Emma Watson wrote a one-woman play about life as a ‘normal student’ at Oxford University to show others how ‘weird’ it is being her.
The Harry Potter actress made the revelation on a podcast where she discussed her transition to completing a DPhil as a ‘super famous person’.
Ms Watson’s voyage of self-discovery documented her time spent as a PHD student studying creative writing – having enrolled at Lady Margaret Hall in September 2023.
Speaking to host Jay Shetty, the 35-year-old explained: ‘Emma Watson became this, like, avatar – this person that I identified with but also kind of didn’t.
‘She’d become reproduced so many times over and kind of had become so loaded by all of this different stuff – she almost felt too heavy to carry.’
Ms Watson went on to reveal she had written the play ‘about me transitioning from basically being a full-time actress, an activist, to trying to move home and be a normal student and attend a normal university as a super famous person’.
She said she had only written the piece ‘because I find that trying to explain sometimes how weird it is to be me, I almost need aids’.
‘It’s so difficult to convey how weird it is and how surreal sometimes,’ she added.
The Harry Potter actress (pictured) made the revelation on a podcast where she discussed her transition to completing a DPhil as a ‘super famous person’
Speaking to host Jay Shetty, the 35-year-old explained: ‘Emma Watson became this, like, avatar – this person that I identified with but also kind of didn’t’
In the same interview, Ms Watson, who portrayed Hermione Granger over the course of a decade in the Harry Potter films, stated she ‘still treasures’ book series writer JK Rowling
Ms Watson said the play had been awarded a distinction.
She explained: ‘I’m so glad I went and did this creative writing masters, and I’ve spent more time writing about my experiences because sometimes I can’t even articulate it to myself.
‘How are you supposed to explain something to someone else that you can’t really even understand for yourself?’
In the same interview, Ms Watson, who portrayed Hermione Granger over the course of a decade in the Harry Potter films, stated she ‘still treasures’ book series writer JK Rowling despite their differing stance on transgender-related issues.
Her comments prompted unprecedented condemnation from Ms Rowling who issued a statement this week accusing the actress of being ‘ignorant of how ignorant she is’.
Ms Rowling said the star’s public criticism of her gender critical stance had ‘poured more petrol on the flames’ of the abuse she had suffered.
She also dismissed Ms Watson’s claim she ‘still treasures’ her by accusing the actress of ‘cosying up’ to a movement that ‘regularly calls for a friend’s assassination’.
Ms Rowling has previously vowed to ‘never forgive’ Ms Watson or her Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for having ‘cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights’.
J K Rowling posted on X: ‘I wasn’t a multimillionaire at 14. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges’. The pair are pictured together in November 2013
Ms Rowling posted a long statement on X earlier this week in response to Emma Watson’s interview with Jay Shetty
But she had never previously made such a personal criticism of the woman she made famous, prior to the podcast revelations.
Ms Rowling said in her statement this week the trio had ‘every right to embrace gender identity ideology’ but attacked them for using their links to Harry Potter to serve as ‘de facto spokespeople’ for the ‘world I created’.
She then focussed her fire on Ms Watson by suggesting her views on transgender issues were due to her lack of experience of ‘real life’.
It comes as the actress recently blamed her driving ban on being a movie star from a young age, saying it had left her ‘unable to do some pretty basic life things’.
Ms Rowling stated: ‘I wasn’t a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous.
‘I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.’
Ms Rowling went on to say Ms Watson’s claim she still ‘treasures’ her was a cynical attempt to shift her stance after realising ‘full-throated condemnation of me is not as fashionable as it once was’.
After graduating with an English literature degree from Rhode Island’s Brown University in 2014, Ms Watson went on to live in a £4m mansion in Oxford’s northern suburb Jericho to pursue further studies – saying traditional campus life was not for her.
She told Jay Shetty her favourite aspect of university life is ‘being around young people who still believe that the world is malleable and things are changing… it’s been wonderful to be around young people and just to sit there and listen, frankly’.
It comes as at her graduation in 2014, Ms Watson was protected by an armed undercover bodyguard who was reportedly paid £90,000 a year.
While at Oxford she has spent her time doing activities like pickleball, rowing, and using the morning for ‘really personal, intimate time’.
Revealing she had the words ‘I am an artist’ written on her bedroom door, Ms Watson concluded: ‘Shedding the multiple identities has freed up so much space, I think, for me to be a better sister, daughter, friend, granddaughter, and then artist. And someone who’s trying to do some critical thinking of her own.’
