Anne Hathaway (2010 interview) | Fresh Air

What this episode is about

In a 2010 interview, Anne Hathaway discusses her diverse film career, highlighting her roles in notable movies like *The Devil Wears Prada* and *Rachel Getting Married*, while also focusing on her latest project, *Love and Other Drugs*, where she plays a woman with stage 1 Parkinson's opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. The film explores themes of attraction and the challenges of relationships when facing significant medical issues.

Key takeaways

• In Love and Other Drugs, Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal redefine intimacy between a woman and a pharmaceutical rep.
• Hathaway's trust-building process with director Edwick proves collaboration can be more important than contractual agreements.
• Nudity in film isn't just skin-deep; it's a complex choreography of trust, consent, and artistic vision.
• Hathaway's keen awareness of on-screen vulnerability highlights that authentic performances stem from genuine comfort and safety.
• Amidst romance, the film tackles Parkinson's, balancing love's burden with the allure of fleeting connections.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Terry Gross (Host) · 14 min speaking
• Anne Hathaway (Guest) · 21 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs, Brokeback Mountain, Edwick
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Brokeback Mountain, Jake Gyllenhaal
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Rachel Getting Married
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Rachel Getting Married
5. 20:00 – 25:00: The Devil Wears Prada
6. 25:00 – 30:00: The Princess Diaries

Notable quotes from "Anne Hathaway (2010 interview) | Fresh Air"

• Her roles in The Devil Wears Prada as Merrill Streep's assistant at a fashion magazine. Rachel getting married as a young woman who gets out of rehab for a few days to attend her sister's wedding.

  about Rachel Getting Married · at 0:04

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Jake Gyllenhaal — Person · 5 mentions · first at 0:17
  Brokeback Mountain in which she played Jake Gyllenhaal's wife who doesn't realize her husband is in love with a man. And The Princess Diaries, in which he played a teenager who finds out she's a princess. Now, Hathaway is co-starring.
• Ang Lee — Person · 2 mentions
• Edwick — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:30
  A princess. Now, Hathaway is co-starring with Jake Gyllenhaal in the new film Love and Other Drugs directed by Edwick.

Books & papers

• Rachel Getting Married — Book · 5 mentions · first at 0:08
• Brokeback Mountain — Book · 4 mentions · first at 0:15
  Brokeback Mountain in which she played Jake Gyllenhaal's wife who doesn't realize her husband is in love with a man. And The Princess Diaries, in which he played a teenager who finds out she's.
• The Devil Wears Prada — Book · 3 mentions · first at 0:04
  This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Anne Hathaway is best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada as Merrill Streep's assistant at a fashion magazine. Rachel…
• The Princess Diaries — Book · 3 mentions · first at 0:21
  Jake Gyllenhaal's wife who doesn't realize her husband is in love with a man. And The Princess Diaries, in which he played a teenager who finds out she's a princess. Now…
• Love and Other Drugs — Book · 2 mentions · first at 0:30
  A princess. Now, Hathaway is co-starring with Jake Gyllenhaal in the new film Love and Other Drugs directed by Edwick.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Anne Hathaway is best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada as Merrill Streep's assistant at a fashion magazine. Rachel getting married as a young woman who gets out of rehab for a few days to attend her sister's wedding. Brokeback Mountain in which she played Jake Gyllenhaal's wife who doesn't realize her husband is in love with a man. And The Princess Diaries, in which he played a teenager who finds out she's a princess. Now, Hathaway is co-starring with Jake Gyllenhaal in the new film Love and Other Drugs directed by Edwick.

0:33 Gyllenhaal plays a pharmaceutical company rep who tries to get samples to doctors to encourage them to prescribe those drugs. He meets Hathaway in a doctor's office where she's seeking a prescription refill. She has stage 1 Parkinson's. They're attracted to each other, but he's a real ladies man who doesn't want a committed relationship. and she is afraid to have a relationship because of the medical burden it would eventually place on her partner. Here they are in a restaurant on their first date.

1:02 What's your game? My game? Oh, sorry. Right. This is the part where we talk about where we come from and what we majored in in college.

1:09 You have beautiful eyes. That's it. That's the best you got. I'm serious. They're beautiful.

1:15 Let's go. Excuse me. Well, you want to close, right? You want to get laid now? All right. Right. Right. I'm supposed to act like I don't know if it's right. So then you tell me that there is no right or wrong. It's just the moment. And then I tell you that I can't. Well, actually signaling to you that I can, which you don't need because you're not really listening because this isn't about connection for you. This isn't even about sex for you. This is about finding an hour or two of relief from the pain of being you. And that's fine with me. See, because all I want is the exact same thing.

