Imagine a world without actress Emma Watson.

I don’t think anyone would like that world very much.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Emma Watson discusses how some of the people in her life lead her to believe she shouldn’t continue acting after the Harry Potter franchise was over.

“For a while I kind of bought into the hype of, ‘Will they ever be able to play anything else?’ It gave me a sense of paralysis and stage fright for a while,” she said in the interview. “And then a professor told me that they didn’t think I should act, either. So I was really grappling with it and wasn’t feeling good about it. And then, I don’t know…it got so bad and people had put me in a box so much that it started pissing me off. I suddenly wanted to prove them wrong. It gave me fuel, in a way. I’m not sure why that shift happened.”

Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, 2001-2011

After ten years in the Harry Potter film series, it became difficult for many to picture her playing any other role but Hermione Granger.

“I wanted to make a conscious adult decision that [acting] was what I wanted to pursue, because that decision was made for me as a nine-year-old. I had no idea what I wanted. I had no idea who I was really. So I wanted to step away and make sure this is what I wanted to pour my life and my energy and my blood, sweat, and tears into,” Watson said in the interview.

Emma Watson got back to acting in 2012. “I was really unsure, but then I read the script for The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and falling in love with that and then having such a great experience on that movie kind of sealed the deal for me.”

Although I’m not much of a Harry Potter fan, I really enjoyed seeing Emma Watson play Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I cried at the end of that movie. That’s how amazing the actors performed for that film.

Emma Watson as Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, 2012

I can’t fathom any other actress filling the role of Sam in that film. It wouldn’t have been the same if Sam were to be played by anyone other than Emma Watson.

Since then, Emma Watson has gone on to play Nicki Moore in The Bling Ring (2013) and a fictional version of herself in the film This is the End (2013).

Don’t ever stop doing what you do, Emma. You’re an amazing actress. Never let anyone let you believe otherwise.