" My career did not lose momentum the style it could have if he had n’t endorse me . "
As someone who quotesThe Princess DiariesandThe Princess Diaries 2on a daily basis, I can safely say thatAnne Hathawayhas consistently been one of my favorite actors for the majority of my life.
FromThe Devil Wears PradatoBrokeback MountaintoThe Dark Knight Rises, Anne’s film credits include some of the biggest (and most beloved) movies. She’s been working continually since landing her breakout role as Mia Thermopolis in 2001, and we’ve watched her give many great performances throughout her career.
And while Anne has been beloved by so many for years, there was a period in her career when Anne was the subject of toxicity online. A lot of it started when shehostedthe Oscars in 2011 alongside James Franco. In the years after, the hosting gig was called “terrible,” with Anne herself even talking about it ina 2019 interview.
This all culminated during the 2013 awards season, which ended with her winning an Academy Award forLes Misérables. Many people online called out Anne for being “annoying,” leading tocountless op-edsbetween 2013 and 2015, as somewonderedwhy people did not like Anne all of a sudden.
All of this was in addition to the fact that Anne said she’d been told since starting in Hollywood that she had “no sex appeal.” As she noted ina new interview with Vanity Fair, “The male gaze was very dominant and very pervasive and very juvenile.”
And just to keep adding to everything, Anne was also told that her “career would nosedive when she hit 35,” according to Vanity Fair — something she says she’s never forgotten.
Now, in herVanity Fair cover story, she’s opening up about this period in her life, even saying it was hard for her to book a job after her Oscar win in 2013 because the online discourse had become so toxic.
“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” Anne recalled.
She said that director and writer Christopher Nolan was the person who ended up taking a chance on her, and it helped her so much.
After she previously starred as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in Christopher’sThe Dark Knight Rises, he then cast her inInterstellar, which she says really helped her career at the time.
Anne began by saying, “I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about [the online negativity] and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.”
“I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect. And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me,” she added.
Now, Anne says, she’s become more confident in herself and has taken that momentum given to her by Christopher to star in so many more incredible projects. Most recently, she received critical acclaim for her work inEileenin 2023.
“Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through. The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold, and it can be hard because you’re like, ‘If I stay safe, if I hug the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.’ But if you want to do that, don’t be an actor,” Anne explained to Vanity Fair.
She continued, saying, “You’re a tightrope walker. You’re a daredevil. You’re asking people to invest their time and their money and their attention and their care into you. So you have to give them something worth all of those things. And if it’s not costing you anything, what are you really offering?”
Now it seems that everyone is back to loving Anne Hathaway, with countless moments of Anne going viral on TikTok. Like herdancing, carefree, at Paris Fashion Week, or evenspeaking to fans on the streetwho want to get a photo with her.
ANNE HATHAWAY 🥵 pic.twitter.com/vsRiXI48ui
Anyway, I’m so glad we are in an Anne Hathaway renaissance, and I’m going to go rewatchThe Princess Diariesfor like the millionth time.
You can read Anne’s full cover story with Vanity Fairhere.
