"It's basically impossible for me to imagine," said Emma Watson, "because it's shaped so much of my life. I went from being somebody who wasn't famous to being very famous. I went from someone who just went to school to being someone who worked long hours, like I had a proper job, like my parents."

Watson was 9 when she was cast in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" as Hermione Jean Granger, a Muggle-born student who joins the wand-slinging prodigy and his pals at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The 2001 film, based on J.K. Rowling's first Potter book, earned $974.7 million worldwide, launching a daunting film franchise.