Emma Watson feels "comfortable" with herself for the first time.
Emma Watson
The 25-year-old actress admits playing Hermione Granger in the 'Harry Potter' franchise for 10 years meant she focused so much of her time on learning to shape the character, she didn't get the chance to "figure out" who she really was until now.
She told Porter magazine: "[I've] spent more than half of my life pretending to be someone else.
"While my contemporaries were dyeing their hair and figuring out who they were, I was figuring out who Hermione was and how best to portray her. Now at 25, for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a sense of self that I'm comfortable with."
The 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' star wants to be as honest as possible about herself, even though she thinks she's taken a "harder road" but she believes it is important to show her "flaws" and her "fullest self" in order to be a truly great actress.
She added: "[I am] my most authentic self. I don't want there to be a big separation between the public and the private person.
"It's definitely the harder road to tread but without a doubt, ultimately the most rewarding.
"It sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but I'm very interested in truth, in finding ways to be messy and unsure and flawed and incredible and great and my fullest self, all wrapped into one.
"When you watch the work of someone like actress Emma Thompson, you feel like you're seeing something true, and I aspire to that."
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