Actor Emma Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise, has received a six-month driving ban after she was caught speeding.
Watson was caught driving 38 mph (61 km/h) in a 30 mph (48 km/h) zone in Oxford, England, on July 31 last year. She already had nine points on her licence at the time of the incident; 12 points warrants a ban.
The 35-year-old, currently a student at the University of Oxford, was fined £1,044 ($1,918) at a hearing at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. She was not in attendance, according to the BBC.
Mark Haslam, Watson’s lawyer, told the court that she is a student and “in a position to pay the fine,” the British outlet said.
Watson has been studying for her master’s degree in creative writing since 2023.
The actor shot to fame in 2001 alongside her Harry Potter co-stars Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe following the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first of eight films under the universally adored franchise.
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Watson appeared in all eight as Hermione Granger, an astute teacher’s-pet type with quick wit and a knack for keeping herself and her friends out of trouble. After the last film came out in 2011, she went on to star in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring and Beauty and the Beast.
Her last film role was in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version of Little Women, as Meg March, with Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep also starring.
Watson and her brother Alex launched a sustainable gin brand called Renais in 2023.
In a bizarre coincidence, Zoe Wannamaker, 76, who played Madame Hooch in the Harry Potter series, was also banned from driving this week in the same court and on the same day as Watson after she was caught speeding on a motorway in southern England in August last year.
Zoë Wanamaker attends SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations On Broadway with Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein, and Zoë Wanamaker at SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center on March 10, 2023 in New York City.
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She was driving at 46 mph (74 km/h) in a 40 mph (64 km/h) zone, the court heard.
Like Watson, she was fined £1,044 and banned from driving for six months.
Wanamaker’s lawyer Duncan Jones said that she was not asking for “special treatment” and accepted the fine. Wanamaker also had nine points on her licence before the speeding incident occurred, the BBC added.
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