Emma Watson has had to learn to navigate how to interact with fans since becoming a household name with Harry Potter, but if you meet her on the street she has one rule: no selfies.
She explained her policy in Vanity Fair’s cover story of its most recent issue, and it’s a practical one for her. She may patiently listen to your Harry Potter fandom questions, chat with you, or offer you an autograph. But for being part of a fandom that has become a phenomenon—and stayed that way years later—it’s a different story: she’s met fans who’ve leaned on the Potter books to get through cancer as well as fans who have tattoos with her face.
“For me, it’s the difference between being able to have a life and not,” Watson said. “If someone takes a photograph of me and posts it, within two seconds they’ve created a marker of exactly where I am within 10 meters. They can see what I’m wearing and who I’m with. I just can’t give that tracking data.”
Watson tries to lead a private life outside of her work as an actor but she tends to have one exception because she sees how a meeting can affect people.
“I have to carefully pick and choose my moment to interact,” she added. “When am I a celebrity sighting versus when am I going to make someone’s freakin’ week? Children I don’t say no to, for example.”
Premieres, however, are likely a different story. Watson is attending those in a public capacity—especially ones for movies she stars in like Beauty and the Beast—so fans already know she’s at that particular place in a hand-picked outfit for the premiere. And Watson has created a new Instagram account to highlight the outfits she’s wearing on her global (and very visible) press tour.
H/T Mashable