Emma Watson Held Out For 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' Role

During Emma Watson's tenure as the leading lady of the "Harry Potter" franchise, she rarely stepped out to work on other projects. As the series neared its end, instead of trying to prove how grown-up she was in film, she headed to Brown University and then later Oxford before settling back into life in Hollywood.

"I think at first I didn't because I was always either studying or filming, I didn't have time to go off and do other films or other things to sort of show people that, 'Oh, she is not just Hermione, she is an actress and she can go and do these other parts and roles.' ... I didn't, because I was so focused on, you know, on my GCSEs and on my AS and on my A-levels and then getting in to university and then whatever, I didn't really have time to do any of that," she says in the new issue of T Magazine.

So, as she moves farther and farther away from life as Hermione, she is inching closer and closer to films that include no magic and lots of drama.

"I guess, weirdly in my head, I knew what I wanted. I didn't know how it would or if it would ever happen," she explained before breaking down her spate of upcoming film roles.

She added, "But before 'Bling Ring,' I said I'd really wanted to meet Sofia Coppola and this is before I knew that she had a film in mind ended up meeting her. And Darren [Aronofsky] was someone who actually I met a good year ago [before 'Noah']. And then I'm doing a film with Guillermo [del Toro] next summer, and I went to him and said, 'Warner Bros. have given me the script for "Beauty and the Beast," but the only way I'd really want to do it is if you did it.' And then miraculously, he said, 'Oh, funnily enough "Beauty and the Beast" is my favorite fairy tale, I can't let anyone else do this, I'll start putting a team together.' "

Of the highly anticipated "Perks of Being a Wallflower," Watson opened up to MTV News about her reasons for joining the indie film based on the book of the same name.

"I feel like I've been waiting for 'Perks.' I was waiting for this story, this script, this moment," she explained, when we visited her on set. "I was a huge 'Harry Potter' fan even before I did the movies, and I thought I would never find a character or material I care about so deeply and personally as I did that, and then this came along and completely swept it all."

"Perks," opens in September. Directed by Stephen Chbosky, the film is based on the novel he wrote.

Which of Emma's roles are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!

Check out everything we've got on "Perks of Being a Wallflower."