The Tragic Life Of Anne Hathaway
In her hit 2024 movie "The Idea of You," Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old woman who, after a painful divorce, redefines societal norms by finding love with a man who is half her age and happens to be in a boy band. While the Prime Video film contained all the ingredients to be a success, this movie was more than just a fun rom-com romp for Hathaway, who also produced the film. Like the character she plays in the film, the actor is known for her big brown eyes and megawatt smile, and she has weathered many controversial moments and gotten more than her fair share of public criticism throughout her career. At one point, the public's perception of her was so toxic that it spawned a hashtag to perpetuate the vitriol. That alone would be enough for some people to retreat into a corner, but for Hathaway, it was just one in a string of tragic life events that she has had to deal with both in and out of the public eye.
In an interview with The New York Times, Hathaway describes herself as a "former people pleaser from New Jersey" and a "formerly chronically stressed young woman" — emphasis in both cases on "formerly." An intensely private person, she works hard to avoid becoming hardened by the personal and professional struggles she's experienced. Indeed, she has not let them define her. As she told Vanity Fair, "Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through." She added, "The key is to not let it close you down."
Anxiety and low self-esteem were a young Anne Hathaway's constant companions
A New Jersey native, Anne Hathaway had a relatively normal upbringing. One of three children born to Kate McCauley and Gerald Hathaway, she was raised in a home where creativity was celebrated. Inspired by her mother, who once worked as a stage performer and coincidentally toured with a local production of "Les Miserables," Hathaway was bitten by the acting bug at an early age.
"She'd come and see me in things and concentrate with the most rapt attention you can imagine," her mother told a reporter, as Vanity Fair reported. Anne herself told GQ, "I would walk around singing all day, doing scenes, pretending all day long. My two brothers loved that. My parents never said, 'Pipe down!' or, 'Quit that racket!'"
With so much support and love, you'd think Anne would have been a happy-go-lucky child. On the contrary, she described her young self as "intense" when speaking with Vanity Fair. In an interview on "Popcorn With Peter Travers," she told the show's host that it was hard for her to get close to people. "I disliked myself so intensely," she continued. "It was just a mindset. I didn't know how to love myself. I didn't know how to love anybody." The actor, who also revealed that she struggled with anxiety from a young age, said that her insecurities almost made her give up acting because she doubted her abilities. She told W, "I feel like I have to apologize for myself in front of most people."
As a young actor, she was subjected to Hollywood's misogynistic tactics
Kissing attractive people all day as part of your job description may not sound like such a bad thing — that is, unless you are a young woman who is forced to make out with multiple men in one day to see if any of them ignite a spark. That's exactly what happened to Anne Hathaway, who, afraid of being viewed as problematic, agreed to what she described to V Magazine as a "gross" chemistry test. "I was told, 'We have ten guys coming today, and you're cast. Aren't you excited to make out with all of them?' And I thought, 'Is there something wrong with me?' because I wasn't excited," she said.
Today, Hathaway realizes that there was nothing wrong with her, but there was something wrong with the process, which she says was pretty standard procedure in her early acting years. "It was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry. Which is actually the worst way to do it," she said.
As both a star and the producer of "The Idea of You," Hathaway found a better way to audition the men vying for the part of the male lead. She asked them to choose a song they thought the main characters would enjoy dancing to. Nicholas Galitzine chose a song by The Alabama Shakes, danced with Hathaway, and landed the role — no awkward make-out session required.
Her relationship with alcohol became problematic
For many young people, the college years are a time of experimentation, and alcohol often factors heavily into the equation. Although she already had a hit movie under her belt, Anne Hathaway's college years were no exception. In her interview on "Popcorn With Peter Travers," she admitted, "I went to college and I drank a great deal," adding that, "By the time of 'The Devil Wears Prada,' I was drinking more." The habit continued for many years, with Hathaway often imbibing to the point of horrific hangovers that sometimes lasted for several days. However, as Hathaway revealed on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," after one hard-partying night with Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camilla Alves, in 2019, Hathaway decided to put down the bottle — at least until her children are grown.
In an interview with Modern Luxury, the "Serenity" star said, "I didn't put [a drink] down because my drinking was a problem; I put it down because the way I drink leads me to have hangovers and those were the problem" (via ET). She was quick to point out that the decision did not come from a moral high horse or place of judgment, but rather because she just knew it wasn't right for her anymore. As she told Vanity Fair, "It's a path everybody has to walk for themselves," adding, "My personal experience with it is that everything is better. For me, it was wallowing fuel. And I don't like to wallow."
