Anne Hathaway

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway born November 12, 1982 is an American actress. She is the recipient of many awards, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. She was one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2015. Her films have earned over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009.

Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School in New Jersey, where she acted in several plays. As a teenager, she was cast in the television series Get Real (1999–2000) and made her breakthrough as the protagonist in her debut film, the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (2001). Hathaway made a transition to adult roles with the 2005 dramas Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. The comedy film The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she played an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, was her biggest commercial success to that point. She played a recovering alcoholic in the drama Rachel Getting Married (2008), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in the commercially successful romantic films Bride Wars (2009), Valentine’s Day (2010), Love & Other Drugs (2010), and the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland (2010).

In 2012, Hathaway starred as Selina Kyle in her highest-grossing film The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment in The Dark Knight trilogy. Also that year, she played Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in the musical romantic drama Les Misérables, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She then played a scientist in the science fiction film Interstellar (2014), the owner of an online fashion site in the comedy The Intern (2015), a haughty actress in the heist film Ocean’s 8 (2018), and an evil witch in the fantasy comedy The Witches (2020). Hathaway has also won a Primetime Emmy Award for her voice role in the sitcom The Simpsons, sung for soundtracks, appeared on stage, and hosted events.

Hathaway supports several causes. She is a board member of the Lollipop Theatre Network, an organization that brings films to children in hospitals, and advocates gender equality as a UN Women goodwill ambassador. She is married to actor Adam Shulman, with whom she has two sons.

Early life

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York City. Her father Gerald is a labor attorney, and her mother Kate (née McCauley) is a former actress. Hathaway’s maternal grandfather was WIP (AM) Philadelphia radio personality Joe McCauley. Hathaway’s mother is of Irish descent, and her father is of Irish, French, English, and German ancestry. She was named after Shakespeare’s wife. She is the second of three children, born between older brother Michael and younger brother Thomas. When she was six, her family moved to the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, New Jersey, where she was raised.

At age six, when Hathaway watched her mother perform in Les Misérables as Fantine, she instantly became fascinated with the stage, but her parents were not keen on allowing her to pursue an acting career. After this, Kate quit acting to raise Hathaway and her brothers. Hathaway was raised as Roman Catholic with what she considers “really strong values” and stated that she wished to be a nun during her childhood, but acting was always a high priority for her. At the age of 15, her relationship with the Catholic Church changed after she learned that her older brother, Michael, was gay. Her family left the church, converting to Episcopalianism because of its acceptance of homosexuality, but left that too. In 2009, Hathaway said her religious beliefs are “a work in progress”.

Hathaway attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School and Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn. She graduated from Millburn High School, where she played soccer and participated in many plays, including Once Upon a Mattress, in which she portrayed Winnifred. Later, she appeared in other plays like Jane Eyre and Gigi, at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1993 and became the first teenager admitted into the Barrow Group Theater Company’s acting program. She spent several semesters studying as an English major and political science minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before transferring to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She has stated that she would have become either an English teacher or psychologist if she were not acting.

Between 1998 and 1999, Hathaway sang soprano with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and in plays at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. At the start of her film career, her acting style and beauty were compared to Judy Garland—whom she cites as one of her favorite actresses—and Audrey Hepburn. Three days after her performance at Carnegie Hall, Hathaway was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real. Hathaway played the teenager Meghan Green alongside Jon Tenney, Debrah Farentino and Jesse Eisenberg. Despite her early success, Hathaway suffered from depression and anxiety as a teenager; she said in 2008 she had since grown from it. She missed her first college semester for the filming of her cinematic debut The Princess Diaries (2001). She says she never regretted not finishing her degree, as she enjoyed being with others who “were trying to grow up”.

