The 21-year-old actress - who was cast as brainbox Hermione Granger in the `Harry Potter` film series when she was just 11 years old - admits working on the franchise has ruled her life over the last decade and she is now looking forward to making her own decisions. She said: "Not a single second of the day was in my power. I was told what time I`d get picked up, what time I could eat and when I could go to the bathroom. "I have spent more of my life being someone else than I have being myself. "I`ve always had a strong sense of who I am and what I want, but I do need to spend more time figuring that out." Among the ways the movies have affected her life was Emma`s decision to put her studies on hold last year. The British beauty was two years into a liberal arts degree at America`s prestigious Brown University but left because it was too much of a struggle combining her school work with promoting the final two films in the series, `Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2.` Emma - who will return to her degree at Oxford University in October - explained in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I was commuting back and forth between the US and the UK trying to fulfil my commitment to this enormous `Harry Potter` franchise and it just wasn`t feasible. I`m only human. "I wasn`t getting the best out of either my studies or the filming, so I decided to give a proper goodbye to 10 years of work and resume my studies later."