Harry Potter star Emma Watson may have represented Hermione Granger to fans’ liking for a decade, but it wasn’t an experience that she would want to remember. The cast reunited last year to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and while they bonded over their experiences, director David Yates (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) revealed surprising details.

Emma Watson

Yates spent the maximum amount of time with the cast of Harry Potter as he signed on from Order of the Phoenix in 2007 and culminated the story with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011. He learned that Watson had been working under duress up until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and that she had doubts about reprising her character in what would become a franchise worth $9.5 billion.

Emma Watson Felt The Harry Potter Franchise Was Her Prison

In an interview with Daily Mail, Watson recalled her woes working in the franchise and explained how taxing it actually was for her. She claimed that her schedule went completely out of her control and people told her what to do and when.

When she was 16, her contract was up for renewal for consecutive installments starting with Order of the Phoenix, and she felt that she may not be able to behave like a schoolgirl anymore.

Emma Watson as Hermione Granger

She said to Daily Mail –

“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.”

Calling her time with Harry Potter “agonizing,” Emma Watson said “I love to make people laugh and I love being creative,” but there were a number of other things that she wanted to explore as well.

David Yates On Emma Watson Scaring Warner Bros.

In the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, David Yates weighed in on the fact that the studio got immensely worried about Watson’s unwillingness to renew her contract and that he may have to find a workaround for that, as per The Wrap. Watson also told former co-star Rupert Grint that Order of the Phoenix spiced things up for them.

David Yates and Gary Oldman

“When I started, one thing that [producer] David [Heyman] and the studio spoke to me about was Emma is not sure she wants to come back to do another ‘Potter.’” (via The Wrap)

Earlier reports have also claimed that she couldn’t focus on her studies and wanted to get out after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) but chose to stick around for one more as producer David Heyman granted her wish.