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Emma Watson may have given an inspiring speech about gender equality, but she was soon inundated with threats. The Harry Potter star made the confession during a Q&A with Facebook for the HeForShe campaign on International Women’s Day.
“After I gave my speech in September — I wasn’t gonna talk about this, but it’s coming up — there was a website that was set up threatening to release naked photographs of me with like a countdown and whatever else. I knew it was a hoax, I knew the pictures didn’t exist, but I think a lot of people that were close to me knew gender equality was an issue, but they didn’t really think it was that urgent.”
Emma added, “And then when they saw that the minute I stepped up and talked about women’s rights I was immediately threatened — I mean, within less than 12 hours I was receiving threats — I think they were really shocked. One of my brothers was very upset. So, I think it was just a wake up call of like, ‘Oh, this is a real thing that’s really happening now. Women are receiving threats in all sorts of different forms.’ That was just one specific one.”
But a threat of a nonexistent nude photo is not going to slow Emma down. “It’s funny because people are like, ‘She’s gonna be disheartened by this.’ If anything, it made me so much more determined. I was just raging. It made me so angry that I was just like, ‘This is why I have to be doing this.’ So, if anything, if they were trying to put me off it, it did the opposite.”
Check out the full interview below:
Photo from PR Photos
