For more than 10 years, Emma Watson was Hermione Granger — so much so, in fact, that Emma had no idea who she was once her days as Harry Potter's best friend ended. "[I've] spent more than half of my life pretending to be someone else," Emma explains to Porter in this month's issue. "While my contemporaries were dyeing their hair and figuring out who they were, I was figuring out who Hermione was and how best to portray her. Now at 25, for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a sense of self that I'm comfortable with."

This Emma is "my most authentic self. I don't want there to be a big separation between the public and the private person. It's definitely the harder road to tread but without a doubt, ultimately the most rewarding. It sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but I'm very interested in truth, in finding ways to be messy and unsure and flawed and incredible and great and my fullest self, all wrapped into one. When you watch the work of someone like actress Emma Thompson, you feel like you're seeing something true, and I aspire to that."

Authentic Emma won't be sacrificing comfort for style anymore either. The actress is done with skin-constricting, can't-breathe-in-this pieces — and believes you should be too: "When I was younger, I remember being told 'no pain no gain,' but recently my willingness to wear something that makes me freezing cold or that I can't walk in has changed," she says. "I want to feel fabulous and comfortable and sexy and strong and beautiful. And if it's making you uncomfortable, don't do it. It's so sad if you need to go home just because you need to sit down! Moving forward, I'm prioritizing just feeling awesome." Words to live by. She's Elle's no. 1 woman for a reason.

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From: ELLE US