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British actress Emma Watson rose to fame thanks to her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movie franchise at the age of 10 — and ever since then she has had plenty of success in the industry. While fans can't imagine the famous fantasy franchise without Watson, at one point the actress actually contemplated quitting the role that made her famous.
From why she felt like saying goodbye to Hermione Granger to just what ended up changing her mind — keep on scrolling to find out!
Emma Watson Wanted To Quit After Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
In the HBO Max special Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, director David Yates revealed that Emma Watson considered leaving Harry Potter right around the time when he signed on to direct the fifth movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
In the special, Rupert Grint who portrayed Ron Weasly in the franchise asked Watson about her contemplations back then. "You were considering pulling out, I never really asked you about that", Grint asked, to which Watson responded with "[Order of the Phoenix] was when things started getting spicy for all of us. I think I was scared. I don't know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, 'This is kind of forever now.'"
Rupert Grint admitted that he experienced the same struggles while shooting the franchise "I had moments like that kind of all the way through," he said "I also had similar feelings to Emma kind of contemplating what life would be like if I called it a day, but we never really spoke about it. I guess we were just kind of going through it at our own pace. We were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn't really occur to us that we were all having similar feelings."
Daniel Radcliffe who portrayed Harry Potter added that the three unfortunately never openly shared their feelings to each other at the time — even though they all went through the same experiences. "We never talked about it on the film because we were all just kids," Radcliffe admitted. "As a 14-year-old boy, I was never going to turn around to another 14-year-old and be like, 'Hey, how are you doing? Is everything okay?'"
Actor Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the movies added that Emma Watson didn't have many co-stars of her age at the time which certainly contributed to how she felt on set. “People definitely forget what she took on, and how gracefully she did it,” Felton said. “Dan and Rupert, they had each other. I had my cronies. Whereas Emma was not only younger, she was by herself.”
The Reason Emma Watson Decided To Continue Acting
Initially, Emma Watson only signed up to star in the first two Harry Potter movies. Even though Watson considered leaving the franchise that helped her rise to fame, the actress decided against it. Watson explained that she made the decision on her own and that a big reason behind staying on board were the franchise's incredibly loyal and supportive fans.
"No one had to convince me to see it through. The fans genuinely wanted you to succeed and like all genuinely had everyone’s backs. How great is that?" Watson said. The actress ended up starring in all eight Harry Potter movies and after those wrapped up, she moved on to plenty of other successful Hollywood projects. However, for many, she will forever be Hermione Granger.
Watson did admit that being closely associated with the franchise isn't always easy. "I’m not complaining, because people really have given me permission to evolve and have been very supportive of my work outside of Harry Potter," Watson said. "So I don’t feel too suffocated in that sense. But sometimes I’ve felt a little constrained by that idea of who I’m meant to be. Every article that’s published about me has some reference to Hogwarts or Hermione or magic or ‘What would Harry and Ron say?'"
However, she did admit that she understands why fans will always connect her to the famous franchise. "I just can’t allow myself to get frustrated by that, because I’m really proud to have been part of Harry Potter and proud of the work that I did on those movies,” the actress explained. “And it’s understandable—you can’t expect people to adjust their expectations overnight. I think it would be stupid to try and fight it too much." Later on, the actress even admitted that she would come back to the Harry Potter franchise on one condition.