Career

2001–2004: Debut and breakthrough

The comedy The Princess Diaries and the adventure drama The Other Side of Heaven, both 2001 Disney films, featured Hathaway in lead roles. Based on Meg Cabot’s 2000 novel of the same name, the former follows a teenager Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway) who discovers that she is the heir to the throne of the fictional Kingdom of Genovia. Hathaway auditioned for the role during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand. Garry Marshall, the film’s director, initially considered Liv Tyler for the role, but cast Hathaway after his granddaughters suggested that she had the best “princess” hair. The film became a major commercial success, grossing $165 million worldwide. Many critics praised Hathaway’s performance; a BBC critic noted that “Hathaway shines in the title role and generates great chemistry” and The New York Times‘ Elvis Mitchell found her to be “royalty in the making, a young comic talent with a scramble of features”. She earned an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance nomination for the role. Hathaway starred with Christopher Gorham in Mitch Davis’s The Other Side of Heaven. Inspired by John H. Groberg’s memoir In the Eye of the Storm, the film met with mostly negative reviews and was a box-office failure.

Owing to the success of The Princess Diaries, People magazine named Hathaway one of its breakthrough stars of 2001. In February 2002, Hathaway starred in the City Center Encores! concert production of Carnival! in her New York City stage debut. She played Lili, an optimistic orphan who falls in love with a magician. Before rehearsing with the full cast, Hathaway trained with a vocal coach for two weeks. She memorized almost all her lines and songs at the first read-through. Critics generally praised her for holding her own against well-known actors and heralded her as a new star. In a positive review for the musical, Charles Isherwood of Variety called Hathaway the highlight of the show and “remarkably unaffected and winning”, praising her convincing performance. She won a Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female. Later, Hathaway voiced the audiobook release of the first three books in The Princess Diaries novels.

Hathaway portrayed princesses and appeared in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children’s role model. After voicing Haru Yoshioka for the English version of The Cat Returns (2002), she starred in Douglas McGrath’s comedy-drama Nicholas Nickleby (2002), which opened to positive reviews. However, the film did not enter wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales. The fantasy romantic comedy film Ella Enchanted (2004), in which Hathaway played the titular character, also performed poorly at the box office. She first read the book on which the film is based when she was 16, and stated that the script was originally much closer to the book, but did not work as a film, and therefore prefers the film the way it became. The film opened to mostly mixed reviews. Hathaway sang three songs on the film’s soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.

In 2003, Hathaway declined the role for Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera (2004), because the production schedule of the film overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Hathaway was initially hesitant and nervous about starring in the sequel, but agreed to it after Marshall convinced her that she was not repeating anything. The film was released in August 2004 to negative reviews, but made $95.1 million against a $40-million budget.

2005–2008: Transition to adult roles and greater success

In a 2008 article, Hathaway said that “anybody who was a role model for children needs a reprieve”, but noted that “it’s lovely to think that my audience is growing up with me”. To avoid getting typecast, she began taking on adult roles. After replacing Tara Strong for the voice role of Red Puckett in Hoodwinked! (2005), she starred in the drama Havoc (2005) as a spoiled socialite, appearing nude in some of its scenes. Although the film was thematically different from her previous films, Hathaway denied that her role was an attempt to be seen as a more mature actress, citing her belief that doing nudity in certain films is merely a part of what her chosen form of art demands of her; and because of that belief she does not consider appearing nude in appropriate films to be morally objectionable. The film was not released in theaters in the United States due to unfavorable critical reception.

Hathaway starred alongside Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee’s drama Brokeback Mountain (2005). The film depicts the emotional and sexual relationship between two married men, Ennis (Ledger) and Jack (Gyllenhaal); Hathaway played Jack’s wife. She was originally sent the script with the role of Alma, Ennis’ wife, but decided to audition for Lureen once she read the screenplay. During her audition, Hathaway lied to Lee about her knowledge of horse riding so he would cast her, but she did subsequently take lessons. The film received positive reviews from critics and several Academy Award nominations. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone believed that Hathaway “excels at showing Lureen’s journey from cutie-pie to hard case”, and Todd McCarthy of Variety said she “provides an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment”. Hathaway later stated that the content of the film was more important than its award count and that making it made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actress. At that point, she realized that she wanted to play roles to move her audiences or otherwise entertain them so much that they forget about their own lives.

In 2006, she starred in David Frankel’s comedy film The Devil Wears Prada, as an assistant to the powerful fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. Hathaway said that working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she had previously, though she said her personal style was something she “still can’t get right”. She also stated that she and co-star Emily Blunt got so hungry on their weight-loss regimen for the film it made them cry. To prepare for the role, Hathaway volunteered for a few weeks as an assistant at an auction house. The film received positive reviews; Roger Ebert called Hathaway “a great beauty who makes a convincing career girl” and Rotten Tomatoes found “Streep in top form and Anne Hathaway more than holding her own”. The Devil Wears Prada became Hathaway’s biggest commercial success to this point, grossing more than $326.5 million worldwide.

