It makes
Becoming Jane, Love And Other Drugs and One Day feel like romantic wish
fulfillment while Dark Knight Rises, Get Smart and Alice In Wonderland make me
appreciate Anne’s geek friendly attitude and displays her bad-ass
credentials. Despite her steamier,
sexier, edgier side on display in Havoc, Brokeback Mountain and Rachel getting
Married, I can pretend that I’d have a shot at her, as confirmed by how the
protagonists unjustly ignore her appeal in Ella Enchanted, Princess Diaries,
Valentine’s Day and Bride Wars while I am swooning for her the whole time. I have decided to be an unapologetic
supporter of Anne Hathaway and will defend her whenever I get the chance. I’m starting off this campaign by reposting
some stuff that has recently been written about her so you can see the
baselessness of the snarkiness.
If you read
through this, maybe you’ll see her true nature come out, you’ll appreciate her
personality and realize that her detractors are either jealous or wrong since
they have no concrete basis for disliking her.
It really boils down to her cheerfulness, enthusiasm and desire for
excellence and success. If your kid
displayed these traits in school, you would be thrilled with your honor
student, not mock them for trying to achieve something. Also, in order to help negate some of the
millions of hits about disliking Anne, I want to say that I really like
her. I do like her. Seriously.
Ever since I saw her in Becoming Jane I decided she was worthy of
appreciation. I can honestly say that I
support Anne, I heart Anne, I defend Anne, I crush on Anne. Whatever I can do to negate those 25 million
negative Google hits. So, here’s the summary of Anne Hathaway.
Anne
Hathaway Finally Admits She Sucked At Hosting Oscars, Offers Advice For
Seth MacFarlane
(By Cassandra Hough, Crushable.com, 22 December 2012)
Two years
after the worst Academy Awards telecast I’ve ever seen and one year after a
desperate attempt to make Billy Crystal relevant again, Seth
MacFarlane better live up to the impossible expectations I’ve set for him
during this year’s Oscars. Recently,
Anne Hathaway offered him a little hosting advice while
simultaneously admitting that she and James Franco sucked a big bag of
dicks when they ruined my favorite awards show for me in 2011:
“This is
my advice to Seth – based on my own experience,” Hathaway tells EW. “You have
to try to strike a balance between keeping the people of the room entertained
and keeping the people at home from thinking you’re nuts. The instinct is to
play to the room, because otherwise the audience there gets really bored and
restless. Me with my theater background, I played to the back row of
the Kodak, which has 3,500 people. To the people at home, it could come off as
a little over-the-top. I’ve never seen [the whole thing],” she says of her
ill-fated hosting gig. “But I felt like I made a rookie mistake.”
The rookie
mistake being, of course, that over-compensating for your co-host’s complete
lack of enthusiasm and comedic timing by being Miss Sunshine McChipperson will
backfire. The only positive thing I have to say about that ill-fated gig
was that Anne Hathaway can pull off a tux and a ponytail. When Entertainment Weekly asked Seth
MacFarlane for his response to Anne’s advice, he answered very Seth
MacFarlane-y by being polite and using big words in his best NPR voice (I
imagine):
“That’s
interesting. That shows a lot of successful self-analysis. I wouldn’t have
quantified it in exactly that way, but she’s showing a really intelligent
response to that,” MacFarlane said. “That’s why Johnny Carson was truly the
greatest. It was in his bones to play to a television audience. The audience in
the room, you have to be aware of them, but it’s a balancing act.”
I happen to
be really good at reading between the lines, so here’s what I think Seth is
really saying: “Anne totally blows goats as an Oscars host but she’s too
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to publicly insult.” That being said, I do think she had her work
cut out for her with the co-host they paired her with. Hopefully James Franco
won’t be allowed anywhere near the Oscar stage this year unless he’s accepting
an award for Best Squinter, and Seth MacFarlane keeps his Stewie voice to a
minimum.
http://www.crushable.com/2012/12/22/entertainment/anne-hathaway-james-franco-oscars-seth-macfarlane/#ixzz2LlV7055O
Matt
Lauer Owes Anne Hathaway An Apology
(By Ashley Cardiff, The Gloss.com, 13 December 2012)
By now you probably know all about the press frenzy that is Anne Hathaway‘s “wardrobe malfunction” (or lip slip, as genuinely gross people prefer). If you don’t, here it is in brief: Anne Hathaway dropped by the premiere of Les Mis wearing slinky Tom Ford and, while exiting her limo, the paparazzi managed to nab a few intimate shots featuring a hint of pubis. A hint. This is a big deal because Anne Hathaway is a beautiful, wholesome, talented actress and not some lowly cooch flasher like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton (not our rules, people). Hence, lots of coverage, from multiple angles.
Yesterday
morning, Hathaway went on the Today Show to promote Les Mis and,
unsurprisingly, host Matt Lauer brought up the images. …But not nearly enough people are talking
about how Lauer introduced the subject: “Anne Hathaway, good morning, nice to see
you. Been seeing a lot of you lately.” He
basically just said, “Good morning, I recently saw your vulva” on TV. Hathaway goes visibly rigid, but pauses a
beat and lets out a movie star-caliber chuckle to keep things from getting
awkward. She even says, “Sorry about that.” She then jokes–though it’s sad–that
she’d rather be home but she has to promote the film. Lauer then gets more direct:
“Let’s
just get it out of the way. You had a little wardrobe malfunction the other
night. What’s the lesson learned from something like that? Other than that you
keep smiling, which you always do.”
This is also
pretty gross. Is the “lesson learned” really “keep smiling“? Isn’t
the lesson actually “some people are scumbags”? If Hathaway weren’t a movie
star, wouldn’t we call this sexual harassment? Why are the paparazzi allowed to
jockey for photographs of her genitals? Hathaway’s
response was the very articulate, sane, circumspect quote that follows:
“It was
obviously an unfortunate incident. I think — it kind of made me sad on two
accounts. One, I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a
picture of another person in a vulnerable moment and rather than delete it and
do the decent thing, sells it. And I’m sorry that we live in a culture
that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which brings us back to Les
Mis. That’s what my character is, she is someone who is forced to sell
sex to benefit her child because she has nothing and there’s no social
safety net.”
Good on you,
Hathaway (++ remarkable segue). But back
to Lauer: in what world was any of this an acceptable thing to say to someone? Apparently some people feel Hathaway deserved
it. We noticed on The Gloss‘ Facebook page one commenter who was
disgusted she “[went] commando in an evening gown” and added, “Ew.” As if,
somehow, that meant it was her fault (nevermind the fact a movie star is painfully
aware that visible panty lines on the red carpet will make her a Fashion
Disaster all over the internet the next day) (ie, she probably wasn’t
freeballing for the illicit thrill of it).
In summary, forgoing underthings in evening dresses 1) isn’t that weird
and 2) doesn’t justify a strange man shoving a fucking camera between your
legs. …Much less going off and selling the subsequent photos. Ugh. Look,
everything about this story is horrible–except Anne Hathaway, who is a class
act.
As for Matt
Lauer, he owes her an apology. That “seeing a lot of you lately,” comment
wasn’t just inappropriate and unprofessional, it was downright gross.
Why Do You Hate Anne Hathaway?
(By Jennifer Wright, The Gloss, 07 December 2012)
According to
Buzzfeed:
Her career may be on the rise, but public opinion of Anne Hathaway is
at an all-time low. Why all the hate? Huh. I remember, once, years ago,
Anne Hathaway gave an interview regarding her role in The Devil Wears Prada
that made me hate her a bit. It said
something about how, at one point, during the scene where her character goes to
the Met Ball they wanted to do a makeover where they put a tiara on her. But
she was sick of that after all the Princess Diaries stuff, and said that she
would only do that if her character then tore the tiara off her head and began
tearing it apart. And I thought “well,
you know, that seems somewhat ungrateful towards a franchise that really put
you in the public eye.” And, fine, I loved The Princess Diaries. I will
still probably watch it every time I stumble across it while flipping channels
on TV (other movies I find this to be true of are Casino and
Goodfellas ,so I think it evens out).
But then
years passed, and I realized that if I was in my early 20′s that’s exactly the
kind of thing I would have offhandedly said to an interviewer, too, and, well,
that is not really a reason to hate Anne Hathaway. And she went back to being my favorite
actress, pretty much. She seems warm and accessible. I thought it was
vaguely bizarre when she protested at Occupy Wall Street considering the
fact that movie stars are paid a salary very disproportionate to everyone else
in the world, but, well, I’m okay with that. Maybe she was just really feeling
her role as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Other than that I think she does an excellent
job in virtually every movie I’ve seen her in. I think Brokeback Mountain
was a pretty bold choice. I thought that Catwoman was the best part of the
Dark Knight Rises (the hats alone!) and I
know I’m not the only person who feels that way. I think she’ll be great in
Les Mis. I even liked her dress, yesterday. I
thought the sleeves were neat.
And I think she also seems like someone who – and I know I am not basing this off of anything, really – works very hard at her roles. She doesn’t seem like a diva. She seems like someone who shows up and does her job with a reasonable amount of good cheer, and I like this quality. So, I’m a huge fan. I think she’s great. She’s probably one of the rare actresses whose presence in a movie would make me more likely to go and see it. But you hate her, I guess, because you are an abject monster. Why? Let me know! Don’t say anything about her physical appearance!
And I think she also seems like someone who – and I know I am not basing this off of anything, really – works very hard at her roles. She doesn’t seem like a diva. She seems like someone who shows up and does her job with a reasonable amount of good cheer, and I like this quality. So, I’m a huge fan. I think she’s great. She’s probably one of the rare actresses whose presence in a movie would make me more likely to go and see it. But you hate her, I guess, because you are an abject monster. Why? Let me know! Don’t say anything about her physical appearance!
Anne Hathaway Is Ashamed Of Her Obsession
With Being Skinny, So Maybe We Can’t Be So Glib About Her Weight Loss
(By Natalie Zutter, Crushable.com, 04 December 2012)
Ever since
those first set photos surfaced of Anne Hathaway looking
terrifyingly gaunt and stomach-clenchingly miserable on the Les
Miserables set, we’ve been against her drastic weight loss for the
role. After all, she’s not in the movie long enough as Fantine to justify eating dried oatmeal paste squares to lose
twenty pounds. (It’s not like Uma Thurman did so in the 1998
version.) In addition to deriding her
ridiculous diet, we’d also scrutinize video interviews, like this one where in the middle she creepily defended her
drastic method acting. She was very aware of what she was doing to her body,
but also seemed very matter-of-fact about losing the weight as a necessary part
of her job. But I don’t think I grasped just how much it affects her
emotionally until I read her review with Glamour.
