Emma Watson recently explained why she hasn’t made a movie in five years. But the British actress and actress who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films has long struggled with the challenges of the film business. While her successful fantasy series was still running, she considered leaving – and was rewarded with an extremely unpleasant shooting experience.
Deciding to make more Harry Potter films was ‘agonizing’
At the age of ten, Emma Watson landed the role of Hermione Granger in the film adaptation of the novels by JK Rowling. Her first contract ran until Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Within the next five years, she directed four Harry Potter films, one enormous workload for experienced actors and even more so for a teenager.
Warner Bros.
Emma Watson as Hermione
During the filming of the fifth film, Order of the Phoenix, she was at odds with extending her contracta “excruciating” Process, as she explained to Entertainment Weekly magazine at the time. While Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Rupert Grint (Ron) quickly agreed, the 16-year-old, as the last member of the Harry Potter trio, opted for an extension. The most unpleasant rotation was yet to come.
Filming the Harry Potter finale was ‘terrible’ for Emma Watson
Because the work for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 demanded everything from her. At the time, she described her experiences in drastic terms:
I don’t want to sound tearful but it’s terrible.
Watson had to shoot in the cold, often soaked, for months for the one-two punch in which the trio seek out Voldemort’s Horcruxes. This is how she summed it up:
This is definitely the most intense, grueling shooting experiencethat I’ve ever had.
However, this seems to be just a footnote to the Harry Potter experience, given Watson’s description of her day-to-day life at the time:
I have such a predetermined structure when I go to [den Potter-Filmen] work. I am told when I will be picked up. I am told when I can eat, when I can go to the toilet. Every single second of my day is not in my power.
She said that when she was 20. Today Emma Watson is 33 years old, but her desire for self-determination seems to have only increased. This is also her reason for her long break from filming since Little Women ended filming in 2018. “To be honest I wasn’t very happy. I think I felt a bit like I was in a cage”, she explained in an interview. In it, she also announced a return to the camera. Emma Watson wants to start shooting again in 2024. Exactly what is not known at this time.
Podcast: Is the Harry Potter series really a good idea?
It has been speculated for a long time, now it has been confirmed: The first series in the history of Harry Potter is being produced. However, fans are divided.
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In the podcast we answer important questions about the series, which Harry Potter creator JK Rowling is involved in. Below: Why is Rowling’s involvement so criticized. And what are the pros and cons of remaking the books?