different faces and people. I don’t want to turn on the mode robot never more. That makes sense?”. After the magazine with that medium, the last time the Financial Times He spoke with her in March, the actress shared that in early 2024 she will be shooting a new movie, although she has not confirmed her name.