Like in
other interviews, Anne tackled head-on the issue of her startlingly skinny
frame while shooting Les Mis. But she also provided more context for how her career shift
(from Disney movies to darker fare) and relationship issues (scam
artist/ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri has since been
deported) affected her body insecurities.
Eve
Ensler: This is Glamour’s Self-Expression Issue. When did you feel
like you began to express yourself in a way that was authentic to you?
Anne Hathaway: I had that moment after I finished making Rachel Getting Married. I realized that the life I’d been living [was not authentic] and that I had to make a change. Then I found out that my trust had been betrayed quite massively. So for me, that call came at the end of 2007. Who was I going to be? There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over “Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?”
Anne Hathaway: I had that moment after I finished making Rachel Getting Married. I realized that the life I’d been living [was not authentic] and that I had to make a change. Then I found out that my trust had been betrayed quite massively. So for me, that call came at the end of 2007. Who was I going to be? There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over “Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?”
Eve
Ensler: And is that an everyday obsession?
Anne Hathaway: If I’m honest, yes. There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.
Anne Hathaway: If I’m honest, yes. There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.
Eve
Ensler: Because you should somehow be different than the rest of the human
race?
Anne Hathaway: I just think about the ridicule you get if you have an off day. If people weren’t watching, I’d be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, “Oh, I don’t care,” I actually really don’t feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.
Anne Hathaway: I just think about the ridicule you get if you have an off day. If people weren’t watching, I’d be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, “Oh, I don’t care,” I actually really don’t feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.
At first I
wondered if Anne felt obligated to talk about her body image issues since she
was being interviewed by Eve Ensler (she of The Vagina
Monologues) and because actresses have to play the whole “I’m just as
insecure as you!” act. But I do believe that this is an actual problem that
plagues her. Now I’ve been going over
our Les Mis coverage and wondering if we were one of the sites
making fun of Anne. For the most part our criticism and confusion came out of
genuine worry for an actress slimming down at an alarming rate. But I think
that I was also sometimes glib about her weight loss, writing it off as merely
part of the job. However, I applaud Anne for sharing insight into how much of a
struggle it really has been and likely will continue to be now that the movie
is over and everyone wants her to gain some weight — but not too much weight —
back. And I’m gonna think twice before the next time I point out a candid photo
of her looking shockingly thin.
http://www.crushable.com/2012/12/04/entertainment/anne-hathaway-ashamed-obsessed-skinny-quote-les-miserables-diet/#ixzz2LldIGD6l
Real
Talk: I Don’t Much Care For Anne Hathaway
(By
Alexis Rhiannon, Crushable.com, 04 November 2012)
Saturday
Night Live is all new tonight, with host Anne Hathaway
returning, and musical guest Rihanna. It’s set up to be a very popular
show, as they’ve both been on before and done well. I really shouldn’t say
anything at all, but the celebrities have been oddly quiet today amidst the
devastating fallout of the Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber breakup and
the Petraeus scandal. So I guess this is as good a time as any to admit
something terrible: I don’t much care for her. I know that’s heresy in a world
infatuated with all things Anne Hathaway. We let her host our Oscars, and be
the best thing in The Dark Knight Rises, and get a pixie cut.
Things that normal celebrities aren’t allowed to do, but that we throw at Anne
Hathaway like so much confetti. She’s America’s Sweetheart, for god sakes, you
don’t have to tell me that what I’m saying is blasphemy.
I’m sorry, I
can’t explain it. I’m the odd one out, I know, but there’s something about her
that rubs me the wrong way. I really like her movies, and even her performances
in them. I loved The Devil Wears Prada, and I found her actually
Oscar-worthy in Rachel Getting Married. Oh and let’s not pretend
like I didn’t watch The Princess Diaries 85,000 times growing up.
But when I see Anne Hathaway out in the world, I’m not into it. She’s like…too
good. She’s too nice, too attractive, in too good of shape, too humble, too
talented. With all those things, I should be obsessed with her. But instead I’m
just not. I’m oddly disconnected.
I watch her
beautiful face do its talented acting and go — my my, what a large beautiful
mouth. I don’t like it. Look at those dark beautiful eyes. I don’t like them.
Listen to her skinny beautiful words. I don’t like them. Shut up. Shut up, Anne
Hathaway. I honestly don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m jealous, but I don’t feel
jealousy. I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person.
She’s always putting on accents and flittering around apologizing for mistakes
that she didn’t make, and I just don’t get it. I don’t find her perfection
charming. I find it annoying.
Especially
with Les Miserables coming out, everybody’s hopping aboard her
train even more than usual. But, like, I see those trailers, and all I think
is, “Oh good, we’re letting her sing now. I bet she’ll be real fucking
good at it, too.” And she is. Just like when we let her be Judy Garland.
Like, look how bitter I am! I honestly don’t get it. And after
all that, you’d think I’d cut my losses and just stop watching her in stuff.
Like, not turn on my TV tonight to watch SNL. But you know what? I’m
going to. Because I’m determined to find out what it is about her that has me
so skeeved. I won’t like it, but I will watch it. Stay tuned.
http://www.crushable.com/2012/11/10/entertainment/anne-hathaway-hosting-saturday-night-live-snl-les-miserables-the-devil-wears-prada-princess-diaries-528/#ixzz2LlehdMHg
Anne
Hathaway Giving Off A Pregnant Bliss Vibe Says Friends And Family
(By Jenni Maier, Crushable.com, 19 December 2013)
Looks like
Anne Hathaway will take her weight from one extreme to another this year.
On the slight chance that you’re Rip Van Winkles and you just awoke from a
100-year nap, let me be the first to tell you that Anne Hathaway lost clinically unhealthy amounts of
weight for her role as Fantine in Les Miserables. That
story dominated the headlines for approximately 25 weeks, one week for every
pound she lost by starving herself.
And now, it
appears she’ll be gaining weight for her new role as a mother. Not in a movie,
but in real life! According to Star, she not only wants a baby,
but she’s already pregnant. with one. Which works out beautifully, because it
would be horrid if she went around being all like, “I hate babies and I never
want one! Oh, also I’m pregnant and I’m registered at Babies R Us.” A pal of The Devil Wears
Prada star told Star the brunette beauty has been
dropping “subtle hints that she may already be pregnant. She’s been avoiding alcohol, talking about
nursery colors and decorations and inquiring to close friends who recently gave
birth about the best pediatricians,” the pal said. ”She and Adam are
definitely giving off the pregnant bliss vibe, leading loved ones to believe
they might have a little one next summer!”
If we’ve
learned anything from The Kate Middleton Pregnancy Rumor Mill of 2012, it’s
that everything’s a sign of pregnancy. Especially the classic pregnant bliss
vibe. If you’re shaking your head in confusion about this vibe, then you’ve
clearly never seen a pregnant woman before. While I can’t pretend it’s possible
to sum up the vibe with mere words, I’ll try. It’s that thing when a woman
rides around the countryside on the back of a magical stork while saying things
like “sonogram! diapers! wet nurse!” You’d know it, if you saw it. Her pal goes on to also add that she’s
excited thinking about ”how great a father Adam will be. He
can’t wait until their baby is born.” Like
I said before, this is marvelous, marvelous, marvelous! There’s nothing more
dreadful when an anonymous pal tells the media that a prospective father’s not
excited for the birth of his child. While
this pregnancy’s still in early rumor stages, we expect it to be in full-blown
face-bloat speculation mode by the time the new year rolls around.
Congrats
Anne! Once you hit baby bump watch, you’ve really made it in this town.
http://www.crushable.com/2012/12/19/entertainment/anne-hathaway-pregnant-rumors/#ixzz2LlgmWnjd
The Cult of Hathahaters: Will It Hurt Anne
Hathaway’s Oscar Chances?
(By Kevin Fallon, Daily Beast, 20 Jan’ry 2013)
The blogosphere is teeming with snark
about the Les Miz star’s polarizing personality. Where did all that animosity
come from—and could it keep her from Oscar glory? Run a Google search for “Anne
Hathaway” and “annoying,” and 1.5 million search results are returned. Try
“Anne Hathaway” and “hate,” and that number spikes to a mere 28.5 million.
It’s a typical reaction from the group. Even those who objectively
acknowledge her talent still can’t get past her personality. “The best
performance of 2012? Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables,” tweeted @ivancommajoseph. “The worst performance? Anne
Hathaway in Faux-Surprise Golden Globes Speech.” But where did this community
of such passionate distaste come from? And, as tuberculosis claimed poor,
desperate Fantine, will the intensely negative reaction to Hathaway’s
award-circuit appearances ruin her chances at what was once considered her
sure-thing Oscar? The
arc of Hathahate is like one of those U-ish parabolas from algebra class. Her
star-making debut in The Princess Diaries introduced the world to a
young, ceaselessly peppy, eager-to-please ingénue—the real-life incarnation of
Rachel Berry from Glee. The overly theatrical demeanor that she’s so
often zinged for now was present then in full force, but was quickly
overshadowed by a series of interesting career moves. Quickly, Hathaway became
cool.
She appeared to toss her Disney roots out the window to star in an shrewd
mix of gritty, adult projects—Brokeback Mountain, Rachel Getting
Married—and more mature, commercial hits—The Devil Wears Prada.
Then, in 2008, the rug was yanked out from underneath her when she and
then-boyfriend of four years Raffaello Follieri split after he was arrested for
allegedly scamming investors by lying about ties to the Vatican. She was conned by
the con man—and splashed across tabloid covers as Hollywood’s latest tragic
heroine. She was sympathetic, breaking into tears over the whole ordeal during
an interview with W magazine just three weeks after the
scandal broke. Putting on a brave face and dutifully hitting the publicity
circuit to promote her stunning turn in Rachel Getting Married, public
perception was that Hathaway was tough and strong and a bit of a badass.
Then that off-putting, desperate theater
girl came back—only this time she was more famous. She’d host SNL, guest
on talk shows, or storm the Oscar stage like a whirling dervish of borderline
maniacal energy to co-emcee the 2011 ceremony. With each public appearance, her
detractors found her more and more irritating, with loathing hitting overdrive
following the Oscars stint. Gone was Hathaway the survivor; back was the
chipper aggravator. As
Crushable.com’s Alexis Rhiannon puts it, “She’s always putting on accents and flittering
around apologizing for mistakes that she didn’t make, and I just don’t get it.
