Emma Watson Almost Quit 'Harry Potter' At 16: 'It's Been The Most Grueling Period!'

Poor Emma! An 'intense' schedule made it hard for Emma to enjoy working on 'Harry Potter' as a kid! Can you believe Emma Watson "almost quit" Harry Potter? "I hate to sound whiny, but it’s hor­rible," Emma tells Entertainment Weekly. "This has definitely been the most intense, grueling period of film-making I’ve ever done!"

Reading Time: 2 minute
inset: Getty Images

“I have such a structure when I’m working on Potter,” she continues. “I get told what time I get picked up, I get told what time I can eat, when I have time to go to the bathroom. Every single second of my day is not in my power.”

At the age of nine, Emma got locked into the roll of Hermione Granger. And despite her displeasure, she renewed her contract with Warner Brothers in 2006 while shooting the fifth installment, The Order Of The Phoenix.

The 20-year-old Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows actress, who is now also a student at Brown University in Providence, R.I., admits that there are still other activities she’d rather do besides act. She loves being able to go to college and blend in like a normal girl.

“I love to make people laugh and I love being creative,” she admits. “But there are so many other things I love doing too. … I’d be smiling to myself and friends would say, ‘Emma, what’s wrong?’ And I’d say, ‘I’m just happy.’ I take pleasure in the smallest things, like ‘I’m going to wake up at 10 o’clock if I want to’ or ‘I’m going to eat a sandwich now.'”

— Lindsey DiMattina