Emma Watson is a British actor who is best known for bringing Hermione Granger to life in Warner Bros’ Harry Potter movies, but she has had a range of roles over the years.
She also starred in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring, Little Women (2019), and the live-action Disney remake of Beauty and the Beast, to name but a few.
She's not just an actor though... Emma is also a passionate activist and humanitarian. She publicly backed the establishment of the #MeToo advice helpline and she's been a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador since 2014, focussing her efforts on empowering women and on promoting the HeForShe feminist movement.
But what else is there to know about Emma Watson? Here are a few things you might not already know...
Emma Watson had a world record
Emma Watson set a world record for being the highest-grossing actress of the decade in 2010. She broke the record for ‘Highest Average Box-Office Gross for an Actress’ after featuring in six movies, each of which grossed an average of $753.7 million.
Mr Potter himself, (Daniel Radcliffe) also entered the Guinness Book of World Records in the same year, claiming the title of highest-grossing actor of the decade, raking in an average of $558 million per film.
Emma Watson nearly quit Harry Potter
It’s very difficult to imagine Hermione Granger as anyone other than Emma Watson, but that nearly happened!
Following Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix, rumours went around that Emma Watson might not commit to the final three films in the franchise due to concerns about her schoolwork.
She told MTV News that she had “a real fight on my hands to ensure that I was able to go to university and I was able to sit my A-levels”, as the filming schedule for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was full-on.
In David Heyman’s roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the former Potter exec told them that Emma was concerned about the impact every movie might have on her schoolwork during contract negotiations. He said “we had to be sensitive to her needs and how important school was to her” during contractual discussions.
She’s a bookworm
As Emma was so serious about her schooling while on the Harry Potter set and completed her English Literature degree at the Ivy League school, Brown University, in 2014 — it's probably no surprise that Emma Watson is a book lover.
She was responsible for launching Our Shared Shelf, a bi-monthly feminist book club in 2016. She told Vanity Fair that books have become ‘an escape, a means of empowerment, a friend I could rely on’ in her life.
Her favorite TV show is Friends
Speaking to Coveteur, Emma explained that her go-to binge-watch show is none other than the beloved NBC sitcom, Friends.
When asked what her favorite show was, she said: “This is going to make me seem very uncool, but Friends! It blows my American friends’ minds, but in the UK, Friends still plays.
“There’s one channel that it’s on basically all the time, and I will watch Friends reruns forever.” Hopefully, she caught the Friends reunion on HBO Max!
Emma Watson is a certified yoga instructor
Amid questions about what she would do next in her life, Emma Watson decided she would learn how to teach yoga and meditation. As part of her certification, she spent a week under a vow of silence at a retreat in Canada.
She has spoken multiple times about wanting to have hobbies outside the film industry over the years and revealed that she was a board-certified yoga instructor, back in 2014.
She is a cat person
Emma Watson is an animal lover through and through, but she’s particularly fond of cats, especially her own cats, Bubbles and Domino!
She told Vanity Fair that she has even pressed pause on some opportunities in the past in favor of some downtime! In order to not “lose her mind”, she’s told people that she ‘just need[s] to go home and hang out with my cats’.
You can watch her desperately trying (and failing) to not be distracted by kittens in her interview with BuzzFeed below!
She almost starred in La La Land
Damien Chazelle’s 2016 Oscar darling La La Land nearly featured a very different leading couple!
When the film was first announced, Emma Watson and Whiplash star Miles Teller were originally attached to the project. Her involvement was publicized when La La Land was originally announced but, due to the amount of training and rehearsal time she needed for Beauty and the Beast, Emma explained she had to turn the role down in 2017.
As we now know, the lead roles of Sebastian and Mia went to Ryan Gosling and another Emma, Emma Stone — leading to Stone's first Oscar win.
Emma Watson fact file
Answers to the most frequently asked questions about Emma Watson...
How old is she?
Emma Watson is 31, she was born on 15th April 1990.
Is she married?
Emma Watson is not married, but she is in a relationship with American businessman Leo Robinton.
Does Emma Watson have children?
Emma doesn't have any children.
Where was she born?
Emma Watson was born in Paris, France but grew up in Oxfordshire in the UK.
How tall is Emma Watson?
Emma Watson is 5ft 4in.
We work hard to ensure that all information is correct. Facts that change over time, such as age, will be correct, to the best of our knowledge, at the time of the most recent article update.
