Watson: ‘I avoid social media comments for sake of sanity’

EMMA WATSON has said she does not read social media comments for the sake of her sanity.

The former Harry Potter star, 27, is playing the lead role in The Circle, the adaptation of Dave Eggers’s dystopian novel about an internet giant.

The actress, who has frequently been targeted by online trolls, said she strictly shuns their comments.

At the film’s New York premiere on Thursday, she told E! News: “For my sanity, I cannot, I just cannot even go there. I have to create some distance because I’m human.

“I think there’s this way where technology can dehumanise and it’s like they are saying something about someone who isn’t there. But I am there and I am real so I have to create some distance.

“Retaining your sanity in this industry is everything, so I care about it a lot.”

Watson was targeted by trolls after the death of Alan Rickman, who starred alongside her in the Potter franchise as Severus Snape.

In The Circle, the British actress plays Mae Holland, a university graduate who quickly rises through the ranks of the technology company getting caught up in its totalitarian ambitions.

Watson also said working with Tom Hanks, who plays one of the company’s co-founders, did not leave her heartbroken because he lived up to all her expectations.

“He is so generous and funny and easygoing and he is all the things you would want him to be,” she said.

“It would have broken my heart if Tom wasn’t Tom... He’s like a hero, you know? You want people to live up to what you hope they are going to be.”