Emma Watson may be frozen in time to fans as one of the trio of teens from the “Harry Potter” films. But off-screen, the actress is approaching a big birthday.
Next spring, she turns 30.
It’s a landmark age loaded with expectations of what real adulthood should look like — from career and home to partners and kids. And now Watson is deciding just what 30 will mean for her.
“I was like, ‘Why does everyone make such a big fuss about turning 30? This is not a big deal,'” she said in a video interview for British Vogue. “Cut to 29, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I feel so stressed and anxious.’”
The "Little Women" star found herself buying into all those ideas of what and who she should be by now.
“I realize it’s because there is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around,” Watson explained. “If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out… There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.”
She isn’t allowing that anxiety to push her into anything she isn’t ready for — like the husband part of those expectations.
“I am dating — as in not one specific person — but I am going on dates,” she said of her single life. “I never believed the whole ‘I’m happy single’ spiel. … I was like, ‘This is totally spiel.’ It took me a long time, but I’m very happy.”
But she doesn’t call it “being single.”
“I call it being self-partnered,” she added with a smile.
Which means that no matter who she’s dating, she’s always with the right person.