Emma Watson speaks out: Is the actress retiring at a young age?
We’ve seen her & loved her as Hermoine Granger. It’s hard to think of anyone else bringing the beloved, gifted, and insufferable know-it-all Hermoine to life on-screen better than Emma Watson. The Harry Potter franchise may have been Watson’s claim to fame, but she has a lot more to be proud of in her work life, from her filmography to her advocacy.
The thirty-one-year-old English actress has made a mark in other movies, too, including Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Belle in Beauty and The Beast, Meg in Little Women, and Ila in Noah, among others. She’s also garnered accolades for the same: British Artist of the Year, Oscar nomination for the Little Women, and much more.
Beyond the screen
She’s also been a trailblazer, choosing to balance work with her education, splitting time between films while graduating from Brown University. She’s also been strengthening her voice & platform to use for a good cause. In 2014, she was appointed a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and helped launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe.
Her advocacy efforts have been consistent. In 2018, she launched Time’s Up UK. In 2019, she was appointed to a G7 advisory body for women’s rights, in which capacity she co-authored a paper titled, “Every G7 country should have a feminist foreign policy.”
Since 2019, however, she hasn’t really been seen in any major film; her social media accounts haven’t seen much action, either. She last posted in June 2020: some posts & stories with resources for the #BlackLivesMatter protest. Since then, it’s been completely silent. In showbiz, when you’re not the one talking, you can easily become the target of rumors.
Rumors about retiring: Is there any truth to the drama?
Doesn’t look like there’s much weight in the rumors. To present the context, in February, a Daily Mail article pulled a tabloid move and ran a story claiming that Emma was putting her career on hold — the article goes so far as to use the term “given up acting” — in order to focus on her relationship with Leo Robinto.
Where are the claims coming from? The article quotes that their source informs them, “Emma has gone underground, she is settling down with Leo. They’re laying low. Maybe she wants a family.” They go on to add that her publicist says that her career is “dormant” & that she “is not taking on new commitments.”
EMMA WATSON IS RETIRING NOOOOOOOO😫😫😫😫🥺💔
— Matthew Espinosa (@MatthewEspinosa) February 27, 2021
This rumor had started gaining unnecessary traction. In response to the Daily Mail piece, her manager Jason Weinberg refuted the claims in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, “Emma’s social media accounts are dormant but her career isn’t.”
Since that didn’t seem to suffice to allay the rumors, Emma came out of her hibernation to shut down the rumors and lay to bed any ideas of retirement. This week, she posted a thread on Twitter to make matters clear once & for all.
Dear Fans,
Rumours about whether I’m engaged or not, or whether my career is “dormant or not” are ways to create clicks each time they are revealed to be true or untrue.— Emma Watson (@EmmaWatson) May 17, 2021
Leave Emma alone!
She mentions that all the speculation about her personal and professional life is just clickbait and that she’d be the first source of any updates on her life, “Rumours about whether I’m engaged or not, or whether my career is ‘dormant or not’ are ways to create clicks each time they are revealed to be true or untrue. If I have news — I promise I’ll share it with you.”
As most of us would have guessed, Emma is trying to use this time to stay safe amid the pandemic. She adds, “In the meantime please assume no news from me just means I’m quietly spending the pandemic the way most people are. Failing to make sourdough bread (!), caring for my loved ones and doing my best not to spread a virus that is still affecting so many people.”
She parted on a warm note, “I am sending so much love to you, hoping you’re ok and as well and happy as you can be in these strange times. And again, thank you to everyone working so hard to keep us safe and well.”
