After I gave my speech [the #HeforShe launch at the UN] there was a website threatening to release naked pictures of me. I knew it was a hoax, but I think a lot of people that were close to me knew gender equality was an issue but didn’t think it was that urgent, that it was a thing of the past. I was raging, it made me so angry, I was like, this is why I have to be doing this. If anything, if they were trying to put me off it, it did the opposite.
I really empathize with people and I can’t help but take care of them and protect them, sometimes in a kind of unhealthy way. I’m definitely a caretaker. I have to really pull myself back on the reins and say, ‘Put yourself first. Love yourself first.’ I’ve had dark times – this voice in my head that makes me pretty hard on myself, I really don’t let anything go. I’ve been learning that I have to try and be a bit kinder and take care of myself a bit better.
“Sometimes I hear myself in interviews and I feel like I’m in that skit from Extras where one actor is taking the piss out of celebrities who are like, “I’m so normal! Look at me being really normal, doing all of this normal stuff!” You can take it to a point where it’s like, “Well, yeah, my life is kind of weird and I can’t pretend that I live exactly like everyone else,” because it’s an extraordinary set of circumstances to be under, so it’s kind of finding that middle ground. But yeah—sometimes I hear myself back and I’m like, “This just sounds like bullshit.” — Emma Watson