Anne Hathaway Says Christopher Nolan Saved her Career

Movies

The fairy tale almost ended before it began for the star of The Princess Diaries. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair (which is behind a paywall, so these quotes come courtesy of Variety), Anne Hathaway talked about how her career was almost ruined, only to be saved by Christopher Nolan. This stemmed from her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables in 2013; for whatever reason, the public turned on her – or, at least, elements of it – and Hollywood looked like it was done with her.

“Hathaway was widely mocked online at this time, and she once remembered googling herself after the Oscar win only to see one of the top search results was an article with the title: ‘Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?’ ‘A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online.’”

I honestly don’t remember this, but I found the article she’s talking about, and apparently, hate for Anne Hathaway was so vehement it had a name: “Hathahate.” It seems people found her “inauthentic” due to her Oscar campaign and win, which… I don’t get. I’m not trying to sound superior, but I always thought she seemed nice and as much of a regular person as most movie stars get. I’m sure she schmoozed during her Oscar campaign, but so does everyone; that’s how those things go. And it’s not like she did what most celebrities do today and said something mean or annoying to alienate people. But this happens every so often; the public seems to zero in on someone and direct their anger at them. I remember when it happened to Ben Affleck for a while.

Fortunately, the backlash was short-lived for Anne Hathaway, as she was cast in Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi drama about space travel.

“I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of… I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect… And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”

Interstellar was actually her second film with Nolan, the first being The Dark Knight Rises, in which she played Catwoman. I imagine she’s right; Nolan probably wasn’t thinking about it and cast her because he liked working with her and thought she’d be good in the part. And while it’s been a while since I’ve seen Interstellar, I remember liking her in it. Good for her; I’m glad her career wasn’t scuttled over something that was inevitably going to blow over. Granted, she isn’t usually in films that interest me, but I’d much rather see her in a movie than some of the unbearable actors who won’t go away today.

Which brings me to Hathaway’s next revelation (again via Variety), which is even more ludicrous than the first. She claims that she was told she had “zero sex appeal” when she was starting as an actress. It’s unclear who told her this, but the way it’s phrased, it sounds like it’s from studios, casting directors, filmmakers, and other Hollywood types. (It’s a bit disturbing that they said this to her when she was seventeen, but considering we’re talking about Hollywood, it’s not all that shocking.) This is from the industry that covers up Sydney Sweeney and goes out of their way to make gorgeous women look as dowdy as possible. Hathaway says some annoying things about the “male gaze” in her response (way to undercut my earlier point, Anne), but this isn’t a guy problem; it’s a Hollywood problem. She’s widely considered beautiful, and she’s had plenty of roles that are about more than her looks. That’s what I take issue with most in these stories: the rest of America being blamed for Hollywood’s shortcomings. “Why aren’t there more good roles for women?” Gee, if only John and Jane Q Public were in charge of writing movies.

Regardless, Anne Hathaway is in the middle of a successful career, and I’m glad it panned out for her.