“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.”

Emma Watson is opening up about why she put a temporary pause on her acting career.

The actress, who grew up playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, has yet to sign onto any new film projects since appearing in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film Little Women. Now, in a recent interview with the U.K.’s Financial Times, she says the decision ultimately came from both a personal and moral standpoint.

“I wasn’t very happy, if I’m being honest,” Watson told the outlet. “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. 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.”

Emma Watson. Taylor Hill/WireImage

As a result, Watson felt like she was being punished for offenses that she didn’t commit.

“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,” she explained. “I started to realize 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.'”

Since then, Watson has pivoted from standing in front of the camera to behind it by directing a Prada ad campaign. “People always told me I should direct and produce, even when I was on Potter,” she said. “I was worried it was just technical, not creative, and I couldn’t bring what I think is probably my skill set.”

She noted that it was through helping to kick-start her brother Alex’s gin company, Renais, and friends asking her for favors that she realized “I actually know quite a lot about that,” adding, “Being a director seemed unattainable. I don’t think I had any confidence in that. I know it seems weird. I mean, I grew up on a film set.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that Watson has completely nixed the idea of ever starring on the silver screen again. In 2021, her manager Jason Weinberg confirmed to EW that while “Emma’s social media accounts are dormant,” her career certainly isn’t.

In fact, Watson told the Financial Times that she “absolutely” wants to continue being an actress, but that she’s also “happy to sit and wait for the next right thing.”

“I love what I do,” she said. “It’s finding a way to do it where I don’t have to fracture myself into different faces and people. And I just don’t want to switch into robot mode any more. Does that make sense?”