sexy for girls: Emma Watson: I felt like a prisoner of Hogwarts during Harry Potter films

By SHARON CHURCHER

Finally free: Emma Watson at this week's premiere of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part One

She sparkled on the red carpet at the premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows last week – but Emma Watson has revealed she nearly quit the film series at the age of 16.

Despite earning £20 million from playing Hermione Granger, Emma has complained she felt trapped by the ‘horrible’ filming schedule.

The 20-year-old, now studying at Brown University in New England, was locked into a contract when cast in the first film, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, aged nine.

But her deal with Warner Brothers came up for renewal while she was shooting the fifth film, The Order Of The Phoenix, in 2006.

Her co-stars, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, who play Harry and Ron, also had a chance to quit at the time, but never gave it a thought.

However, Emma said she felt unsure that she wanted to continue being controlled by a plot in which she had to go on looking and behaving like an old- fashioned schoolgirl.

When she eventually agreed to sign up for another five years, it was ‘agonising’, she said.

‘I love to make people laugh and I love being creative, but there are so many other things I love doing too,’ she said.

‘I have such a structure when I’m working on Potter. I get told what time I get picked up.

'I get told what time I can eat, when I have time to go to the bathroom. Every single second of my day is not in my power.’

Emma, the daughter of divorced lawyers from Oxfordshire, said she reached a low point while shooting Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

The film involved arduous outdoor scenes in which, she said, she, Daniel and Rupert were cold and wet for months on end.

‘I hate to sound whiny but it’s hor rible,’ Emma told New York magazine Entertainment Weekly, which is owned by Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Brothers.

‘This has definitely been the most intense, gruelling period of film-making I’ve ever done.’

'Trapped': Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint with Emma filming The Order Of The Phoenix

Emma recently completed her first year at Brown and said that despite the success and financial security the Potter work brought her – including a spell as a model for Burberry – she is delighted the series is over.

Her first months at university were ‘so liberating’, she said. ‘I’d be smiling to myself and friends would say, “Emma, what’s wrong?” and I’d say, “I’m just happy.”

‘I take pleasure in the smallest things. Like “I’m going to wake up at 10 o’clock if I want to” or “I’m going to eat a sandwich now.” ’

Best buddies: Emma with co-stars Daniel, who plays Harry Potter, and Rupert, who stars as Ron Weasley pose together

Despite being the highest-paid woman in Hollywood, Emma claims she had no idea of the size of her earnings until her father told her when she was 18.

The interview is accompanied by a detailed breakdown of the final scene of Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – the last film in the saga – due out next summer.

But so as not to spoil the excitement for Harry Potter fans, The Mail on Sunday is not going to reveal what happens.

A Hollywood observer said: ‘It is strange the studio giving Emma a platform on which to complain they ruined her childhood. What’s really weird is them spoiling the fun by giving away the ending.’