After finding major success as a teen with Disney’s “The Princess Diaries,” Anne Hathaway is threading the Hollywood needle. There were box office hits (“The Devil Wears Prada”), awards ceremonies (“Les Miserables,” for which he won an Oscar in 2013) and auteur-led efforts (“Rachel Getting Married”). But amid some personal exhaustion, a growing family and a shocked public reaction, Hathaway, now 43, has retreated somewhat in recent years and is firmly established in a quiet place.
“I thought I was in the small, weird indie section of my career,” Hathaway tells Popcast, The New York Times culture chat show, in a new interview.
This year, Hathaway has starred in three widely divergent films, starting with “Mother Mary,” a haunting portrait from director David Lowery of the Taylor Swift-Lady Gaga hybrid going through a dark period (with songs written and produced by Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff and FKA Twigs), in wide release Friday. Next comes the vengeance of one-time shaggy assistant Andy Sachs in one of his favorite roles, “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” In July, Hathaway will appear as Penelope in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and is expected to have two more films before the end of the year.
It wasn’t until 2024 that Hathaway felt ready for such an intense spotlight again. “I kind of stepped back and said, OK, I’m ready for whatever comes with the pop, ‘We really need a global audience for this movie to be a hit,’ I’m ready for whatever comes with it,” she explained in a wide-ranging conversation. “Before, I was like, I’m not ready as a person. I’m not ready as an artist. I need to grow more, otherwise I’ll be eaten alive.”
That mature stage of career – along with the confidence not to worry whether the online commentary is coming at them with hate – has also produced a kind of personal softness.
“I used to be a very timid person,” Hathaway said. “I used to have an overcharged electric-fence security system, and I’m no longer interested in it.
She continued, “When I turned 40 something happened and I realized I was living my life like it was a dress rehearsal,” and in fact, it was showtime.
These are edited excerpts of the conversation, which may have seen here Or heard in full below.
Joe Coscarelli Where did the exploration of the character of Mother Mary, this tortured pop star, begin for you: was it a research project or imagination?
Anne Hathaway This ended both of them. As soon as I read it for the first time, I had an intuitive understanding of the character – his brokenness, the dialogue and everything about the acting. Everything else was a lot of research. All the performance material sums up the years-long process of learning how to become a pop star.
Coscarelli As Mother Mary, you sing songs by Charli XCX and FKA Twigs, but when you first started playing the character, you had no idea what her voice would sound like.
Hathaway I got a message from Jack and he said, “Hey, do you want to come in and check out the vibe?” I knew what vibe was, but I was like, is that a technical term? Siri, what’s the vibe?
Like, I had never considered vibe-based art before, you know? For me, filmmaking comes from a very different place and acting comes from a very different place. I became frightened and frustrated, realizing I had no idea how to sing into a microphone because all my training had been on stage, where a lot of projection is involved. Pop music is the opposite. It’s effortless power, which isn’t really my thing. I’m, like, all about the effort (laughs).
John Caramanica Your mother was an actress and a great stage singer. Was pop taboo in your house, in the sense that theater is where serious art happens?
Hathaway Very much, yes. Growing up in my house, pop was given no status. Real singers did Broadway. And most of my early musical performance was based on theatre. My older brother was super into rap, then he got straight into hardcore. I love my big brother, so obviously I was listening to this. And then when I was in high school, Pop Princess happened and MTV’s “TRL” was huge. I felt very confused, because I knew I loved Britney Spears very much. But in my mind there was this voice of my parents, But Stephen Sondheim is the real music.
Coscarelli What kind of conversations were you having with director David Lowery about the pop reference points of “Mother Mary”?
Hathaway You meet David and he’s clearly a goth: his nails are painted black and he never has a skull on his T-shirt. When I found out she was a die-hard Swiftie I thought it was so adorable. They had a long playlist of all different types of music – I mean, obscure artists I’d never heard of, but then also Lorde’s “Green Light” and Max Richter. The purpose of the playlist was not to show what Mother Mary sounded like, but to show what her music could make you feel. And right in the middle of that playlist was the “Anti-Hero.” I always liked Taylor a lot, but this was the song where I was like, oh no, wait, she’s taking over my mind. And then I got really deep into his music. And then once you see it, you can’t ignore it. You’re just like, oh, he’s a genius.
Caramanica Do you have a favorite Taylor era now?
Hathaway No, I think they all talk to each other. “era” era. To have this kind of retrospective perspective at the age she’s at, and to realize that she had a perspective that didn’t exist in the world, and she literally created the space she wanted for herself.
Coscarelli How do we differentiate pop stars from actors?