I don’t find her perfection charming. I find it annoying.” It’s hard not to
wonder whether the girl who was a lock to win is now talking her way out of the
Oscar.
To those who already hold that opinion of her, Hathaway’s done nothing to
ingratiate herself during her big Les Miz Oscar push and trophy
domination. She uses phrases like “I felt like I sprouted a pair of wings
and lifted off of the ground,” to describe her experience shooting the film. At
the National Board of Review Awards, the cast of Les Miz won Best
Ensemble. Co-star Amanda Seyfried managed to sputter a few words before
Hathaway commandeered the microphone to accept, leaving poor Eddie Redmayne
fidgeting in the background. After winning Best Supporting Actress at the
Critics Choice Awards, she spent the first portion of her speech chastising the
organization for misspelling her name in a clip reel.
Her spontaneous
dash to the microphone when Les Misérables won Best Musical or Comedy
at the Golden Globes to thank people she forgot to mention in her already
two-minute-long Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech already may have
rubbed viewers the wrong way—but they may not know that directly before she
did, the award show’s producer told the audience to keep speeches short because
the show was running late. “I haven’t forgotten to thank anyone because I
haven’t started yet,” Les Miz producer Eric Fellner said after, throwing
his star under the bus. The attitude toward Hathaway is a publicity nightmare,
and it’s spun so out of control that it’s become spoofable. Satrical news site
The Onion said it best in a parody article that ran last September—showing how
far back the Hathahate extends. “Area Woman’s Baseless Hatred of Anne Hathaway
Reciprocated,” the headline reads, with made-up quotes from Hathaway
reflecting back the Internet hatred toward her: “You can tell Cathy Lerro’s
totally in love with herself, even though she’s really just fucking annoying.” When buzz over her
performance in Les Misérables was at its peak in December, Buzzfeed published a post naming all the reasons people hate
Hathaway—her face, she looks stupid, she ruins everything—but, tellingly, the
last item on the burn list was, “More often than not, there’s no real reason.”
Ms. Hathaway certainly has her fans, too. It even looked like the tide
against her was turning with a celebrated turn as Catwoman in The Dark
Knight Rises—President Obama, for one, called her the best part of the film. And not everyone was turned off by her
Globes speech—Karger says many in the ballroom were touched by her tribute to
Sally Field, and awards aficionado Charles Bright of Goldderby.com thought the moment was among the night’s highlights. On
Twitter, one @notoriousbanana said her “speech at the Golden Globes
made me a fan.” But
with almost instantaneous disgust flooding the Internet with every awards stop
she makes, it’s hard not to wonder whether the girl who was a lock to win is
now talking her way out of the Oscar.
Karger, for one, isn’t so sure. While it’s likely that Oscar voters are
aware of the backlash to her personality, the phenomenon is clearly far more
potent in the blogosphere than it is in the Academy. In really tight Oscar
races, any little thing can count for or against a contender; he says Hathaway
is so far and away the Best Supporting Actress frontrunner that “I don’t know
what she’d have to do to screw up her chances.” Look to the case of Mo’Nique’s
Best Supporting Actress win in 2010. She was asking to be paid for appearances
during Oscar season, which was unheard of, and the media and industry insiders
were raking her through the coals for the behavior. But she still won- and
likely by a large margin. An aversion to an Oscar contender’s personality or even
a bad speech does have the potential to hurt a vulnerable actor, Karger says,
but Hathaway’s performance has been so lauded that her frontrunner status is
Teflon at this point. “She’s so far out that her haters are just going to have
to accept it.”
Hathahaters gon’
hate.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/the-cult-of-hathahaters-will-it-hurt-anne-hathaway-s-oscar-chances.html
Anne Hathaway: Eight million people across the nation are without power; dozens of people in the New York area have lost their lives. We can’t be in denial [about climate change] anymore. And I’m just making sure that everyone I love is OK, and trying to offer help wherever I can.
Anne Hathaway: You realize certain things. At this stage in my life—and this moment will not last forever—me walking my dog is news. And because I take very seriously the idea that I can make an impact in the world, I hold back my voice so I can make more of an impact when I do use it. A cause like One Billion Rising is something I want to scream about, and I want you to take that scream seriously because I don’t fall out of nightclubs. I don’t have photographers capture me spending untold amounts on a handbag. Of course, in the court of celebrity, if you try to be serious, you may look like a fool. In One Billion Rising you have activists and thinkers and “celebrities.” But I’m an actress. The celebrity thing just happened.
Anne Hathaway: I think we need to have a big party in West Hollywood, and I’m going to get the head of every studio and talent agency to commit to dancing, because L.A. is filled with people who are passionate about women’s issues. And I’m psyched because Valentine’s Day has become stressful for people and we’re giving them something positive to look forward to, a reason to be proud of themselves. And not just women: Last night my husband and my father both said, “Can we dance?” I was so happy! My husband’s a good dancer too.
Anne Hathaway: I had that moment after I finished making Rachel Getting Married. I realized that the life I’d been living [was not authentic] and that I had to make a change. Then I found out that my trust had been betrayed quite massively. So for me, that call came at the end of 2007. Who was I going to be? There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over “Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?”
Anne Hathaway: I just think about the ridicule you get if you have an off day. If people weren’t watching, I’d be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, “Oh, I don’t care,” I actually really don’t feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.
Eve Ensler: And liberation would be getting to a point where you just didn’t give a sh-t?
Anne Hathaway: That would be the technical definition of liberation, yes.
Anne Hathaway: It’s wonderful. I feel like I’ve found my other half, and I’m so excited about getting to love him for the rest of our lives.
Anne Hathaway: He's a good man. He's beyond intelligent. He loves fearlessly. His beliefs are beautiful. He's my best friend. I love him. I just feel that I have the greatest husband in the world for me. You know, we get a lot of pressure to define ourselves as women by how wild we are: How many guys did you sleep with? How drunk did you get? And we all bow to that. We've all done that walk of shame at one point or another.
Anne Hathaway: I really didn’t want the paparazzi at my wedding, and I thought that I’d outfoxed them. The plan was to release a photo to my fans on Instagram. But when some paparazzi got aerial shots and I realized that they could make money off them, I wanted to prevent that, to make the money go somewhere else. So I released four photos, and every time they’re printed, in perpetuity, the money goes to a corresponding charity.
Anne Hathaway: People are warmer to me. Also, I’m a fairly shy person, and [in the past] on days when I didn’t want to deal with the world, I’d wear a hat and pull my hair around me and hide. I can’t do that now. I have to be me all the time. And it’s changed my habits, because if I was having a bad skin day, I could have a good hair day. Now I have no hair, so I have to take better care of myself because I’m all face!
We've all done it. Watched an awards show—red carpet, speeches, audience reactions—and judged, and judged, and judged. And it's fun, right? Sitting on the couch, captivated by our own cleverness. Occasionally someone comes up with a catchy term, like Brangelina, or Robsten (circa 2010). Or Hathahater. It just trips off the tongue, doesn't it? You could practically trademark it. The problem is, there's an actual person, Anne Hathaway, at whom this brutally jaunty phrase is directed. A woman who is sincere to a fault, as earnest as quinoa. A woman who is warm and funny, who has a laugh as big as her personality. Hathaway somehow attracted this "hate" during the 2013 awards season (when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of Fantine in Les Misérables) through her perceived inauthenticity, her very actress-ness.
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/anne-hathaway-interview-1114
Why Do Women Hate Anne Hathaway (But Love Jennifer
Lawrence)?
(By Ann Friedman,
New York Magazine, 26 February 2013)
I can’t figure out why I don’t like Anne
Hathaway. Or rather, why we don’t. In all the social-media fallout from the
Oscars, the Best Supporting Actress winner also almost won Most Detested Figure
of the Night, finishing just behind Seth MacFarlane and the idiot at The Onion who tweeted a slur about 9-year-old
Quvenzhané Wallis. “And what the Onion missed is that it's Anne Hathaway who's
the real cunt. Right EVERY WOMAN ON THE INTERNET?” tweeted Buzzfeed’s Jack Moore.
Unlike most strangers I claim to dislike (most conservative politicians, some friends’ ex-boyfriends, and the aforementioned MacFarlane), Hathaway and I would probably get along swimmingly. She seems smart and self-possessed, savvy and successful. She’s a spokesperson for Eve Ensler’s anti-violence organization, One Billion Rising. And have you seen the clip of her shutting down Matt Lauer’s creepy questions about her upskirt moment with a measured response about the commodification of female sexuality? It is on point. Yet she leaves me cold.
Unlike most strangers I claim to dislike (most conservative politicians, some friends’ ex-boyfriends, and the aforementioned MacFarlane), Hathaway and I would probably get along swimmingly. She seems smart and self-possessed, savvy and successful. She’s a spokesperson for Eve Ensler’s anti-violence organization, One Billion Rising. And have you seen the clip of her shutting down Matt Lauer’s creepy questions about her upskirt moment with a measured response about the commodification of female sexuality? It is on point. Yet she leaves me cold.
Does EVERY WOMAN
ON THE INTERNET baselessly hate Anne Hathaway? I took a quick straw poll. “She
is that theater kid with good intentions but secretly annoys the shit out of
you,” said one friend, adding, “You want to be excited for her and you are but
deep down you are kind of rolling your eyes.” Another replied, “I think someone
told her she was America's sweetheart and she believed it.” One friend placed
her in the category of “really affected drama queens,” saying, “I can imagine
her non-ironically yelling ‘Acting!’” In other words, she’s always on stage,
always calculated — not someone you’d want to party with, or share your deepest
secrets. “I am an Anne Hathaway supporter,” said a friend who sidestepped the
question of whether or not she finds the actress likable. “Sure, she's kind of
needy, but so are all actors.”
What does it really mean when we say an actress "annoys the shit" out of us, anyway? That we hate the roles she chooses? The paparazzi'd version of her life we see in US Weekly? Her insufficiently funny quips on the red carpet? Or, as Salon asked today, is it her face? In some ways, the point of sitting on the bleachers of celebrity culture is the thrill of judging with impunity. Unlike our neighbors or co-workers, we convince ourselves that famous actors, by dint of making their living entertaining us, have chosen to be judged. And judge we do. (This isn’t just a byproduct of our Twitter-enforced instapundit culture, either: “Let's get Entertainment Weekly and play my favorite new game: Love Her/Hate Him,” exclaims Will in a 1999 episode of Will & Grace.)