Hathaway was cast in Knocked Up, but dropped out before filming began and was replaced by Katherine Heigl. According to writer-director Judd Apatow, this happened because Hathaway was uncomfortable with the use of real footage of a woman giving birth; Hathaway believed it did not contribute to the film’s story. Her only release in 2007 was the biographical romantic drama Becoming Jane, as the titular English author Jane Austen. A fan of Austen since she was fourteen, Hathaway prepared for the role by rereading Austen’s books and conducting historical research, such as perusing the author’s letters; she also learned sign language, calligraphy, dance choreography, and the piano. She moved to England a month before production began to improve her English accent. The film received mixed reviews from critics; some reviewers negatively focused on Hathaway’s performance and accent. Regardless, Hathaway received a British Independent Film Award for Best Actress nomination for the film.

In October 2008, Hathaway hosted the NBC late-night sketch comedy Saturday Night Live. She also starred in Peter Segal’s film adaptation of Mel Brooks’ television series Get Smart, in which she played Agent 99. Considering the role to be “a childhood dream come true”, Hathaway learned martial arts and dancing techniques in preparation. While filming an action sequence, Hathaway split the flesh of her shin to the bone, which led to her receiving 15 stitches. The film, centering on an analyst who dreams of becoming a real field agent and a better spy, was a financial success. Hathaway’s following film, the American-Canadian mystery thriller Passengers alongside Patrick Wilson, was a critical and commercial failure. She then starred with Debra Winger in Rachel Getting Married as Kym, a young woman, who after being released from drug rehabilitation, returns home for her sister’s wedding. She described her character as “narcissistic—downright selfish”. Rachel Getting Married premiered at the 2008 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and Hathaway garnered widespread acclaim for her performance. Peter Travers called Hathaway “raw and riveting as Kym” and added that she “acts the hell out of it, achieving a state of sorrowful grace.” Hathaway’s performance garnered nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Drama.

2009–2011: Romantic films and hosting events

Hathaway starred in Bride Wars (2009), which she described as “hideously commercial—gloriously so”. The romantic comedy, in which she and Kate Hudson played two best friends who become rivals after their weddings are scheduled on the same day, was a critical failure; it was named among the 10 worst chick flicks in history by Time in 2010. Despite this, the film was successful financially and earned Hathaway an MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance nomination. She played the heroine Viola in a summer 2009 production of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater in New York City. Charles Isherwood opined that Hathaway “dives smoothly and with obvious pleasure into the embrace of a cohesive ensemble cast”. For her interpretation of the role, she garnered a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2010, she also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for providing her voice for the episode “Once Upon a Time in Springfield” in The Simpsons. Hathaway voiced different characters in Family Guy in 2010 and 2011.

In 2010, Hathaway appeared as a receptionist who dates a clerk (played by Topher Grace) in the ensemble romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, directed by Garry Marshall. The film was a commercial success, grossing more than $215 million worldwide against a budget of $52 million. Hathaway played the White Queen in Tim Burton’s 2010 adaptation of the fantasy novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. She summed up her character with a caption on a magnet of Happy Bunny holding a knife; “Cute but psycho. Things even out.” Hathaway described her interpretation of the White Queen as “a punk-rock vegan pacifist”, drawing inspiration from Debbie Harry and the artwork of Dan Flavin. Alice in Wonderland received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its visuals, but criticized its lack of narrative coherence. Commercially, the film grossed $1 billion to become the second highest-grossing movie of 2010.

