{"id":37360,"date":"2025-09-25T16:29:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/37360\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T16:29:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:29:06","slug":"harry-potter-star-emma-watson-paused-her-career-at-29-after-16-hour-days-turned-her-into-an-insane-person-who-couldnt-hold-a-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/37360\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter star Emma Watson paused her career at 29, after 16-hour days turned her into \u2018an insane person\u2019 who couldn\u2019t hold a conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Potter star Emma Watson\u2019s career pause in 2019 reflects a common phenomenon with ambitious workers: burnout<\/a>. She\u2019s been on a hiatus from movie acting since 2019, her last role was in Greta Gerwig\u2019s Little Women, where she was about 29 at the time\u2014and now she\u2019s revealing the grueling schedules and emotional toll that forced her to step back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just used to completely sacrifice myself for whatever the thing was I was trying to achieve,\u201d Watson said on an Episode of \u201cOn Purpose\u201d<\/a> by Jay Shetty yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking films, the hours on them are so demanding, that to have your own life alongside that, to have that balance is almost impossible,\u201d the star with an estimated $85 million <\/a>net worth added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go through these working six days a week, 14 to 16 hour days\u2013and then you\u2019re just dropped off at the end of it, and maybe you\u2019ll have a two or three month gap, and then there\u2019s just nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The podcast is one of the first long-form interviews Watson has done in about 5 years, where she expressed the personal toll of being one of Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars. She says it got to the point where \u201csensory overload\u201d that comes with being famous made it hard to carry out simple everyday activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to have a normal conversation with anyone is basically impossible because you feel like an insane person,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are not environments in which you really like to have a nice chat with someone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s work-life balance shift isn\u2019t uncommon for her generation<\/p>\n

While the award-winning actress said she cares deeply about her work, she\u2019s found more balance in learning and activism<\/a>. She turned around her career from a professional actress into a professional degree earner. Her career pivot to studying started with an MA in creative writing at Oxford University in 2023. She\u2019s since also reportedly started a PhD program.<\/p>\n

Her experience echoes a growing sentiment among the labor market as more employers face an increasingly burnt out workforce<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When obtaining her creative writing masters, she said that \u201cwriting, making art has been the best therapy\u201d for reshaping her life after acting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that mindset is a common feeling for younger generations in the workplace. For many Gen Z<\/a> employees, they\u2019re learning that prioritizing mental health, learning and purpose is more valuable than prestige careers, and embracing \u201ccareer minimalism.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Even her own generation, millennials, have been embracing taking their careers at a snail\u2019s pace<\/a> after cracking under the pressure of \u201cgirl bossing\u201d for the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think fame makes you feel like you can\u2019t do things for yourself in a way that can really disempower you and remove your confidence and autonomy as a human being that\u2019s really disabling,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just got to this place where if it costs me any part of my peace, it\u2019s just too expensive, \u201d she added.\n<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Potter star Emma Watson\u2019s career pause in 2019 reflects a common phenomenon with ambitious workers: burnout. She\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30566,18439,9412,30567,30568,458,4195,243,146,11144,4197,5032,2085,85,46,265,30569,19428,27627,397,30570,4164,8985],"class_list":["post-37360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-activists","tag-burnout","tag-career","tag-career-change","tag-career-success","tag-celebrities","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-entry-level","tag-gen-z","tag-harry-potter","tag-hollywood","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jobs","tag-millennial-workers","tag-millennials","tag-millionaires","tag-movies","tag-oxford","tag-women","tag-work-life-balance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}