The Harry Potter star said she's been "fighting an uphill battle" over her education for a decade now. "I have felt for the last 10 years I have had this battle; I've been fighting so hard to have an education. It's been this uphill struggle," she said (via Usmagazine). "I was Warner Bros.' pain in the butt. I was their scheduling conflict. I was the one who made life difficult."
She wouldn't even sign the contract to appear in the last two films of the franchise before producers agreed to work around her schedule. "I just realized at one point that I can't fight everything. I have to move in the direction of it -- and go with it," she said.
She ended up finding a sympathetic ear in James Franco, who's known for his academic endeavors. They briefly met while he studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. "It was such a relief to speak to someone who is trying to do the same thing I'm doing," Watson says. "I talked to him about juggling studying and making films and going backward and forward. He's not afraid or limited by what he fears people will say about it."
Even though she ended up leaving Brown, and will reportedly be attending college in LA in the fall, she's glad she stood her ground for 2 years. "I've probably earned the right to screw up a few times," she says. "I don't want the fear of failure to stop me from doing what I really care about."
And, now, she's trying to find her own way. "I have had no control over my life," she said about her time as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. "I have lived in a complete bubble. They found me and picked me for the part. And now I'm desperately trying to find my way through it."
