Emma Watson Reveals College Professor Told Her To Quit Acting After ‘Harry Potter’

Emma Watson’s breakout roles in “The Bling Ring” and the “Perks of Being a Wallflower” almost never came to fruition according to the actress who recently revealed her secret reason behind why she almost quit the entertainment business.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 23-year-old actress claims it wasn’t the pressures of Hollywood or her fatigue from starring in eight consecutive “Harry Potter” films that caused her to question her future in acting. It was a college professor.

“A professor told me that they [sic] didn’t think I should act,” Watson said, noting the advice was given after she shared her fear of being typecast as a Goody Two-shoes after playing book-smart witch Hermione Granger in the decade-long film series. “I was really grappling with it and wasn’t feeling good about it,” she said.

While Watson did take her professor’s advice to heart, it was her leap of faith starring in the film adaptation of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” that solidified her decision to continue acting. “I read the script for 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' and falling in love with that and then having such a great experience on that movie kind of sealed the deal for me,” said Watson. “I stopped intellectualizing it, and it became much more instinctual. I just got the bug and got very driven all of a sudden, which I really wasn’t before. But I’m so happy. It’s all felt very new to me, really.”

The British native previously commented on her decision to take a leave of absence from the entertainment industry following the completion of the final “Harry Potter” film in 2011. “I basically took two years out and stepped as away from it as I could,” Watson told Total Film Magazine last month. “I took time to really try and figure out who I was and what I wanted to do.”

Watson last made headlines after reports surfaced that she was preparing to marry her college boyfriend Will Adamowicz. Star magazine reported that the duo first met in 2011 while attending Oxford University, before Watson transferred to the U.S. to attend Brown University in Rhode Island.