For someone who’s managed to win our seemingly arbitrary love, look no further than Hathaway’s fellow winning actress from Sunday night, the universally adored Jennifer Lawrence. She’s self-effacing and funny. She seems like an excellent party companion, taking just about every opportunity to mention how many shots she’s had (before appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, before the red carpet, after winning the Oscar for Best Actress). She doesn’t seem overly serious about Hollywood, and gently chided Hollywood royalty Jack Nicholson, “You’re being really rude,” when he interrupted a post-win interview. She doesn’t pretend that punishing body standards are anything but horrible. When she jokes about sucking in her stomach on the red carpet or her publicist hating her for eating a Philly cheesesteak (“There’s only so much Spanx can cover up!”), it feels real, not designed to fool her fans into thinking she’s not one of those salad-but-hold-the-dressing girls. Lawrence said she ordered McDonald’s on the red carpet at the Oscars. Hathaway is a vegan.
At first blush, though, the two actresses have much in common. They’re both incredibly driven, making several films a year, and knew from a young age they wanted to be actresses. Much of what we love about Lawrence should also translate to love for Hathaway. When David Letterman asked Hathaway how she lost 25 pounds for her Les Miz role, she replied, “You don’t want to know. It would just make you worry.” J.Law drew props for confessing “I’m starving!” on the red carpet, but Hathaway has also described how she and Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt “would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry." Are these really that different?
The biggest difference between them is their interview and red-carpet persona. Hathaway doesn’t have the same down-to-earth delivery. She’s charming, but not funny. Meanwhile Lawrence manages to exude a best-friend vibe even at a behind-the-curtain Oscar press conference. Anyone who’s frozen up in front of the camera or in front of a crowd knows how hard it is to play a version of yourself and seem “natural” with all eyes on you. That Hathaway struggles with this should make her more relatable to us. Yet “I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person,” writes a blogger at Crushable.
By contrast, even though she’s now an Oscar-winning actress, Lawrence still seems fresh. Hathaway, who has been acting for a decade and was a clear favorite for the Best Supporting Actress award, seems to fit the broader cultural pattern (I’ve called it the Hillary Catch-22) in which we simply don’t find successful, “perfect” women very likable. Lawrence is well aware that it serves her well to stay the underdog. She told Chelsea Handler about being in the grocery store and seeing her face on magazine covers. “I was like, I’m going to be that person that everybody hates because it’s like, ‘Here I am!’ all the time.”
And she’s probably right. “Young women in Hollywood cannot win, no matter what they do,” writes Roxane Gay in a searing takedown of the racist and sexist humor that pervaded Oscar night. “There are more than a few smart jokes that could illustrate this rock and hard place women in Hollywood are crammed into.” True, for actresses, cultivating a public personality is part of the job. And irrationality is part of being a fan. (See: the fact that Meryl Streep picks her wedgie and we love her all the more for it.) But it’s worth examining whether our biases have any basis. "It does get to me," Hathaway said of all the hate she has to deal with. After all, imagine what it would feel like to know that thousands of women are passing judgment every moment you open your mouth? “Ladies,” began a Monday night tweet from Lena Dunham, someone who knows something about the hate of strangers, “Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth. Let's save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren't advancing the cause."
What does it really mean when we say an actress "annoys the shit" out of us, anyway? That we hate the roles she chooses? The paparazzi'd version of her life we see in US Weekly? Her insufficiently funny quips on the red carpet? Or, as Salon asked today, is it her face? In some ways, the point of sitting on the bleachers of celebrity culture is the thrill of judging with impunity. Unlike our neighbors or co-workers, we convince ourselves that famous actors, by dint of making their living entertaining us, have chosen to be judged. And judge we do. (This isn’t just a byproduct of our Twitter-enforced instapundit culture, either: “Let's get Entertainment Weekly and play my favorite new game: Love Her/Hate Him,” exclaims Will in a 1999 episode of Will & Grace.)
For someone who’s managed to win our seemingly arbitrary love, look no further than Hathaway’s fellow winning actress from Sunday night, the universally adored Jennifer Lawrence. She’s self-effacing and funny. She seems like an excellent party companion, taking just about every opportunity to mention how many shots she’s had (before appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, before the red carpet, after winning the Oscar for Best Actress). She doesn’t seem overly serious about Hollywood, and gently chided Hollywood royalty Jack Nicholson, “You’re being really rude,” when he interrupted a post-win interview. She doesn’t pretend that punishing body standards are anything but horrible. When she jokes about sucking in her stomach on the red carpet or her publicist hating her for eating a Philly cheesesteak (“There’s only so much Spanx can cover up!”), it feels real, not designed to fool her fans into thinking she’s not one of those salad-but-hold-the-dressing girls. Lawrence said she ordered McDonald’s on the red carpet at the Oscars. Hathaway is a vegan.
At first blush, though, the two actresses have much in common. They’re both incredibly driven, making several films a year, and knew from a young age they wanted to be actresses. Much of what we love about Lawrence should also translate to love for Hathaway. When David Letterman asked Hathaway how she lost 25 pounds for her Les Miz role, she replied, “You don’t want to know. It would just make you worry.” J.Law drew props for confessing “I’m starving!” on the red carpet, but Hathaway has also described how she and Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt “would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry." Are these really that different?
The biggest difference between them is their interview and red-carpet persona. Hathaway doesn’t have the same down-to-earth delivery. She’s charming, but not funny. Meanwhile Lawrence manages to exude a best-friend vibe even at a behind-the-curtain Oscar press conference. Anyone who’s frozen up in front of the camera or in front of a crowd knows how hard it is to play a version of yourself and seem “natural” with all eyes on you. That Hathaway struggles with this should make her more relatable to us. Yet “I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person,” writes a blogger at Crushable.
By contrast, even though she’s now an Oscar-winning actress, Lawrence still seems fresh. Hathaway, who has been acting for a decade and was a clear favorite for the Best Supporting Actress award, seems to fit the broader cultural pattern (I’ve called it the Hillary Catch-22) in which we simply don’t find successful, “perfect” women very likable. Lawrence is well aware that it serves her well to stay the underdog. She told Chelsea Handler about being in the grocery store and seeing her face on magazine covers. “I was like, I’m going to be that person that everybody hates because it’s like, ‘Here I am!’ all the time.”
And she’s probably right. “Young women in Hollywood cannot win, no matter what they do,” writes Roxane Gay in a searing takedown of the racist and sexist humor that pervaded Oscar night. “There are more than a few smart jokes that could illustrate this rock and hard place women in Hollywood are crammed into.” True, for actresses, cultivating a public personality is part of the job. And irrationality is part of being a fan. (See: the fact that Meryl Streep picks her wedgie and we love her all the more for it.) But it’s worth examining whether our biases have any basis. "It does get to me," Hathaway said of all the hate she has to deal with. After all, imagine what it would feel like to know that thousands of women are passing judgment every moment you open your mouth? “Ladies,” began a Monday night tweet from Lena Dunham, someone who knows something about the hate of strangers, “Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth. Let's save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren't advancing the cause."
Hathaway Explains Low Profile Post-Oscars:
'People Needed A Break From Me'
(By Allison Takeda,
US Weekly, January 23, 2014)
Anne
Hathaway can take a hint. The star, 31, has kept a relatively low
profile since winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Les Miserables
in February 2013. With the exception of a brief cameo in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon,
she didn't appear in any movies last year and was a rare presence on the red
carpet. But as she revealed in a new interview with the Huffington Post at Sundance, where she's promoting her film
Song One, the break was as much for the public as it was for
her. "My impression is that people needed a break from me," she
quipped, reportedly with a laugh. (Hathaway faced backlash last year after her dress drama with Amanda
Seyfried at the Oscars; she was also criticized for her many
acceptance speeches.) Not that the time
off was bad. With less on her plate, the Dark Knight Rises actress got
a chance to spend some quality time with husband Adam Shulman,
whom she married in September 2012. Earlier this month, the pair enjoyed a
romantic getaway in Hawaii.
Now, though, she's back to work. In Song One, she
plays an anthropologist who returns home to New York City after her brother is
injured in a car accident. She also has a role in Christopher Nolan's new movie
Interstellar. "I think
there's a common misconception about actors -- that we have a lot more control
than we do about when things happen," she told HuffPost of her busy-again
schedule. "We met on this [movie] in 2011 -- I was working on Batman --
and then we developed this script and the music for two years, and we shot it
in June. We had been planning on shooting in the fall and then Chris Nolan
called with an offer for a part in his new movie... So, we would either have to
wait and push until after that -- which nobody wanted to do -- or move it up
and have a truncated pre-production, which is what wound up happening,"
she explained. And it actually turned out to be pretty good timing. "I am
not complaining about how it's working out," she added
Anne Hathaway Leaves Longtime Stylist Rachel Zoe After a Decade
(By January 24, 2014)
When Anne
Hathaway showed up at Sundance last week looking perfectly chic
and understated, we started to wonder if she was taking her usually girly style
in a new and more sophisticated direction, flavored with
structured menswear influences. An oversize cream Max Mara coat with an ASOS scarf was her
outerwear of choice for arrival at the Salt Lake City airport. For a Harvey Weinstein
football watching party at the film fest, she wore tattered jeans and an
oversize funky graphic print Givenchy
sweatshirt. Then there was a slouchy hunter green pantsuit paired with a black J Brand camisole.
All of those looks were for her promotional appearances on behalf
of the new indie Song
One. Another ensemble, which she wore to do interviews in the THR Sundance suite
with Facebook and American Airlines, was a Nonoo quilted oversize sweater over
a cotton pima tunic from pre-fall, all over skinny black leather pants. During
the day, she accessorized with a two-tone Marni Trunk bag and Carrera by Jimmy Choo leopard-print
shades.
From whence came the funkier side of Ms. Hathaway, we had to ask.
Sources in the know tell THR
that veteran stylist Penny
Lovell, who also works with Rose Byrne, Taylor Schilling, Bella Heathcote and Mary Elizabeth Winstead,
has been quietly pulling pieces from showrooms for Hathaway. Sundance
reportedly was the duo's first time out the gate together -- meaning that the
Oscar-winning actress has called off her long-term relationship with celebrity
stylist-turned-designer Rachel
Zoe (whose current clients include Jennifer Lawrence, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Garner and Isla Fisher).