In 2008, Anne Hathaway found herself mixed up in a fraud scandal
Before marrying Adam Shulman, Anne Hathaway was in what seemed to be a fairytale romance with Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri. But, as we all know, not all fairytales end with a "happily ever after." In 2008, Follieri was arrested for fraud, and Hathaway, who had reportedly broken up with her beau of four years just days earlier, was not singing "Stand By Your Man." In fact, some doubters accused "The Princess Diaries" star of cooperating with the feds to have Follieri arrested. Even former President Donald Trump weighed in. "She hasn't remained very loyal to him, has she?" Trump told "Access Hollywood's" Billy Bush (via Today). "So when he had plenty of money, she liked him, but then after that, not as good, right?"
For her part, Hathaway claimed no knowledge of her boyfriend's illegal activities, telling W, "It's a situation where the rug was pulled out from under me all of a sudden," she says. But, as a self-described "optimistic fatalist," she wasn't surprised. "I assume bad things will happen, but I'm hopeful that maybe they won't," she explained. Her decision to cut off all communication with Follieri following his arrest was seen by him as a business move. Following his release from prison, he told Daily Mail, "She decided saving her career was most important," although he insisted that he harbors no ill will.
Co-hosting the 2011 Oscars made her a punchline
Hosting the Oscars is not a job for the faint of heart. Many have crashed and burned over the years, but perhaps none as spectacularly as the unlikely pairing of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, whose apparent lack of chemistry at the 83rd annual Academy Awards in 2011 made for cringe-worthy television. David Wild, a writer on the show, described it perfectly to The Ringer: "It was like the world's most uncomfortable blind date between the cool rocker stoner kid and the adorable theater camp cheerleader,." Interestingly, Hathaway originally declined the offer to host, but after some persuasion from Franco, she gave in. "When all the dust settled, I was just like, 'You gotta be kidding me. Your first instinct is usually the right one.' And all the reasons why I turned it down came true," she told People.
Those behind the scenes told The Ringer that Hathaway was the consummate professional, always prepared and ready to roll, while Franco was the more challenging of the pair. Regardless, the entire performance was raked over the coals by critics. Tim Goodman, then-chief television critic of The Hollywood Reporter, wrote, "In what could go down as one of the worst Oscar telecasts in history, a bad and risky idea — letting two actors host — played out in spectacularly unwatchable fashion on the biggest of all nights for the film world."
A 2013 Golden Globe high began an all time low
Over the years, Anne Hathaway has proven that she has depth and range as an actor, bouncing from a fashion assistant in "The Devil Wears Prada" to the iconic Catwoman in "The Dark Knight Rises." But it was her 2012 performance as the prostitute Fantine in Les Misérables that garnered Hathaway numerous awards and accolades. But what should have been the high point of her career almost ended it. From the moment she accepted her 2013 Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress with a "blerg" heard 'round the world, things started to go south. It didn't help matters that when the movie won Best Musical or Comedy later that evening, Hathaway joined the rest of the cast onstage and stole the thunder by finishing her earlier acceptance speech. Talk about "blerg."
But the moment might not have been as self-absorbed as some think. The truth of the story, Hathaway told Harper's Bazaar, is that she forgot to thank her longtime manager — who was living with cancer at the time – in her acceptance speech. Calling it "one of [her] most regretted life moments," she took the opportunity to rectify that mistake as the cast was gathering onstage to accept the movie's award. "I should have gone after everyone else. I own that; it was rude," she said. "People saw that as grabby, I guess." Regardless, it was the beginning of an awards circuit that went from bad to worse.
She really started feeling the hate after her 2013 Oscars speech
The day after her Golden Globes catastrophe, Anne Hathaway stumbled across an article titled "Why Does Everyone Hate Anne Hathaway?" She recalled the incident in a 2014 interview with Harper's Bazaar. "Punched in the gut," she remembered. "Shocked and slapped and embarrassed. Even now I can feel the shame." With the Academy Awards coming up, Hathaway's anxiety and insecurities were resurfacing. And then she flubbed it again. Clad in a pale pink Prada gown, which she caught flack for choosing at the last minute instead of wearing the Valentino gown she'd agreed to, Hathaway nabbed the Oscar. On stage, she uttered the three little words that would fan the already growing flames of her haters: "It came true."
