‘I was nervous to talk on gender issues’

Harry Potter star Emma Watson has admitted that she was “very nervous” before delivering her highly-praised speech on gender equality at the United Nations summit last month. The 24-year-old actress and United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador covers December’s Elle UK, the magazine’s inaugural feminism issue, which is focused on inspiring and empowering women.

“I was very nervous. It wasn’t an easy thing for me to do. It felt like, ‘Am I going to have lunch with these people, or am I going to be eaten? Am I the lunch?’,” she said. Watson said her celebrity status had affected her decision to become an activist.

“Fame is not something I have always felt comfortable with; I have really grappled with it emotionally. And, in a funny way, doing this is my way of making sense of the fame, of using it. I have found a way to channel it towards something else, which makes it so much more manageable for me. And this is something I really believe in.”