Emma Watson was left "raging" after a hoax website threatened to leak nude photos of her.
The Harry Potter actress relishes her latest role, which sees her serving as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, but was targeted after speaking up for women's rights.
Despite knowing the threats were empty, Emma was furious with the situation.
"After I gave my speech [at the UN] there was a website threatening to release naked pictures of me. I knew it was a hoax, I knew the pictures didn't exist, but I think a lot of people that were close to me knew gender equality was an issue but didn't think it was that urgent, that it was a thing of the past," she explained during a chat at Facebook's headquarters in London.
"And then when they saw that the minute I stood up talking about women's rights I was immediately threatened, I think they were really shocked, my brother was particularly upset.
"This is a real thing that's happening now, women are receiving threats.
"I was raging, it made me so angry, I was like, this is why I have to be doing this. If anything, if they were trying to put me off it, it did the opposite."
The 24-year-old spoke about her ordeal to celebrate National Women's Day, which fell yesterday.
A web page popped up last September entitled Emma You Are Next, which appeared to have been created by a user of image-sharing website 4chan, the same site which leaked intimate pictures of A-list stars including Jennifer Lawrence and Vanessa Hudgens.
During the talk Emma also praised her number one role model, citing her mother as her idol.
"The obvious choice is my mum, she was a single mother and a type one diabetic, so to see her strength and resilience was really inspiring growing up.
"I think she instilled in me in my teenage years when I was feeling very insecure, that what I was thinking, doing, saying, were infinitely more important than my physical appearance.
"She really encouraged me to be an individual. I remember her being thrilled when I got my first detention because she was really worried I was going to be a bit straight laced," she laughed.