The star was immediately criticized for the awkward Oscars moment, and the backlash — both personally and professionally — was cruel. Hathaway later admitted that she was not in a good place that evening and that it was a contrived moment. "I tried to pretend that I was happy and I got called out on it, big time," she told The Guardian.
In a Vanity Fair interview, she recalled how the fallout nearly ended her career. "A lot of people wouldn't give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online," she detailed. The situation caused Hathaway to take a brief hiatus. As she told HuffPost, "My impression is that people needed a break from me."
#Hathahate took a toll on Anne Hathaway's self-esteem
Add the title "Oscar winner" to your resume, and suddenly, you can have your pick of prime parts. Unless, of course, your name is Anne Hathaway. Following her Oscar win, the actor became the target of public vitriol on social media, with tweets bearing the hashtag "Hathahate" — but no one could really put their finger on the why. Named the "Most Annoying Celebrity of 2013" in a contest held by the San Francisco Chronicle, it seemed the star could do nothing right. But what, exactly, was she doing wrong? Maybe nothing. Some said it was more of what she represented than who she was. "We love authenticity, that's why we have a billion reality shows," Neal Gabler, an author of several best-selling books on Hollywood culture and history, told The New York Times. "And here comes Anne Hathaway. Everything she does seems managed, calculated or rehearsed."
The #Hathahate trend was cyberbullying at its best, and it took a toll on the actor, who was already struggling with self-acceptance. In a speech she delivered at Elle's 2022 Women in Hollywood event, Hathaway addressed the issue saying, "Ten years ago, I was given an opportunity to look at the language of hatred from a new perspective. For context — this was a language I had employed with myself since I was 7. And when your self-inflicted pain is suddenly somehow amplified back at you at, say, the full volume of the internet... It's a thing."
Now a mom of two, she once struggled with infertility
She plays the mother of a preteen daughter in the movie "The Idea of You," but in real life, Anne Hathaway is a mom to two young boys, Jonathan (born in 2016) and Jack (born in 2019), whom she shares with hubby Adam Shulman. But the road to motherhood was not an easy one for the "Brokeback Mountain" star, who suffered a miscarriage in 2015 while performing nightly in the one-woman off-Broadway show, "Grounded." To add insult to injury, she was playing a character who was pregnant. "The first time it didn't work out for me. I was doing a play and I had to give birth onstage every night," she told Vanity Fair. The experience was heartbreaking for Hathaway who explained that, "It's really hard to want something so much and to wonder if you're doing something wrong."
During her second pregnancy, Hathaway shared her story to let other women know they are not alone in their journeys. "I think that we have a very one-size-fits-all approach to getting pregnant," Hathaway told The Associated Press. "And you get pregnant and for the majority of cases, this is a really happy time. But a lot of people who are trying to get pregnant: That's not really the story. Or that's one part of the story. And the steps that lead up to that part of the story are really painful and very isolating and full of self-doubt. And I went through that."
Anne Hathaway was criticized for her behavior in Italy
Do you think Anne Hathaway is being polite or impolite to her fans in this video? pic.twitter.com/ebOznRB8pu
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) January 31, 2024
Just when it seemed all the hostility had died down, Anne Hathaway once again found herself at the mercy of people who accused the actor for "rude" behavior. But was she being rude, or was it a case of trying to please everyone by pleasing no one? The controversy arose after a video went viral depicting Hathaway waving to fans after a Valentino fashion show in Italy. The clip shows a large, noisy crowd jostling for the star's attention.
Hathaway was seen trying to quiet the crowd, telling them to "calma" (Italian for "calm") and offering to stand and pose for photos rather than attempt to do individual meet and greets. "I cannot take photos with everyone," Hathaway said. "But I will stand here and wave if you would like to take a photo. I cannot sign, there are too many of you."
Although many comments were positive, there were those who thought her behavior was unnecessarily snotty, using words like "condescending," "rude," and "fake polite" to describe Hathaway's behavior. One user went so far as to say, "With how long she took to be condescending, she could possibly have signed and took the photos. She was being unnecessary" (via Page Six). In light of the number of fans, it appears that Hathaway handled the situation as gracefully as possible — but Hathaters gonna hate.