Emma Watson will talk about many things—feminism, Harry Potter, sustainable fashion, books, etc.—effusively during interviews and on her social media. But you will never hear about the guy she’s dating, not because he doesn’t exist, but because “I want to be consistent,” Watson explained to Vanity Fair.
“I can’t talk about my boyfriend in an interview and then expect people not to take paparazzi pictures of me walking around outside my home. You can’t have it both ways.”
Watson’s boyfriend is reportedly tech entrepreneur William “Mack” Knight, who she’s been photographed out with several times over the last year. She doesn’t talk about him for his sake, she says.
“I’ve noticed, in Hollywood, who you’re dating gets tied up into your film promotion and becomes part of the performance and the circus,” she said, a nod to the incessant dating questions stars like Taylor Swift getbecause they share parts of their love lives. “I would hate anyone that I were with to feel like they were in any way part of a show or an act.”
Watson herself almost quit the industry during her time at Brown University: While doing promotion for the last Harry Potterfilm, she hit a breaking point. “I’d walk down the red carpet and go into the bathroom [during the last few premieres],” she said. “I had on so much makeup and these big, fluffy, full-on dresses. I’d put my hands on the sink and look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Who is this?’ I didn’t connect with the person who was looking back at me, and that was a very unsettling feeling.”
At Brown, “I was finding this fame thing was getting to a point of no return. I sensed if this was something I was ever going to step away from it was now or never.” Then, she did Perks of Being a Wallflower and rediscovered her passion for acting.
Watson knows she’s not a typical celebrity. It used to make her insecure. “I’ve been doing this since I was 10 or 11, and I’ve often thought, I’m so wrong for this job because I’m too serious; I’m a pain in the ass; I’m difficult; I don’t fit,” she said. “But as I’ve got older, I’ve realized, No! Taking on those battles, the smaller ones and the bigger ones, is who I am.”
By Elle