Lovell is best known for having a knack for taking smart risks,
like Byrne's groundbreaking white Elie
Saab jumpsuit on the SAG Awards red carpet, leading the way for
jumpsuits as eveningwear. We hope this means something new and exciting for
Oscars, where Hathaway will present on the heels of her win last year for Les Miserables. If you
recall, the normally impeccably dressed Hathaway showed up at the last minute
in a pale pink satin Prada
dress with unfortunately placed darts that became the most tweeted moment on
the Oscar 2013 red carpet. Hathaway
worked with Zoe for roughly a decade.
Anne Hathaway 'Took A Beating From The
Internet' After Oscars Win
(1 January 2014, Just Jared)
(1 January 2014, Just Jared)
Anne Hathaway steps out of a studio after
reportedly partaking in a singing lesson on Thursday (January 30) in Los
Angeles. The 31-year-old actress
recently opened up about keeping out of the spotlight after her Oscars win. “We had been working on the script for two
years before we actually started shooting,” Anne said to MTV about her Sundance film Song One. “All of the
elements came together in that moment. I don’t want to bring up a sore subject
or anything—I think my publicist is probably like, ‘No, no no’—but I had just
taken a little bit of a beating from the Internet,” Anne added about her
2013
Oscars win for Les Miserables
Do We Really Hate Anne Hathaway?
(By Alex Williams, New
York Times, 05 April 2013)
Will they ever
stop hating on Anne Hathaway? “There’s something about her that rubs me the
wrong way,” Alexis Rhiannon wrote in a screed against the Oscar-winning actress
in Crushable,
the celebrity blog, last fall, adding later, “I feel like she’s not a real
person.” A writer for The New
Yorker’s Culture Desk blog, Sasha Weiss, explored the question: “Why are
you so annoying?” And then there was the
contest on The San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site, which anointed her “The
Most Annoying Celebrity of 2013.” The
cyberhaters even have their own catchy name, “Hathahaters,” which James Franco
and Howard Stern dissected on Mr. Stern’s SiriusXM radio
show two weeks ago. “Everyone sort
of hates Anne Hathaway,” Mr. Stern said, speculating that it was because she
comes off as “so affected and actressy.” Mr. Franco did not strain to defend
his 2011 Academy Awards co-host. “I’m not an expert on- I guess they’re called
‘Hathahaters’- but I think that’s what maybe triggers it,” he replied cagily.
So why does the
perky and supremely talented actress inspire such froth? Ms. Hathaway could
simply be a victim of what the British call “tall poppy syndrome” — the bloom
that pokes above the others is the first to get cut. With her too-perfect
mouth, flawless skin, doe eyes and svelte figure, Ms. Hathaway is certainly one
of Hollywood’s most visible blossoms of late, particularly after scooping up a
best supporting actress Oscar and Golden Globe for her turn as
Fantine in “Les Misérables.” But in
recent months, the Hathahating has moved beyond garden-variety snarkiness- as
seen with Gwyneth Paltrow, say, or Taylor
Swift - and become
a meme with unlikely stickiness. Hathahaters have spawned a Twitter hashtag (#hathahaters),
a portentous debate
before the Academy Awards about whether Hathahatred would hurt her chances for
an Oscar, and a high-minded cultural discourse seeking to deconstruct Ms.
Hathaway’s alleged powers to annoy. (Did we mention The New Yorker — or a blog
post by Ross Douthat, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, in which
he invokes Hathahaters to illustrate a new Pew study saying that the
Twittersphere offers a skewed snapshot of public opinion?)
No one, it should
be noted, accuses her of doing anything wrong. Rather, Ms. Hathaway seems to
have become a mirror for our own inadequacies. “It’s not really Anne Hathaway I
‘hate,’ ” said Sarah Nicole Prickett, a writer for Vice and The New
Inquiry, a culture and commentary site. “It’s all the lesser, real-life Anne
Hathaways I have known — princessy, theater-schooled girls who have no game and
no sex appeal and eat raisins for dessert.” Indeed, for some nonfans, Ms. Hathaway seems
to embody the archetypal high school drama geek who cannot turn off the eager,
girlish persona, even away from the stage. “We love authenticity, that’s why we
have a billion reality shows,” said Neal Gabler, an author of several
best-selling books on Hollywood culture and history. “And here comes Anne Hathaway.
Everything she does seems managed, calculated or rehearsed. Her inauthenticity
— or the feeling of her inauthenticity — is now viral.”
Fine, write her
up for misdemeanor phoniness. But when has that ever been a crime in Hollywood?
But it does not end there. “Why Do Women
Hate Anne Hathaway (But Love Jennifer Lawrence)?” Ann Friedman asked on New
York magazine’s fashion and women’s issues blog, The
Cut. “We simply don’t find successful ‘perfect’ women all that likable,”
she wrote, adding that women prefer sassy best-friend types like Jennifer
Lawrence, with her Oscar-night podium stumbles and self-effacing jokes about
Spanx and cheese steaks. One might think
that Ms. Hathaway would have an adoring fan base in the gay community — what
with her outspoken support of gay rights, her star turns in “Brokeback
Mountain” and “The Devil Wears Prada,” her fashion sophistication, a gay
brother and her reported plans to play Judy Garland in a biopic. But gay
people, too, have failed to embrace her, according to Derek Hartley, a
talk-show host on SiriusXM’s gay issues channel, OutQ. “Anne Hathaway practically demands
that we love her,” Mr. Hartley wrote. “I’ve seen less aggressive bids for our
attention on Grindr.”
But what if the
hatred is less about Ms. Hathaway and more about how social media has amplified
the echo chamber of celebrity blogs, reducing cultural commentary to a series
of innuendos, like high school gossip. That was suggested in a recent BuzzFeed
thread on “Why
Do People Hate Anne Hathaway.” Among the piercing insights offered (“She
has a huge horse mouth”), the blog post offered this theory: “She brings people
together in their hatred.” P. M. Forni,
a founder of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, which focuses
on manners and social behavior, agrees that piling on can be fun, in a perverse
sort of way. “The sensation of belonging to a group of like-minded people
activates the pleasure centers of the brain,” Dr. Forni said. “So at a certain
point, something like what has happened to Ms. Hathaway acquired momentum, and
people were willing and eager to be part of that momentum. The psychological dynamics at work are, at
least in part, the ones at work in cyberbullying,” he added. Jack Goncalo, an associate professor of
organizational behavior at Cornell University, who studies group dynamics, goes
further and argues that the Hathahaters might not actually harbor negative
feelings about Ms. Hathaway, but are merely following a mob mentality.
Psychologists call this “informational social influence.” “ ‘If the
majority has done my thinking for me, I can move on to something else,’ ”
Dr. Goncalo said. “People don’t want to think.”
In that sense,
Hathahating echoes the emergent online sport of “hate reading” — following a
blog regularly for the express purpose of ridiculing it, or “hate watching,”
the bad-television-show analog, as chronicled by Katie J. M. Baker, in Jezebel. “It’s like we’re in middle school,” Ms. Baker
said. “The easiest way to bond is to talk smack about someone else, whether
you’re online or at a party.”
It is a safe bet
that the real-life Ms. Hathaway is not enjoying the sport. Her spokesman
declined to comment for this article, and the actress herself has steered away
from the issue, although she was quoted after the Oscars as
saying that the endless barbs about her emotional awards-show acceptance
speeches do wear on her: “But you have to remember in life that there’s a
positive to every negative, and a negative to every positive.”
Her perfect smile
notwithstanding, the cyberhating has got to take a toll. Last week, Britain’s
Daily Mail published paparazzi
shots of Ms. Hathaway, her newsboy cap pulled low, on a book-buying spree
in New York, where she snatched up titles involving balance, health and
harmony. Her karma might
be looking up. After an onslaught of nasty Twitter messages mocking Ms.
Hathaway’s emotional Academy Awards acceptance speech, for example, Lena Dunham
took a stand in support. “Ladies: Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has
amazing teeth,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Let’s save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren’t advancing the cause.”
From Jersey Girl To L.A. Lady
(By Robert Strauss,
New York Times, 05 August 2001)
At age 19 and on the cusp of stardom, Anne Hathaway has that
just-so mix of self-confidence and self-effacement that embellishes her
girl-next-door good looks. ''A star?
said Ms. Hathaway. ''No, I don't think so. But it really is good to have an
acting career. Who could have thought it? I am, after all, a suburban Jersey
girl.'' But Ms. Hathaway -- who
graduated from Millburn High School last June -- has already put some distance
between herself and her alma mater. For now she is ensconced in Los Angeles and
sharing top billing with another former teenage actress, Julie Andrews, in
''The Princess Diaries,'' which opens nationwide this weekend.
Ms. Hathaway plays Mia Thermopolis, a run-of-the-mill San
Francisco prep school student who suddenly learns that the late father she
never knew was the prince of the Monaco-like country of Genovia and that she is
now the crown princess. The 65-year-old Ms. Andrews plays her grandmother, the
queen, and the movie also stars two other young entertainers: Heather
Matarazzo, Ms. Hathaway's best friend, and Mandy Moore, her school nemesis. The plot in this movie is not unlike Ms.
Andrews' ingenue role on Broadway in ''My Fair Lady,'' but this time Ms.
Andrews has to shape Ms. Hathaway into a proper princess. Along the way there
are crowd-waving drills, dance lessons and an ugly-duckling-to-swan makeover
that transforms Ms. Hathaway from an unkempt young woman to a radiant beauty.
The Andrews teaching magic apparently happened off-camera as
well. ''What I learned from her is
this,'' Ms. Hathaway said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. ''You are
not a star when you come in and demand things and want people to know how
special you are. The only time you become a star is when you treat everyone
alike. Being a star is acting appropriately. She is magnificent that way.'' During her years at Millburn High, Ms.
Hathaway said she was hardly a star. ''I was not in any most-popular clique,''
she said. ''I did normal things. I played soccer and studied a lot and did some
acting and had good friends. Things were just fine.'' Yet there were also differences. For one, when
she was 16, Ms. Hathaway was cast in the Fox Network program ''Get Real.'' In ''Get Real,'' Ms. Hathaway played Meghan
Green, the oldest of three children in a somewhat dysfunctional family. There
was a lot of explicit sexual content and language in the show. In the pilot,
Meghan's 16-year-old brother is found naked in bed with a girlfriend by his
mother. And one of Ms. Hathaway's lines, said about a potential home wrecker,
was, ''My God, you could hide Anne Frank in that cleavage.''
