Emma Watson opens up about her six month long driving ban: ‘It became international news, people were messaging me’

Actor Emma Watson opens up about the infamous episode of her getting hit with a six month long driving ban, and what the aftermath was like.

Emma Watson talks about the driving ban imposed on her. (photo: YouTube/Jay Shetty)

Fans of the Harry Potter film series were taken aback when they learnt that actor Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, had been handed a 6-month-long driving ban. While the news made the headline all over the world, the actor didn’t make any comments regarding it. Recently, the actor finally broke her silence on what happened and how her acting career carries part of the blame for the incident.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower actor talked to Jay Shetty on his podcast about all topics under the sun, ranging from her childhood to love and her career. Shetty asked her about the driving ban and the way it became international news. She said, “I recently started riding a bicycle, and yes, I started riding a bicycle before my driving ban, but now it’s particularly fortuitous that I also ride a bicycle for that reason, but that was mainstream news. Oh my God, I was getting phone calls like it’s on the BBC. It’s on international worldwide news. I was like, My shame is everywhere.”

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Emma Watson blamed her career as an actor for not being that good of a driver and said, “When you work on movies, I don’t know if people know this, 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.” She continued that being an actor makes you feel like you can do anything. “On a movie set you are able to do all of these extremely complex things: stunts, singing, and dancing. Do this thing, do that, whatever. And I’m like, ‘Yup, don’t worry about it, guys. No worries, I’ve got you.'”

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Emma Watson admitted that outside the movie set, she was unable to do things like remember her keys and wallet and that she has to drive under 30 miles an hour in a 30-mile-an-hour zone. She explained that the silver lining through all this was that people messaged her and said, “Happened to me, too. I feel you. This is awful; it sucks.”

For the unversed, the Harry Potter alum was caught going 8 miles over the 30-mile speed limit. While this isn’t technically grounds for suspension, it being the tenth traffic violation on Watson’s licence made things difficult for the actor. She also had to pay $1400 (Rs 1.24 lakh) in fines.

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Emma Watson was last seen in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women back in 2019.

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