Hathaway When I finished (“Mother Mary”) I was like, wow, I’m no pop star. What I love to do is share the things I’ve been through, the secret parts of my soul, through a filter, through an embodiment that I can personally, secretly relate to. But I never want to talk about it nor do I want to reveal it. With a pop star, the image you project is based on you. And so you are your own incarnation.
Coscarelli In your career, you have been very careful about your real life and the human side of yourself. People probably think they know you, but, unlike a pop star, they don’t have much to project onto you when they see you in these iconic roles.
Hathaway It’s funny because this amazing thing suddenly happened to me: I was in a classic movie that a generation took to their hearts and never let go, and we’re still in a relationship almost 30 years later. And that movie was “The Princess Diaries.” So I don’t think of myself in reputational terms. I think of myself the way I’ve always thought of myself, which is that I’m an actress. I have been very fortunate to have been a part of these films that have given people solace in something that has been going on for generations now. And I’ve tried my best to honor and protect that legacy as I grow as an artist, while also being a person who can walk down the street and be very, very, very normal, as normal as I can be.
Caramanica I see certain threads in the types of characters you gravitate towards. You have the “Princess Diaries” and the original “Devil Wears Prada” – young woman, new to the world, has a lot of systems imposed on her that say all you really need is toughness. In the other direction, “Mother Mary,” “The Intern” – a tightly woven character who must learn to remain unstitched, to find the tenderness or uncertainty within herself.
Hathaway When the first “Devil Wears Prada” came out, it was huge and I had that thing that happens, where suddenly you’re sent a bunch of scripts and you’re like, oh, it’s all the same character. I was 24, I think, and I remember thinking to myself, this is how you’re viewed. This is what you have to oppose now. I got so lucky with those two, they were such high watermarks, that I thought if I made others and they were like ersatz versions of that, how would I feel?
Coscarelli You do “Brokeback Mountain,” “Rachel Getting Married” with Ang Lee…
Hathaway Jonathan Demme. And again, that’s the thing, and this is one of the reasons why I feel so attracted to David Lowery as an artist is, you know, maybe my sensibility is more indie-auteur, but I also want to keep the lights on. I want to honor the legacy. So every few years you probably think it’s time to celebrate “Valentine’s Day.”
Coscarelli Returning to these iconic characters with “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Princess Diaries 3” in the works, do you mind playing the hit movies?
Hathaway I don’t care about that kind of stuff anymore. I am very surprised by this. I thought I was in the small, weird indie section of my career. I thought this was where I was meant to be. And so I’m really glad that somebody asked me to come back and do basically the equivalent of a stadium tour.
Coscarelli Your era tour!
Hathaway Because I went off and did my own weird thing, I appreciate the artistry of hit movies in a way I couldn’t when I was much younger. There is a reason why they are beloved. they are really nice. “The Devil Wears Prada” is an amazing movie.
Coscarelli It’s really hard to write an “anti-hero.”
Hathaway Its really hard To write “blank space”, do you know? And it shouldn’t be bad because we’ve heard it thousands of times.
Coscarelli It also coincides with this amazing moment in your career, in which you are one of the most beloved people on the Internet.
Hathaway (Manic laughter) Plot twist! (more hysterical laughter)
Caramanica The memes are in your favor.
Hathaway For now… we’ll see.
Caramanica It can come to any of us.
Hathaway Oh I know.
Coscarelli Have you allowed yourself to feel the good side by being on the other side of it at different moments?
Hathaway I don’t know What You mention it (laughs). I’m relieved that I won’t have to deal with the bad side for now. But I think what both of them have taught me is that it’s probably best to keep a certain level of detachment from it all.
Coscarelli Do you like working at this pace – five films this year, spanning centuries and waves – or is it just, I have to take them when they come?
Hathaway That kind of pace is not sustainable, especially now. I have small children. I just thought of the last three years as an anomaly. When my kids are out of my house, which would be like in the late 50s and early 60s, I don’t ask anyone to keep up that pace with me. So I kind of look at it as a one-time event, and I’m enjoying it because it’s never going to happen again.
credit
Popcast is hosted John Caramanica And Joe Coscarelli and produced by Sophie Ericsson And kate lopresti. This episode was filmed Alfredo Chiarappa, Daniel Sarti, zika gonzalez And Pat Gunther. was edited by mark zemel. nick pittman Our audio engineers are and amanda webster Our photo editor. Brooke Minters is our executive producer.
Special thanks to Rebecca Blandon, Mahima Chablani, Dahlia Haddad, Mike Cordero, Chris Moore, Caterina Clerici, Nicole Huber, Zach Caldwell, Maddie Masiello, Brad Kimbrough, Andrew Wilcox, Carine Ganz, Sia Mitchell, Nina Lassam, Solana Pine, and Sam Dolnik.