Hathaway starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal as a free-spirited artist suffering from Parkinson’s disease in Edward Zwick’s erotic romantic comedy-drama Love & Other Drugs, based on the non-fiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy. For the role, Hathaway spent time with a Parkinson’s patient to research the disease. Preparing for the film’s nude scenes, she watched the work of the actresses Kate Winslet and Penélope Cruz who, in her opinion, have done nudity with sensitivity and dignity. Hathaway believed that these scenes would not discourage socially conservative people from watching the film. Critics generally praised the film’s adult romance but were unenthusiastic about its plot elements. Hathaway’s performance, which Ebert called “warm, lovable”, earned her a Satellite Award and a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical. Together with actor Denzel Washington, Hathaway hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway in December 2010. Two months later, she and James Franco hosted the 83rd Academy Awards. Critics were unenthusiastic about their chemistry, but thought Hathaway gave her best and did a better job than Franco, who they felt seemed uninterested. At the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, she garnered an Outstanding Variety Special (Live) nomination.

In 2011, Hathaway voiced Jewel, a female Spix’s macaw from Rio de Janeiro, in the animated film Rio, produced by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. The film received generally positive reviews from film critics, who praised the visuals, voice acting and music. A commercial success, it grossed more than $484 million worldwide against a budget of $90 million. Later, Hathaway starred alongside Jim Sturgess in Lone Scherfig’s One Day, based on David Nicholls’ 2009 novel of the same name. The film tells the story of two young people who meet twenty years after they shared a one-night stand together. Hathaway was clandestinely given the script, as One Day was set in the UK, and Scherfig was not looking for any American actresses for the part. After a nonproductive meeting with Scherfig, Hathaway left a list of songs for her, who after listening to them, cast the actress for the part. In an interview with Peter Travers, Hathaway said she might have inadvertently encouraged misogyny as she did not trust Scherfig as a director, which she felt was because of her gender. Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent in the film was considered subpar. Columnist Suzanne Moore, reviewing the film on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, said Hathaway’s accents were “all over the shop”, adding, “Sometimes she’s from Scotland, sometimes she’s from New York, you just can’t tell”. The film itself received polarized reviews from critics, but became a moderate box office success.

2012–2014: Les Misérables and films with Christopher Nolan

In 2012, Hathaway’s audiobook recording of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was released at Audible.com and garnered her a nomination for an Audie Award for Best Solo Narration – Female. Later in 2012, Hathaway played sly, morally ambiguous cat burglar Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s final installment in The Dark Knight trilogy. Hathaway auditioned not knowing what role she was being considered for, admitting that she had one character in mind, but only learned her role after talking with Nolan for an hour. She described the role as the most physically demanding she had ever played, as she had to redouble her efforts in the gym to keep up with the requirements of the role. Hathaway trained extensively in martial arts for the role, and looked to Hedy Lamarr in developing her role as Catwoman. The Dark Knight Rises received a positive critical response and grossed more than $1.085 billion worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2012. A review published in IGN wrote of her “magnetic presence”, adding, “Hathaway imbues her with a wounded spirit and a survivor’s edge that makes her feel genuine and sympathetic”. Hathaway won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Hathaway played Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in Tom Hooper’s film Les Misérables, which was based on the musical of the same name. Footage of Hathaway singing “I Dreamed a Dream”, a song from the film, was shown at CinemaCon in April 2012. Hooper described Hathaway’s singing as “raw” and “real”. Preparing for the role, Hathaway consumed fewer than 500 calories a day to lose 25 pounds (11 kg), researched prostitution and cut her hair. To get into the character’s mental space alone during filming in London, Hathaway sent her husband back to the US; this resulted in her becoming increasingly temperamental. Christopher Orr from The Atlantic wrote that “Hathaway gives it everything she has, beginning in quiet sorrow before building to a woebegone climax: she gasps, she weeps, she coughs.” Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that “the centerpiece of a movie composed entirely of centerpieces belongs to Anne Hathaway, who as the tragic heroine Fantine sings another of the memorable numbers”. For the film, Hathaway won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. Asked if she was pleased with her performance in the film, Hathaway expressed doubts, replying with “Eh”. In January 2013, Hathaway’s rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After briefly appearing in the romantic comedy Don Jon (2013), Hathaway starred in and co-produced (with her husband and others) Song One. In the drama film, she played an anthropology student who returns home to see her injured brother, Henry (played by Ben Rosenfield), and soon begins a romantic relationship with his favorite musician, James Forester (played by Johnny Flynn). Hathaway’s character was initially written as 19 years old, but Kate Barker-Froyland, the film’s writer and director, changed the part to that of an older woman after casting Hathaway. Hathaway says that the reason she decided to produce the film was because of its depiction of the healing power of music and second chances. For the film’s soundtrack, she provided her voice for the song “Afraid of Heights”. Song One premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 30th Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, and released in theaters the following year to mixed reviews from critics. Commercially, the film failed to recover its $6-million budget.

