Emma Watson Confesses She Almost Quit ‘Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix’

Although it may be hard to imagine anyone else playing Hermoine Granger in the Harry Potter universe, Emma Watson came close to quitting the movie franchise ahead of the fifth film.

In the upcoming HBO Max reunion special, “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” Watson confessed that she considered quitting the franchise due to how lonely she felt from the fame she garnered at such a young age.

Watson reflected on an old diary entry and told her co-star, Rupert Grint, she felt alone. “I think I was scared,” Watson shared. “I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.’”

Grint also admitted he considered leaving the wizarding world as well but acknowledged that he and his co-stars never discussed their feelings of loneliness with one another while they were young. “The fame thing had finally hit home in a big way,” Watson said.

Watson, 31, ultimately chose to split her time between working on films and pursuing a college education. She graduated from Brown University in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature.

Watson’s confession about wanting to quit the franchise was just one of several major revelations that were discussed during the reunion special. She also admitted she had a major crush on her co-star, Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy.

Watson revealed a school assignment they received on set ignited her feelings for Felton at the time.

“I walked into the room where we were having tutoring. The assignment that had been given was to draw what you thought God had looked like, and Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on a skateboard,” she recalled.

“And I just don’t know how to say it, I just fell in love with him. … I think the truth of it was Tom was the one that I could often be more vulnerable with.”

Despite her childhood crush, Watson insisted, “Nothing has ever, ever, ever, ever happened romantically” between her and Felton. However, the two have remained friends over the years since wrapping the Harry Potter film franchise.