The show -- and Ms. Hathaway -- were well-received by
critics, who compared it with another critically acclaimed television show,
''My So-Called Life.'' One critic for Variety in fact compared Ms. Hathaway to
Claire Danes, the star of that seminal teen-angst show, calling her performance
''sizzling.'' Nonetheless, the show was cancelled after one season, and Ms.
Hathaway returned home to finish her senior year. ''Get Real'' was Ms. Hathaway's only on-screen
appearance before ''The Princess Diaries,'' but she was somewhat of a local
celebrity even earlier. She trained at the Paper Mill Playhouse, the 1,200-seat
state theater in Millburn, and appeared in several productions there. ''Annie always had this beautiful luminous quality
about her,'' said Robert Johanson, the artistic director of the Paper Mill.
''There are certain indescribable things that indicate star quality, and Annie
has got it. You notice it best when they are up there on stage in front of
1,200 people and it shines across the footlights.''
Ms. Hathaway said her mother, who was in a national touring
company of Les Miserables, and her father, a stagehand in college and now a
lawyer, actually tried to discourage her from acting at a young age. ''They so wanted me to have a normal life as a
kid,'' she said. ''They, of course, were right. And I, of course, wanted to be
an actress.'' Her family still prefers
normalcy, and indeed values its privacy. For instance, neither her parents nor
her two brothers consented to an interview -- or even wanted their names
mentioned in a newspaper article. In fact, Ms. Hathaway referred to her college
only as an Eastern liberal arts school, though Ms. Andrews, in the promotional
interviews for the movie, disclosed that it was Vassar College. Ms. Hathaway, who is about to enter her
sophomore year, concedes that she hopes to continue pursuing an acting career
while she majors in English and minors in women's studies. ''I didn t think all that much of it in 'Get
Real,' '' she said. ''There the actors seemed like actors and it was work. ''But doing 'The Princess Diaries' and meeting
people like Julie Andrews and, especially, Hector Elizando, I realized you
could be an actor and an advocate for things and have a full life as well,''
she said, noting that Mr. Elizando was a advocate for civil rights and other
political causes.
For now, she is enjoying the rest of the summer and getting
ready for school. ''I don't have any
projects going right now; there are some in the works, but none that are
greenlighted,'' she said, already comfortable with the Hollywood patois. She did another independent movie before ''The
Princess Diaries'' that has not yet been released called ''The Other Side of
Heaven,'' about Mormon missionaries, in which she has a small part as the wife
of a Mormon leader. As for her role in
''The Princess Diaries,'' she said she chose not to go to see movie with her
friends in Millburn. ''I think it would be kind of icky to see your own movie,
like saying, 'Wow! Aren't I great up there?' '' she said. But she said she hoped her friends noticed her
father, whose photograph was used for that of the prince, her dead father, in
the movie. It is those friends, she said, who keep her grounded. ''I want to keep my life as normal as
possible, and the way to do that is to keep close to those friends,'' said Ms.
Hathaway.
Still, for now she has given up her first sporting love,
soccer, which she played for 12 years beginning in the Millburn kiddie leagues.
She also said she hoped she could make the time to take part in her family's
traditional summer vacation in Cape May, though she is looking forward to her
first trip to Europe in the fall, where she will primarily be promoting the
movie's release. ''Other than that, I
will be glad to be in New York, where they know how to make a good bagel and
good pizza,'' she said. ''L.A. is nice for the weather, but, really, they have
got to learn to make bagels and pizza. I finally couldn't eat them and I lost
10 pounds. But I was just as happy to be back and gain it all back stuffing
pizza in my mouth.'' With a decidedly
non-princess giggle, she said: ''See, still a kid. Being from the New Jersey
suburbs, you never get too Hollywood.''
Anne
Hathaway Talks About Her Husband, Her Haters, And More
(By Glamour, 04 December 2012)
Newly married and
hearing Oscar murmurs for Les Misérables, Anne Hathaway preps for
her next role, as a face of One Billion Rising, the global movement to end
violence against women. Talking to its founder, Eve Ensler (author of
The Vagina Monologues), Hathaway, 30, opens up about her husband, her
haters, and why she wants you to just dance.
A day after Superstorm
Sandy tore through the northeastern United States, Anne Hathaway and I sat down
to talk in Glamour’s offices high above Times Square. I’ve known Anne
for years, as a friend and an actor in my plays. As New York struggled to right
itself, we talked about all the exciting things happening in Anne’s life. She
looked adorable with her pixie haircut (left over from her role as Fantine in
the new film version of Les
Misérables) and radiated love-happiness—she’d married
actor-jewelry designer Adam Shulman a few months before. And I thought,
Anne epitomizes all things rising: She’s fierce and vulnerable,
unusually beautiful, and someone you feel you’ve always known. She’s constantly
asking questions but knows her mind. And I’m thrilled that she’s representing One Billion Rising, a world action
culminating on February 14. We’re inviting one billion people—representing the
number of women on the planet who’ve been raped or beaten—to walk out of their
jobs, schools, and homes and dance. We want to shake the globe
(literally!) and announce that it’s time to end violence against women and
girls. I hope you’ll join Anne and me and dance, wherever you are.
Eve Ensler: You were
evacuated during Sandy. Can you talk about what this storm means to you? Anne Hathaway: Eight million people across the nation are without power; dozens of people in the New York area have lost their lives. We can’t be in denial [about climate change] anymore. And I’m just making sure that everyone I love is OK, and trying to offer help wherever I can.
Eve Ensler: Tell me
about One Billion Rising.
Anne Hathaway: It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that a billion women have been raped or beaten, just the enormity of that. When I was in college, I’d heard that one in four women would be raped, and I thought, God, that means I must know someone who was raped. Sure enough, I found out a week later that a friend had been. A billion is too big because one is too big.
Eve Ensler: It seems to
me that celebrities are kind of the new ruling class—they have all the money,
all the power. What’s that like?Anne Hathaway: It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that a billion women have been raped or beaten, just the enormity of that. When I was in college, I’d heard that one in four women would be raped, and I thought, God, that means I must know someone who was raped. Sure enough, I found out a week later that a friend had been. A billion is too big because one is too big.
Anne Hathaway: You realize certain things. At this stage in my life—and this moment will not last forever—me walking my dog is news. And because I take very seriously the idea that I can make an impact in the world, I hold back my voice so I can make more of an impact when I do use it. A cause like One Billion Rising is something I want to scream about, and I want you to take that scream seriously because I don’t fall out of nightclubs. I don’t have photographers capture me spending untold amounts on a handbag. Of course, in the court of celebrity, if you try to be serious, you may look like a fool. In One Billion Rising you have activists and thinkers and “celebrities.” But I’m an actress. The celebrity thing just happened.
Eve Ensler: We’re
calling on one billion people to rise up and dance on February 14. Why do you
dance?
Anne Hathaway: When I think back to some of the most fun nights of my life, it was just me out dancing without a care in the world. It’s a release, an outlet. And I’m a firm believer that we can tap into a collective energy and consciousness; on the 14th, even if you’re in a field dancing by yourself, you’re going to know you’re not alone. That’s something I hope we can carry forward as we resolve to protect ourselves and our sisters.
Eve Ensler: So talk
about the specific day. Do you have a vision of where you’ll be dancing?Anne Hathaway: When I think back to some of the most fun nights of my life, it was just me out dancing without a care in the world. It’s a release, an outlet. And I’m a firm believer that we can tap into a collective energy and consciousness; on the 14th, even if you’re in a field dancing by yourself, you’re going to know you’re not alone. That’s something I hope we can carry forward as we resolve to protect ourselves and our sisters.
Anne Hathaway: I think we need to have a big party in West Hollywood, and I’m going to get the head of every studio and talent agency to commit to dancing, because L.A. is filled with people who are passionate about women’s issues. And I’m psyched because Valentine’s Day has become stressful for people and we’re giving them something positive to look forward to, a reason to be proud of themselves. And not just women: Last night my husband and my father both said, “Can we dance?” I was so happy! My husband’s a good dancer too.
Eve Ensler: What music
do you want to dance to?
Anne Hathaway: Right now I’m totally into David Guetta and that song that he has with Sia, “Titanium.” I also love Rihanna’s “We Found Love.” On the theme of girl empowerment, I think “Firework” by Katy Perry is really good.
Eve Ensler: This is Glamour’s
Self-Expression Issue. When did you feel like you began to express yourself in
a way that was authentic to you?Anne Hathaway: Right now I’m totally into David Guetta and that song that he has with Sia, “Titanium.” I also love Rihanna’s “We Found Love.” On the theme of girl empowerment, I think “Firework” by Katy Perry is really good.
Anne Hathaway: I had that moment after I finished making Rachel Getting Married. I realized that the life I’d been living [was not authentic] and that I had to make a change. Then I found out that my trust had been betrayed quite massively. So for me, that call came at the end of 2007. Who was I going to be? There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over “Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?”
Eve Ensler: And is that
an everyday obsession?
Anne Hathaway: If I’m honest, yes. There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.
Eve Ensler: Because you
should somehow be different than the rest of the human race?Anne Hathaway: If I’m honest, yes. There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.
Anne Hathaway: I just think about the ridicule you get if you have an off day. If people weren’t watching, I’d be so much more eccentric. I know it makes me sound weak, but rather than make myself happy and wear the silly hat and say, “Oh, I don’t care,” I actually really don’t feel like getting made fun of. So I put on something boring and navy and go out and try to disappear.
Eve Ensler: And liberation would be getting to a point where you just didn’t give a sh-t?
Anne Hathaway: That would be the technical definition of liberation, yes.
Eve Ensler: I want to
talk about work. You played so many good girls—in The Princess Diaries
and The Devil Wears Prada. Then came the troubled lead in Rachel
Getting Married. Was that a departure for you?
Anne Hathaway: I never thought of it in terms of a dichotomy—good girl versus bad girl—I was just trying to think of myself as a whole person. Of course, after Princess Diaries, I was labeled a good girl, and for the first eight years of my career I had to fight to get any other kind of role. But I like fighting for a job, actually. Once you get it, you feel like you’ve emerged victorious from the scrap and you’re like, “OK, this one’s mine. Did it. Done.” And it’s not based on how many Twitter followers I have: zero. My acting got me this role. So it feels pure to me.
