Emma Watson has said she remains determined to continue campaigning on gender issues despite having been labelled a “feminazi” by critics.

The actor and campaigner, who is set to take a year off from film to learn more about feminism, said she was unmoved by jibes from those opposed to her views on subjects such as the Hollywood pay gap.

“We are not supposed to talk about money, because people will think you’re ‘difficult’ or a ‘diva’,” Watson told Esquire magazine. “But there’s a willingness now to be like, ‘Fine. Call me a ‘diva’, call me a ‘feminazi’, call me ‘difficult’, call me a ‘First World feminist’, call me whatever you want, it’s not going to stop me from trying to do the right thing and make sure that the right thing happens.’ Because it doesn’t just affect me.”

Added Watson, a UN Women goodwill ambassador and founder of the gender equality organisation HeForShe: “Whether you are a woman on a tea plantation in Kenya, or a stockbroker on Wall Street, or a Hollywood actress, no one is being paid equally.

“I’ve had my arse slapped as I’ve left a room. I’ve felt scared walking home. I’ve had people following me. I don’t talk about these experiences much, because coming from me they’ll sound like a huge deal and I don’t want this to be about me, but most women I know have experienced it and worse.”

The former Harry Potter star said the HeForShe campaign was designed to get men thinking about how gender inequality might damage the lives and ambitions of their own loved ones.

“There’s no point in me going, ‘You all have to go away from having read this article and decide that you are a feminist.’ That’s useless,” she said. “The only thing that is going to make a difference is if men go away and speak to the women in their lives about what they are experiencing.”

Watson said she already felt vindicated by her decision to take a year off from Hollywood. “It’s so awesome to be at the forefront of that wave and that energy and just being able to channel that which I found mildly horrifying – all of the crazy attention on me – and doing something good with it,” she said. “It just feels like I’m really doing what I’m meant to be doing.”

Before taking her break, Watson will be seen alongside John Boyega in the thriller The Circle, and in the lead role in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast.



• This article was amended on 9 March 2015 to correct the source of Emma Watson’s comments.