False alarm, everyone, Emma Watson isn’t retiring from acting after all

We don’t always have a lot of good news to celebrate in 2021, but here’s a little piece for a Friday morning. It appears that we can Evanesco (the vanishing spell, for the uninitiated) the rumour that was flying on its Quidditch broomstick around the web this week about beloved actor and activist Emma Watson retiring from the screen. Thankfully, The Daily Mail was JK (not Rowling) and Watson isn’t going anywhere. She’s simply having a rest, which is something we all desperately need right now.

On February 20, The Daily Mail reported that Watson’s publicist confirmed the actor was "dormant," which the British paper concluded was movie business talk for "giving up acting." Cue the Twitter meltdown.

Thankfully, it actually appears to be less "giving up acting forever" and more "I've been working nonstop since the age of nine and now need a break."  

The Daily Mail added that Watson has been spending more time with her partner Leo Robinton, whom she is rumoured to have gotten engaged to in 2020. The pair were reportedly in Ibiza for several weeks at the start of this year, where Watson spent her days reading the newspaper and drinking smoothies at a vegan café. Yeah, we probably wouldn’t rush back to work either.

A source close to The Daily Mail, who appears to be guessing at this point, said Watson currently isn’t attached to any film roles because she wants to settle down. Again, this is actually a guess being printed as news without any real comment from the woman herself. “Emma has gone underground, she is settling down with Leo,” said the source. “They're laying low. Maybe she wants a family.” Maybe? Maybe this source isn’t such a great "source."

Thankfully, Watson’s rep cleared up the rumor on Thursday. Jason Weinberg, a source with an actual name and job title (i.e. Watson's manager at Untitled Entertainment), said that his client has no plans to stop acting. "Emma's social media accounts are dormant but her career isn't," Weinberg told EW.

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It’s true that Watson has not been as active lately on social media as she has in the past. Her last posts were from August 2020, when she tweeted links to an article about ethical clothing lines by BIPOC designers and encouraged fans to watch Beyonce’s then-new video for “Brown Skin Girl” and read Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy. The book is a "radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help" guide and centers around embracing change and learning from our environment.

Watson’s most recent film role was 2019’s Little Women, which earned rave reviews from critics and fans and one very big Oscar snub for director Greta Gerwig.

It’s unclear why The Daily Mail thought that a quiet social media feed would mean Watson was retiring from acting, but the assumption does follow the trend of pressuring women with questions of retirement anytime there is a break or a disappointment in their career. Watson’s Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t have social media and currently has no projects announced, but rumours about him leaving acting behind have not trended.

On the other hand, sports GOAT Serena Williams just finished playing her 84^th Grand Slam in Australia and 346^th match overall and ended the event in tears at a press conference after she was asked about retiring following her loss to Naomi Osaka. Let’s just enjoy the careers of these incredibly talented women and celebrate their achievements instead of putting them on a timeline. 

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