Emma Watson might have wished for a touch of magic at times. The former Harry Potter star openly discussed her recent six-month driving ban, expressing genuine surprise at the magnitude of the public reaction. "I was getting inundated with phone calls. It was on the BBC. It made international, worldwide headlines," Emma revealed on the Jay Shetty Podcast on September 24. "I thought, 'My embarrassment, it's everywhere.'"
The 35-year-old actress had her U.K. driver's license suspended for six months in July after being caught driving eight miles over the 30-mph speed limit. With nine previous points—or traffic violations—on her record, the suspension was accompanied by a hefty $1,400 fine. Despite the ordeal, Emma managed to find a silver lining, noting that one "sweet outcome" of the news going viral was the flood of messages from people who could relate. "So many people reached out saying, 'It happened to me too. I feel you. This is terrible, it sucks,'" she shared.
Emma attributed her less-than-stellar driving skills to the fact that she's spent the majority of her life on film sets. "When you work on movies—and I'm not sure if people are aware of this—they literally won't insure you to drive yourself to work," she explained. "I've asked countless times. You have no choice but to be driven. Especially since they need you there at the exact minute, depending on the day's schedule."
As the Little Women star pointed out, she transitioned from only driving "on weekends or during holidays" to suddenly driving all the time as a student at Oxford, where she's pursuing the U.K. equivalent of a PhD. Joking about her lack of experience, she said, "I clearly didn't have the skills then, but I do now."
But for Emma, the driving ban symbolized something even more profound—it was a testament to the "awkward transitions" she's faced since moving from a "very, very structured life" ever since being cast in Harry Potter at the age of 10, to suddenly having to take charge of her everyday life after stepping away from acting. "It's been a journey of discovery and, I guess, humility," she reflected. "Because on a movie set, I can pull off all these incredibly complex tasks: stunts, singing, dancing. You name it, I can do it. And I'm like, 'Don't worry, guys. I've got this.'"
Yet, outside the controlled environment of a film set, she quipped, she struggles with "remembering keys, wallets, and keeping myself at 30 miles an hour in a 30-mile speed limit." While she felt like she was lacking in those "pretty basic life skills," there was a part of her that wanted to remind people, "I used to be good at things, OK? I used to be really good at things. I know it doesn't look like that right now, but I can function normally."
Ultimately, though, the experience served as a poignant reminder for the Perks of Being a Wallflower actress that most people are just "trying to figure it out and keep it together." "The only difference between us is people's willingness to be honest about that," she added. "How much they're willing to admit, 'Actually, I'm just scrabbling around, trying to keep the pieces together,' versus, 'Oh yeah, no, everything's amazing and incredible. And I'm having the best day, aren't you?'"