Eve Ensler: Let’s talk
about married life. How is it?Anne Hathaway: I never thought of it in terms of a dichotomy—good girl versus bad girl—I was just trying to think of myself as a whole person. Of course, after Princess Diaries, I was labeled a good girl, and for the first eight years of my career I had to fight to get any other kind of role. But I like fighting for a job, actually. Once you get it, you feel like you’ve emerged victorious from the scrap and you’re like, “OK, this one’s mine. Did it. Done.” And it’s not based on how many Twitter followers I have: zero. My acting got me this role. So it feels pure to me.
Anne Hathaway: It’s wonderful. I feel like I’ve found my other half, and I’m so excited about getting to love him for the rest of our lives.
Eve Ensler: You used to
be critical of marriage. What changed?
Anne Hathaway: Him. I would never have gotten married if it weren’t for him. You have to want to be married to someone. You have to feel that reciprocated. Marriage for marriage's sake doesn't make any sense to me, and I found someone with whom I could put my money where my mouth is, I guess.
Eve Ensler: What is it
about him?Anne Hathaway: Him. I would never have gotten married if it weren’t for him. You have to want to be married to someone. You have to feel that reciprocated. Marriage for marriage's sake doesn't make any sense to me, and I found someone with whom I could put my money where my mouth is, I guess.
Anne Hathaway: He's a good man. He's beyond intelligent. He loves fearlessly. His beliefs are beautiful. He's my best friend. I love him. I just feel that I have the greatest husband in the world for me. You know, we get a lot of pressure to define ourselves as women by how wild we are: How many guys did you sleep with? How drunk did you get? And we all bow to that. We've all done that walk of shame at one point or another.
Eve Ensler: I wouldn't
call it shame. I had a good time.
Anne Hathaway: Well, I was always kind of proud of myself! But there’s not a lot of positive information out there about marriage. It’s the old ball and chain, the seven-year itch, the divorce rate. Still, my parents have been married for 30 years; his parents have been married for 40 years. Mine had great moments and some really sh-tty moments. But they couldn’t have been married to anyone else, and they make each other better.
Eve Ensler: And you gave
the money for your wedding pictures to support gay marriage. Why?Anne Hathaway: Well, I was always kind of proud of myself! But there’s not a lot of positive information out there about marriage. It’s the old ball and chain, the seven-year itch, the divorce rate. Still, my parents have been married for 30 years; his parents have been married for 40 years. Mine had great moments and some really sh-tty moments. But they couldn’t have been married to anyone else, and they make each other better.
Anne Hathaway: I really didn’t want the paparazzi at my wedding, and I thought that I’d outfoxed them. The plan was to release a photo to my fans on Instagram. But when some paparazzi got aerial shots and I realized that they could make money off them, I wanted to prevent that, to make the money go somewhere else. So I released four photos, and every time they’re printed, in perpetuity, the money goes to a corresponding charity.
Eve Ensler: Let’s talk a
bit about your hair. I’m relating because I was attached to my bob, and then
when I got cancer, all my hair went away. Since then I’ve kept it short. Was
cutting it liberating?
Anne Hathaway: I was faux Zen about it. I’d resolved to cut my hair for Les Mis and to do it on-screen to make it feel real. And then the morning came, and I was shaking like a leaf. I almost couldn’t do my job. When it was over, I went to the darkest corner of my trailer and I looked in the mirror, and I saw my little brother! But eventually I felt like the coolest girl in the world.
Eve Ensler: Has it
changed how people act toward you?Anne Hathaway: I was faux Zen about it. I’d resolved to cut my hair for Les Mis and to do it on-screen to make it feel real. And then the morning came, and I was shaking like a leaf. I almost couldn’t do my job. When it was over, I went to the darkest corner of my trailer and I looked in the mirror, and I saw my little brother! But eventually I felt like the coolest girl in the world.
Anne Hathaway: People are warmer to me. Also, I’m a fairly shy person, and [in the past] on days when I didn’t want to deal with the world, I’d wear a hat and pull my hair around me and hide. I can’t do that now. I have to be me all the time. And it’s changed my habits, because if I was having a bad skin day, I could have a good hair day. Now I have no hair, so I have to take better care of myself because I’m all face!
Eve Ensler: Did it help
with the role of Fantine in Les Mis?
Anne Hathaway: It helped. I also lost 25 pounds for the role. It was visceral and painful and beautiful to play a woman who sacrificed so much for her child.
Anne Hathaway: It helped. I also lost 25 pounds for the role. It was visceral and painful and beautiful to play a woman who sacrificed so much for her child.
Jenny
Lewis, Anne Hathaway Embrace Masculinity In 'Just One Of The Guys' Video
(By Colin Joyce, Spin, 15 July 2014)
Jenny Lewis first
shared "Just
One of the Guys," her rambling single about the perils of aging, about
a month ago and as we get closer to the release of her third solo LP The
Voyager, she's released a star-studded clip for that cut that manages
to take the subject a little more lightly.
Casting Academy Award-winner Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart, and Brie Larson as
her barefooted backing band, the Lewis-directed clip runs through a
straight-faced performance of the easygoing track. Things get a little more
silly when the band takes the title of the song literally and tries on scuzzy
facial hair and monochromatic tracksuits.
Check out the
video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irvcf6dCk-k&feature=player_embedded
), via GQ,
and for more on the follow-up to 2008's Acid
Tongue in advance of its July 29 release, read our recent
interview with Lewis about the insomnia and loss that inspired the new
record.
Kiss
& Make Up With Anne Hathaway: We Dare You
(By Laura Brown , Harpers Bazaar, 09 Oct 2014)
We've all done it. Watched an awards show—red carpet, speeches, audience reactions—and judged, and judged, and judged. And it's fun, right? Sitting on the couch, captivated by our own cleverness. Occasionally someone comes up with a catchy term, like Brangelina, or Robsten (circa 2010). Or Hathahater. It just trips off the tongue, doesn't it? You could practically trademark it. The problem is, there's an actual person, Anne Hathaway, at whom this brutally jaunty phrase is directed. A woman who is sincere to a fault, as earnest as quinoa. A woman who is warm and funny, who has a laugh as big as her personality. Hathaway somehow attracted this "hate" during the 2013 awards season (when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of Fantine in Les Misérables) through her perceived inauthenticity, her very actress-ness.
Almost two
years later, Hathaway is the first to admit that public speaking isn't her
strength. "I really struggle with it—it makes me incredibly anxious,"
she says, scooping up some eggs and sausage (no more veganism, but more on that
later) at New York's Greenwich Hotel. She also enjoys a heavy-handed metaphor.
"I'm really good at those in my acting," she adds wryly, "and in
my life." One thing Hathaway's not
into, however: a pity party. It's rare that an actress will admit an image
problem to her publicist, let alone the general public. Cut to a conference
room at Bazaar this past summer, where the legendary art
director George Lois collaborated with Hathaway on the concept for this cover
story. "So some people don't like you, right?" Lois asks.
"Yep," she replies.
So here we
are, kissing and making up. "What are we supposed to do—pretend like it
didn't happen?" Hathaway asks. It happened all right, a steady lava of
invective that began after her Golden Globes acceptance speech and continued
for six weeks, all the way to the Oscars, with "Hathahater" echoing
around social media for a year after that. "People treated me a certain
way," she says. "But I've grown from it. This whole thing has made me
a way more compassionate and loving person. And I don't feel sorry for
myself." As she was preparing for
the Golden Globes, Hathaway had just come off a wave of press that focused on
her losing weight and shaving her head to play Fantine. "I damaged my
health during Les Mis, which I didn't want to mention in case
it seemed like I was courting sympathy," she says. She was exhausted,
flu-ridden, and frustrated about the lack of interest in the character and in
the issue of sexual slavery.
So when Hathaway won the award for Best Supporting Actress, she was "weirdly presentational. One of the things I've been accused of is being inauthentic. And they were right—but not for the reason they thought. "I couldn't tie this moment to what I really wanted to say," she continues. "And that's on me, because Lupita did it," she observes of Lupita N'yongo's graceful speech on winning Best Supporting Actress earlier this year for 12 Years a Slave. Hathaway "fumbled through the end," got offstage, and realized that she'd forgotten to thank her manager of 15 years, who was battling cancer. "One of my most regretted life moments," she says. When Les Misérables won for Best Musical or Comedy, Hathaway asked the film's producer Eric Fellner if she could say something else. "While everyone was still getting onstage, I spoke. I should have gone after everyone else. I own that; it was rude. People saw that as grabby, I guess. I don't know."
So when Hathaway won the award for Best Supporting Actress, she was "weirdly presentational. One of the things I've been accused of is being inauthentic. And they were right—but not for the reason they thought. "I couldn't tie this moment to what I really wanted to say," she continues. "And that's on me, because Lupita did it," she observes of Lupita N'yongo's graceful speech on winning Best Supporting Actress earlier this year for 12 Years a Slave. Hathaway "fumbled through the end," got offstage, and realized that she'd forgotten to thank her manager of 15 years, who was battling cancer. "One of my most regretted life moments," she says. When Les Misérables won for Best Musical or Comedy, Hathaway asked the film's producer Eric Fellner if she could say something else. "While everyone was still getting onstage, I spoke. I should have gone after everyone else. I own that; it was rude. People saw that as grabby, I guess. I don't know."
The next
day, Hathaway had some friends over to brainstorm a Funny or Die video
about celebrity pregnancy rumors, "like, could we get Jen Aniston to talk
about how long she's actually been gestating, according to the tabloids."
While Googling her own pregnancy rumors, it popped up in an article asking,
"Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?" Hathaway had also just turned 30 and gotten
married, to Adam Shulman, two life-altering moments that got mixed up in a
roiling pot of bad PR. "I was in crisis," she says. "Now I'd be
fine. I really would be. I'd let it roll off my back, but at the time I was
still partly Fantine. I was still identifying with being a victim." Victim or no, it sucked. Abuse was thrown at
Hathaway as regularly as borrowed jewels.
And on top of that, there was Dressgate. For the Oscars, "I found a dress, like a month before," she explains. "It was the most beautiful, reflective, shimmery dress—rainbows were going to dance off me." However, the day before the ceremony, Hathaway was called by a tearful stylist's assistant saying that the dress had already been worn. So she regrouped, choosing a gown by Valentino. "I love the house, and he's my buddy," she says of the famed designer, with whom she has been friends for years. "One of my favorite people in the entire world. It all made sense." But that night, at Oscar rehearsals, her Les Misérables castmate Amanda Seyfried showed Hathaway her Alexander McQueen dress. "And it's a lilac version of my dress. Two completely different designers." At 10 o'clock the night before the Oscars, "I didn't have a friggin' dress, which I normally wouldn't care about …" Long pause. "But I really needed a dress, and everybody hates me, and I just really needed a dress."
