Despite the glowing tributes being paid to the actress online, many of which read like an obituary for a career that had been brought to a close far too soon, Emma Watson didn’t retire from acting. Obviously, rumors spread like wildfire on the internet so the tears were already flowing before her agent, and then the Harry Potter veteran herself, put paid to the speculation.
The 31 year-old is on an extended sabbatical, though, having not stepped onto a feature film set since Greta Gerwig’s awards season favorite Little Women wrapped shooting in December 2018. Everyone’s entitled to a break, and having been in the limelight for 20 years already, Watson definitely deserves it.
The star may be on hiatus, but one of her first major non-Potter roles is currently experiencing a resurgence on Netflix, having climbed 23 places on the most-watched list since yesterday. Handing a filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky $160 million to deliver a fantasy-tinged Biblical epic was always going to be a risk, but for the most part Noah works.
Naturally, it took some liberties with the source material and pissed off a lot of people along the way, but strong reviews and almost $360 million at the box office wasn’t a bad return at all. Watson is surrounded by many esteemed talents including Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, Frank Langella and Nick Nolte, so the performances in Noah were never going to be anything less than stellar.
