Emma Watson talks “Noah” and the importance of a college education in new interview

In a brand new interview published by the Canberra Times, Emma Watson discussed the only thing important enough to put her acting career on hold: her education.

Emma, who graduates from Brown University this spring, says that receiving her degree from the Ivy League university will be “a big milestone for me. Brown has this tradition where you walk through a certain gate, and then you walk out of it when you graduate. It’s taken me five years, but the fact that I’m going to complete it and will come out with a BA in English is a really, really big deal for me.”

She elaborated that she was glad that she took the time away from her career to focus on school, saying,

“I have the rest of my life to work, but I still had so much to learn. I needed space in which to figure out how to be independent, living in another country and moving away from home. It was a really valuable lesson in learning how to take care of myself.”

Emma also credited her mother with keeping her focused on her education, dating back to her days on the Potter cast:

“… I would film Potter all week, and then my mum would get me out of bed at 6.30 on a Saturday and make me go in and do my school work. So she really instilled this work ethic, this respect for education.

“Having an education is such a valuable asset. I took 12 months off. I’ve just been studying full-time, reading English literature. I love TS. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, William Blake.”

Emma also discussed her upcoming role in Darren Aronofsky’s new Biblical blockbuster Noah. While the subject initially drew her in, she had a hard time envisioning the story in Aronofsky’s hands.

“Darren’s films are so gritty and edgy and dark, and I couldn’t quite mesh that with the Biblical story. Then he explained his idea, and it all just started to fit. There’s a very interesting environmental aspect to the story; it’s about the choices that we have to make as human beings, and there’s a kind of futuristic apocalyptic world.”

You can read the whole interview here, and you can check out the official trailer for Noah right here.

Congratulations to Emma for her soon-to-be college graduate status! Are you glad that she’ll have more time to dedicate to acting once she’s received her degree? Let us know in the comments!