And on top of that, there was Dressgate. For the Oscars, "I found a dress, like a month before," she explains. "It was the most beautiful, reflective, shimmery dress—rainbows were going to dance off me." However, the day before the ceremony, Hathaway was called by a tearful stylist's assistant saying that the dress had already been worn. So she regrouped, choosing a gown by Valentino. "I love the house, and he's my buddy," she says of the famed designer, with whom she has been friends for years. "One of my favorite people in the entire world. It all made sense." But that night, at Oscar rehearsals, her Les Misérables castmate Amanda Seyfried showed Hathaway her Alexander McQueen dress. "And it's a lilac version of my dress. Two completely different designers." At 10 o'clock the night before the Oscars, "I didn't have a friggin' dress, which I normally wouldn't care about …" Long pause. "But I really needed a dress, and everybody hates me, and I just really needed a dress."
On the
morning of the Oscars, a pale pink satin Prada gown arrived at Hathaway's
house. "I was like, 'Wow! I can do this. It's beautiful. It's appropriate.
It's modern. It's minimal.' "Minimalism needs tailoring, and tailoring
took time Hathaway didn't have. " I
look in the mirror, turn to Adam, and say, 'It looks like my nipples are hard.'
He says, 'You look beautiful. Your nipples look pointy. The red carpet's about
to close. We gotta go.' "
Anyway, yes,
"it came true." Hathaway won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress,
for a performance that was a true feat of commitment and physical extremes. And
she lost, for committing the crime of public earnestness. After winning an Oscar, they say that a
girl's phone rings off the hook. For Hathaway, it was the opposite. "I had
directors say to me, 'I think you're great. You're perfect for this role, but I
don't know how audiences will accept you because of all this stuff, this
baggage,' "she recalls. Then Christopher Nolan called. Hathaway had last
worked with Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises, in which she
played Catwoman. He wanted to take her into space. "Once it was announced
that I was doing Interstellar," she remembers,
"thankfully the phone started ringing again."
In Interstellar, out
this month, Hathaway plays an astronaut who ventures into space alongside
Matthew McConaughey to save an endangered Earth. "She's very serious, very
prickly," she says. Very non-Hathaway, and, at the time, very necessary.
"I watched my first scene the other day and I was like, 'Oh, my God!
Chris, I'm such a bitch!' And he said [she puts on a droll British accent],
'Yeah, but you grow quite fond of her.'"
The shoot entailed several weeks in Iceland, with Hathaway spending most
of her days in a 40-pound space suit. That's where she bid veganism adieu.
"I just didn't feel good or healthy," she says, "not
strong." Cut to a ReykjavÃk restaurant and an adventurous costar who said
that they should try everything: She caved with a fresh piece of
fish—"from a stream I could see from where I was sitting." The next
day she "just felt better." So now, when she needs chicken soup for
the soul, she'll have chicken soup. More
recently Hathaway has been back in New York, shooting The Intern with
Robert De Niro (he's the intern), and contemplating what daring means to her.
"It's easier to think about the way I'm least daring. When I meet people
for the first time, I'm friendly but shy. I'm much less outwardly nervous than
I used to be, but I still get anxious sometimes." What else? She looks
down at her clear brogues. "I'm not very daring in my street style,
usually because there's a photographer around!" Today she's wearing her
"favorite shirt in the world," an Iro tank that reads, NO BAD VIBES.
"I am getting more daring now—I'll wear my mom jeans in public that
haven't been tailored 'just so' yet, just because they feel good. For a long
time I was afraid of the harsh things people would say about me, but I might as
well be happy."
One of the
ways Hathaway is daring is with the menfolk. "I have no problem making the
first move when I see a guy I like," she announces. Like with Shulman, her
husband of two years. "I was in L.A. when I met him. I was told he had a
girlfriend, and I backed off because I'm not that girl. Then when I found out
six weeks later that he didn't have a girlfriend, I was like, 'We should throw
a party. We should invite Adam.'" And
the rest is history." From the very
first second we knew it was a very powerful and exciting connection we
had," she says. "And it just gets better." Shulman is widely
acknowledged to be one of the nicest chaps around. "There's no pushing him
around," she adds, "but he's so gentle and present."
Hathaway's
other daring move: her career path. "Even though I've had great success,
touch wood, it hasn't been easy. A lot of people have told me, 'You're not this
and so can't play that,' and I can't tell you the amount of times I've been
told I'm not sexy. I just go: 'I'm a lot of things. Just because I don't wear
my sexiness overtly doesn't mean that I can't become that girl for a role.
That's what I do; I become things. Use your imagination, buddy.' So in terms of
not listening to what other people told me about who I was as an actress and
then really pursuing it, I think I've been daring in that way." Hathaway tips a daring hat to, number one,
Tilda Swinton. "Tilda is it, but she's so cool about it. She's so cool,
she'd be like, 'Oh, it's not daring. I just did it.' Hmm, Jonathan
Demme"—who directed Hathaway to her first Oscar nomination, for Rachel
Getting Married—"he's still my mentor and hero. And Matthew
McConaughey is the most daring man I know. He never judged himself along the
way, and it's all come together for him so wholly and deeply. He is totally
himself."
When it
comes to style, "Leandra Medine from [the blog] Man Repeller. I feel
empowered by her. Not just her humor; she reminds me of Diana Vreeland. She
wants girls to dress for themselves, be goofy, awesome girls. I have a
Pinterest board, which is called Closet Crush, and it's just all her and Jane
Birkin and a little Sophia Amoruso because I think she's fabulous too." Ask Hathaway about her most daring outfit and
the answer is swift: "I fucking think that pink Oscar dress!" She
laughs. "Now that you know the backstory, that was by far in a way the
most daring dress I have ever worn. It maybe didn't look it, but that was
it." Now that dress—and everything
that came with it—is on the shelf. After The Intern, Hathaway
is heading to London to reprise her role as the White Queen, in the sequel
to Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass. And after
that, a long break, some work with an initiative called the Girl Effect, and
"being home. I don't want to hunt down jobs right now. I want to take it
easy and explore other things," she says, smiling. "Other aspects of
myself."
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/anne-hathaway-interview-1114
Hathaway
Is Fighting An Impossible Battle Against Haters. It’s Not Worth Her Time.
Oh, the case
of poor Anne Hathaway. The Oscar-winning actress has received an avalanche of bad
press over the last couple of years for that most polarizing kind of
offense: Being herself. She’s the kind
of celebrity that inexplicably bugs people. She has “too perfect” of an image;
a sunny personality that must be fake; a tendency to take herself very
seriously. Things really heated up during the 2013 awards season when Hathaway
took home many well-earned trophies for her role in “Les
Miserables.” But to many, she came off as smug and self-important
through the entire process. So despite winning awards, her reputation ended up
being greatly damaged instead of enhanced.
Now,
Hathaway’s back in the news as she makes the press rounds for the much-anticipated
Christopher Nolan film, “Interstellar,” co-starring Matthew McConaughey and
Jessica Chastain. In the process, she’s addressed and defended her image,
talking candidly about how people’s cruel comments have affected her
self-esteem. It’s easy to feel sympathetic, but also tough to watch because
she’s fighting a losing battle: When it comes to public perception of
celebrities, it is extraordinarily difficult to change people’s minds. In a cover
story for Harper’s Bazaar, Hathaway took a defensive tactic, running down
all of the moments people didn’t like. Viewers thought she was being
“inauthentic” during her grandiose acceptance speech for Best Actress at the
2013 Golden Globes; Hathaway acknowledges the speech was awkward but only
because “I couldn’t tie this moment to what I really wanted to say.”
People also
felt it was tacky when on the same night as the entire “Les Mis” cast
accepted the Best Musical award, Hathaway grabbed the microphone first to thank
one additional person; turns out, that person was her manager of 15 years who
was fighting cancer. Hathaway also
defended her Oscar night decision to switch to a Prada gown, which caused a
minor controversy when she backed out of wearing a dress by Valentino, a close
friend. (She found out last minute that co-star Amanda Seyfried would be
wearing a similar gown.) To the people
that already don’t like Hathaway, her excuses still might not be enough. In the
article she talks about stumbling across a story online titled
something like “Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?” She told
Harper’s that finding that story felt like being “Punched in the
gut…Shocked and slapped and embarrassed. Even now I can feel the shame.”
Hathaway added that her reputation started to cost her roles in movies since
directors didn’t like her public image.
Beyond how
her reputation affected her professional life, Hathaway expanded on the
emotional consequences Thursday in an interview on Ellen
DeGeneres’s talk show. DeGeneres asked how Hathaway deals with all the
criticism, which amounts to “cyber-bullying.”
Hathaway paused for a long time before answering. “Well, I listened at
first. And I couldn’t help it, you know? You try to shut it off and I couldn’t.
And then I realized that why I couldn’t was I had not learned to love myself
yet,” she explained. “I hadn’t gotten there. And if you don’t love yourself
when someone else says horrible things to you, part of you is always going to
believe them.”
She
continued, saying she just wanted to figure out who she was and not feel
dependent on what other people thought. “And it’s been a really cool great
journey,” she explained. “I feel like I’ve arrived in a place where, you know,
maybe not every minute of every day, but way more than I used to, I have a
tremendous about love and compassion for everyone else. And best of all I have
it for myself, which I never enjoyed before.”
The audience burst into loud applause, and DeGeneres commended her
attitude as well. If only it were that
simple. While it’s a great answer and she sounds genuine, Hathaway shouldn’t
bother addressing the haters with such a calm, mature attitude. Being
reasonable is ultimately useless. The viewing public is strange —
generally, the greater online audience tends to decide that they’re going to
dislike someone until they’re good and ready to stop.
Also,
Hathaway has already found the most valuable way to get back on people’s good
side: Focus on what she’s undeniably good at, which is acting. She told
Harper’s she started getting back in Hollywood’s good graces once Nolan
cast her in “Interstellar,” which shows that the best way to shut everyone
up is to prove it it doesn’t really matter what snarky Twitter users think —
she’s still going to get roles because she’s talented.
Hopefully
after this press tour, Hathaway will make these self-defense explanations
a thing of the past. Because if there’s one thing everyone has learned, trying
to convince angry Internet commenters they’re wrong is just a losing battle.