Hathaway reprised her role as Jewel in the animated film Rio 2—her third film with Jamie Foxx—which was released in 2014. It grossed about five times more than its $103-million budget. Hathaway’s only live action film in 2014 was Christopher Nolan’s epic science fiction film Interstellar. Set in a dystopian future where humanity is struggling to survive, the film follows a group of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. With a budget of $165 million, the high-profile production, co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain, was filmed partially using IMAX cameras. Hathaway was drawn to her character’s growth from an arrogant to a humbler person. While filming a water scene in Iceland, Hathaway almost suffered hypothermia because the dry suit she was wearing had not been properly secured. Critics for The Independent and Empire wrote that she was “affecting” as a scientist unable to decide between her professional responsibilities and her feelings and played it with “soulful nuance”. Interstellar, which earned more than $696 million worldwide, earned Hathaway a nomination for a Saturn Award for Best Actress.

2015–present: Comedic roles

Hathaway began 2015 with an appearance in the first season of the musical reality show Lip Sync Battle. In the episode, she competed against her The Devil Wears Prada costar Emily Blunt; she lip synced “Love” by Mary J. Blige and “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus. Nancy Meyers’ The Intern was Hathaway’s only film work in 2015. The film tells the story of Ben Whittaker (played by Robert DeNiro), a seventy-year-old widower who becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site run by Hathaway’s character, Jules Ostin. Hathaway aspired to work with DeNiro and Meyers, her favorite actor and director, respectively; impressed with the film’s story, she auditioned for the third time for a Meyers film. Reviews for the film were generally positive; one in Ebert’s website found her “extremely appealing” and a reviewer in Vulture wrote “The Intern gets off on De Niro’s amiability and Hathaway’s sweet energy”. Against a production budget of $35 million, the film grossed $194 million worldwide. The 2015 found footage horror movie Be My Cat: A Film for Anne, about an aspiring Romanian filmmaker who goes to shocking extremes to convince Hathaway to star in his film, was officially selected and had its North American premiere in April 2016 at the Nashville Film Festival.

Hathaway reprised the role of the White Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass, the 2016 sequel to Alice in Wonderland. That March, it was reported that she would reprise her role for The Princess Diaries 3; the project was shelved after the death of Garry Marshall, who was set to direct the film. Hathaway is one of several actors featured on Barbra Streisand’s 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Along with Daisy Ridley, Hathaway and Streisand performed the song “At The Ballet” from A Chorus Line; Hathaway played the role of Maggie, one of a trio of dancers hoping to be cast in an upcoming show. Her final film that year was alongside Jason Sudeikis in Nacho Vigalondo’s science fiction black comedy film Colossal (2016). Playing an unemployed young writer, Hathaway was the first actress to sign on at a time when the project had no financial backing. She found herself attracted to the genre-hopping nature of the script, later comparing it to Being John Malkovich (1999), one of her favorite films. The film received positive reviews from critics, but earned only $4 million at the box office.

After a two-year absence from the screen, Hathaway starred as a famous actress in the all-female spin-off of the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, Ocean’s 8, directed by Gary Ross. Co-starring Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, the film follows a group of criminals who plan to rob the Met Gala. Hathaway said she found it fun to play someone with an immense ego and saw the role as an opportunity “to lean into all the ridiculous fame nonsense that I’ve been trying to side-step for all of these years.” Hathaway hoped that the film would be profitable so that it could debunk claims that films with female protagonists do not succeed commercially. Many critics felt that Hathaway’s performance overshadowed those of her co-stars’; ABC Online’s Jason Di Rosso wrote she “shines in disappointing” spin-off, adding, “the film’s best moments belong to Hathaway as the anxiety-ridden, vain and capricious starlet. She’s the only successful meld of comedy and pathos—a victim of the celebrity treadmill who is also capable of outsmarting it.” The film became a box office success, earning a total of over $297 million worldwide on a production budget of $70 million.