- Emma Watson's father began giving her wine when she was a kid, the actor said in a recent interview.
- "I didn't think alcohol was for getting wasted," she explained.
Emma Watson doesn't qualify herself as a lush by any means, but the actor has a relationship with wine that goes all the way back to childhood.
During a recent interview with The Financial Times, Watson acknowledged that her family embraced food and wine in their household. The actor's father, Chris Watson, purchased his first vineyard in 1991, and took eight years to meet the criteria required by local authorities to plant vines.
"I was quite surprised when other children were very excited about the idea of getting their hands on alcohol," Watson explained. "Dad had been giving me water with wine at lunch since I was a child. I didn't think alcohol was for getting wasted."
"So I was quite confused when I was a teenager and everyone thought alcohol was this forbidden fruit," she said.
Last fall, Watson's younger brother Alex Watson launched a new gin called Renais, or "rebirth" in English, which he described as "quite an esoteric" product that also incorporated organic grape skins and qualified as carbon-neutral.
Watson, who is a shareholder in Renais, also fashioned herself as a sort of creative partner, having overseen the brand's imagery, design, and overall art direction.
The venture is a departure from what Watson is best known for: acting. In the same interview, Watson explained why she's decided to take a break from making movies, and why she hasn't acted since wrapping "Little Women" in 2018.
"I wasn't very happy, if I'm being honest," she told The Financial Times. "I think I felt a bit caged."
"I had to go out and sell something that I really didn't have very much control over. To stand in front of a film and have every journalist be able to say, 'How does this align with your viewpoint?'" she explained. "It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things where I didn't get to be involved in the process."