Emma Watson was spurred on to make her Hollywood comeback after her university professor tried to discourage her from acting ever again following the Harry Potter films.

The Brit stepped away from the spotlight to obtain a higher education after wrapping the boy wizard movies, and she admits she was seriously considering dropping acting altogether.

But it was one of her professors who gave her the inspiration she needed to get back into the movies - when he urged her to give up her day job.

She tells Entertainment Weekly magazine, "For a while I kind of bought into the hype of, 'Will they ever be able to play anything else?' It gave me a sense of paralysis and stage fright for a while.

"And then a professor told me that they didn't think I should act, either. So I was really grappling with it and wasn't feeling good about it. And then... It got so bad and people had put me in a box so much that it started p**sing me off. I suddenly wanted to prove them wrong. It gave me fuel, in a way. I'm not sure why that shift happened."

Watson has continued her career in the wake of the Harry Potter franchise with roles in a string of films including The Perks of Being a Wallflower, This is the End and Bling Ring.