(Photo Credit: Elle)

At just 23, Emma Watson has had a 15-year acting career that most Hollywood actresses would envy, yet the former "Harry Potter" star admits to being jealous of her peers.

"There are all these actresses who have emerged in the last year or two, and they get to emerge as this complete human being. And I'm so jealous!" Watson told the April issue of Elle, which features her looking all grown up in denim shirt and pants.

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Watson has successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress by stepping away from the spotlight to attend Brown University and Oxford University. She realized that that she needed a life outside of acting after reading something Elizabeth Taylor wrote, she told Elle.

"She had her first kiss in character. On a movie set," Watson recalled. "It really struck me. I don't know how or why, but I had this sense that if I wasn't really careful, that could be me. That my first kiss could be in somebody else's clothes. And my experiences could all belong to someone else."

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Back from her break, Watson is ready to prove herself again on the big screen. She appears next as Noah's adopted daughter, Ila, in Darren Aronfsky's $125 million epic "Noah," opposite Russell Crowe.

"It's Shakespearean, what happens to this family when they're put in this confined space for 40 days and 40 nights," she told Elle. "It's the end of the world - how these different human beings are dealing with the impact of that. Are humans good? Are we bad? All of these themes are epic."