Copyright hellomagazine
Emma Watson finally spoke up after staying out of the public eye for years. During an appearance on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast, the actress revealed her complex feelings towards J.K. Rowling. Emma and J.K. have had a rift since 2020 when the Harry Potter author posted a series of tweets and a 3,600-word essay that many criticized as transphobic. Emma responded to the essay with a brief statement affirming her support for the transgender community. After Jay asked Emma her thoughts on J.K.'s comments that she would "never forgive" Emma for her views. Emma responded gracefully, saying: "I really don't believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, mean that I can't and don't treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with." She continued: "I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don't get to keep and cherish." The actress shared with Jay: "I just don’t think these things are either or. I think it's my deepest wish that I hope people who don't agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don't necessarily share the same opinion with." Emma added: "I think the thing I'm most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible." The clips of Emma's interview with Jay have gone viral on social media, with one video getting over 3.2 million views. While J.K. has not publicly responded to Emma's comments, she did share a parody video of the actress' podcast appearance. IntelLady, a comedian with 22,000 TikTok followers, posted a spoof of Emma's interview. J.K. shared the video to X, writing: "I'm here for all the spoofs." During Emma's interview, she also opened up about the loneliness she experienced after Harry Potter wrapped. "I was bone-breakingly lonely," she admitted. "[I thought] that the people I worked with were going to be my family and that we were going to be lifelong friends," the Perks of Being a Wallflower star explained. "I came to work looking for friendship and that was a very painful experience for me." The actress shared her frustration with unrealistic beauty standards in Hollywood, noting that celebrities are exhausted by the constant pressure for perfection. "I don't know how to live up to what I look like on the cover of a magazine. There's such a glamorization that comes hand in hand with being a public, famous person, especially if you're a woman," Emma said. The Little Women actress continued: "I feel so envious of my male costar who can put on a T-shirt and just show up without this whole rigmarole of becoming acceptable enough to be on camera." She noted: "It's wild. The expectations are insane. It's impossible. The beauty expectations are so difficult to reach, and the bar gets raised all the time, so you're constantly on a survivor island game show beauty nightmare."
