Emma Watson has addressed her six-month driving ban for the first time.
Earlier this year, the former Harry Potter star was hit with a driving ban after accumulating nine penalty points on her license and subsequently driving at 38mph in a 30mph zone in Oxford, England, in her blue Audi.
Alongside the ban, the actress was fined over £1,000 (approximately $1,300).
In recent years, Watson has shifted her focus away from acting and began her studies at Oxford University in 2023. Her most recent film role was in the 2019 adaptation of Little Women, where she appeared alongside Florence Pugh and Timothée Chalamet.
Since becoming a student, Watson, now 35, has found herself needing to drive more frequently—a change for someone who was previously ‘driven’ to various locations.
In a recent episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast, Watson discussed her driving ban and the widespread media coverage it received.
“I was getting phone calls, like it’s on the BBC. It’s on international, worldwide news,” the 35-year-old explained. “I was like, my shame is everywhere.”
Watson elaborated: “When you work on movies, I don’t know if people know this, but they literally will not insure you to drive yourself to work. I’ve asked so many times.
“You have to be driven, it’s not a choice. Especially because they need you there, down to the minute basically depending on what they have going on.
“So I went from basically only driving myself on weekends or during a holiday, to then, when I became a student, driving myself all the time and I did not have the experience, or skills clearly, which I now will and do.”
She continued by reflecting on how living an ordinary life has been ‘humbling,’ as she realized that, despite her ability to perform complex tasks on film sets, she struggled with everyday activities.
Watson noted: “It’s been a discovery and a journey that’s been humbling because on a movie set, I’m able to do all of these like extremely complex things, stunt, sing, dance, like do this thing, do that, whatever. And I’m like, ‘Yep, don’t worry about it, guys’.
“And then I get home and I’m like, ‘OK Emma, you seem unable to remember your keys. You seem unable to keep yourself at 30mph in a 30mph speed limit. Like you don’t seem able to do some pretty basic life things’.”