Emma Watson feels like a "different person"

The 21-year-old actress - who was just nine years old when she appeared as Hermione Granger in the first movie in the franchise, `Harry Potter and the Philosopher`s Stone` - finds it "embarrassing" to look back on her early performances because she has changed so much.

Speaking ahead of the release on the eighth and final film in the series, `Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2` she told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "I look back at the early films and see that little girl, and I know it`s me, but it seems like a different person.

"It`s somewhat embarrassing to see myself go through all the awkward stages of growing up. So much time has passed and so much has happened that it seems that I don`t know her, but it`s interesting to see how the character has evolved and how much I have changed."

Since completing filming on the series wrapped last year, Emma, now 21, has moved on, studying at university and signing up to appear in `My Week with Marilyn` and `The Perks of Being a Wallflower`, but her cast mate Rupert Grint has admitted he`s found it harder to move on.

He said: "I loved every minute of it, and I`m really going to miss it. I felt empty and a bit lost, and it`s taken me a while to accept it`s over.

"When Harry Potter started, I wanted to be an ice-cream man, but the films showed me that I wanted to be an actor, although for the first three I didn`t take it very seriously. I just stood where I was told and read my lines. Then with the fourth film I started caring more about my performance."

`Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2` had its world premiere in London last night (07.07.11).

sections: Celebrities