Emma Watson made a rare public appearance in London on Monday, June 22, lending her support to Prince William’s United for Wildlife charity.
The 36-year-old Harry Potter actress joined a panel discussion alongside William, 44, and fellow actor Benedict Cumberbatch at the event.
For the occasion, Watson donned a black top paired with a flowing white skirt.
The Prince of Wales organized the business forum on Monday, which coincided with London Climate Action Week. The forum aimed to bring together global business leaders to address the challenges of illegal wildlife trade and environmental crime.
“Storytelling is really powerful, and the story that you tell as a brand and the transparency you have and the way that you talk around these issues, it matters,” Watson said. “It matters to young people.”
Since her last major film role in 2019’s Little Women, Watson has focused on her philanthropic efforts. She supports the Royal Foundation of William and Princess Kate Middleton and serves as a UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador.
In a rare interview last year, Watson discussed her life after stepping back from Hollywood.
“I’ll never say that I’ll quit acting. I’ll always be an actor. I’m still open to doing it again,” she said during a September 2025 appearance on the “On Purpose With Jay Shetty” podcast.
Watson initially gained prominence as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, released between 2001 and 2011, starring alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.
Reflecting on her post-Harry Potter experiences, she shared feelings of rejection on other film sets, saying, “It broke me.”
“Most people don’t come to those environments looking for friendships,” Watson noted. “I found the rejection really painful. I think it was so unusual to make a set of films for 12 years, and we were a community.”
“I was coming to those sets with an expectation that I think I had developed on Harry Potter, which was that … the people I worked with were going to be my family and that we were going to be lifelong friends,” she continued. “I came to work looking for friendship, and that was a very painful experience for me outside of Harry Potter and in Hollywood.”
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“You always get asked when you are promoting these big films, like, ‘Do you guys hang out on set and are you all friends?’ And everyone sort of nods enthusiastically. But the truth is, no one has seen each other outside of work,” Watson shared. “The schedule is insane. Everyone’s so tired that when they get any time off, you’re going straight back to your hotel room to try to claw in any piece of rest that you possibly can.”
She added, “Friendships require time and trust and presence, and those things very rarely come about. They can, and they do occasionally, but it’s more of a solar eclipse than an everyday situation.”
