Emma Watson feels like a “different person” to the girl in the early ‘Harry Potter’ films.

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.