1:59 It's my guest Anne Hathaway with Jake Gyllenhaal and a scene from the new movie Love and Other Drugs. Anne Hathaway, welcome to Fresh Air.

2:06 Thank you so much, Terry. So your character and Jake Gyllenhaal's character a very both very reluctant for their own reasons to commit to a real relationship to allow themselves to fall in love but they're both very sexual people and there's a lot of sexual encounters in the movie in which you're both you know naked. So what are some of the things you need to know about what will be asked of you and what the environment will be like before saying yes to being in that position as an actress? Well, um I wanted to just get to know Ed a bit to figure out who he was and um where he was coming from. I mean, I didn't based on his other films, I didn't imagine him to be an exploitative director, but you know, you just want to spend time with someone to find out where they're coming from, what their perspective is. And it's funny because when the film was done, I went over and I had dinner at Ed's house and I showed

2:59 up and once I saw what his home life was like, I thought, "Oh, why don't we just start here? I would have trusted you right off the bat." So, I had to uh build trust with Ed. And once we we did we had the trust built, then we explored what it would be like. And um and it was a real exercise in trust. You know, often times when you're doing nudity, you get lawyers involved, agents, managers. Um

3:21 why what do they do? Oh, they they negotiate the shots. The director submits a shot list and you uh look over them for approval. And a lot of times if an actor feels a shot demands a lot of them, they'll demand money for it. Oh, extra money for the nudity.

3:35 Extra money for the nudity, which which makes me uncomfortable, so I don't I don't do that. But um

3:41 So, did did you have lawyers and all that getting involved? No, no, actually, we went the opposite route. We we began to approach it from that standpoint, and Jake and I called each other and uh decided that we we didn't want to go that route, that we wanted to put our trust in in Ed. We said to him, "Shoot it the way you think it ought to be shot and give us final cut over the uh over those scenes and let's just trust each other." We made the stakes equal for for both parties. And uh so what you see in the film is what Ed was comfortable shooting and what Jake and I were comfortable revealing.

4:14 Did you screen the shots before approving them? Yes. And did you reject anything?

4:21 I did. I did. I cut uh probably a total of about 5 seconds out of the nude scenes. Um, no particular I didn't cut whole scenes, but just shots that I felt went on a little bit too long. Maybe it was just me being sensitive to it, but I thought that for whatever reason, I thought the camera lingered a little bit and uh, Ed had no problems just taking them out. One question I would ask if I was in your shoes, which of course I would never be, is, is the room going to be really warm if I'm taking off all my

4:47 So funny. You're absolutely right. It was something after the first day I thought, um, can we do something about this? because we were in a not very wellinssulated former limousine uh car park that had been transformed into a studio in Pittsburgh and um insulation wasn't I think high on the list of priorities in the construction of this particular place. So we had a lot of hot water bottles, a lot of warmies. Um yeah, that's that's that's a funny perspective. It's true. So when you see a nude scene now, do you look at it differently? Are there technical things that you're looking for that you wouldn't necessarily have noticed before?

5:23 Um, not really. No. I think what I I look for is um are the actors invested in it? Do they seem uncomfortable? Do they look like they're self-conscious about what they're doing? And someone whose work I I return to or two people actually whose work I returned to a lot in uh in preparation for this film to just remind myself that it could be done were was the work of Kate Winslet and the work of Penelopey Cruz. uh two amazing actresses, two of my my my my favorite actresses, my heroes, who have done nudity with a tremendous amount of sensitivity and dignity within their own their own careers. So, I knew it was possible.

6:01 Do [snorts] you ever ask yourself like why do we need to do this as actors and actresses? Why should that even be necessary?

6:07 No, I actually ask myself why do we have to talk about it? You know, why is this an issue? Why why do people become fixated on this issue? I mean, I don't know about you, but I was naked in the shower this morning. You know, I don't wear a bathing suit in the bathroom,

6:21 but I was alone when I was in the shower. I was I was alone in the shower as well. Um, nudity is a part of life and you know, you try to capture life in film and at least I do. And um, so I I wasn't too hung up about that. My guest is Anne Hathaway. She's starring with Jake Gyllenhaal in the new movie Love and Other Tropes. Now, let's talk about another film that you did with Jake Gyllenhaal, and that's Brokeback Mountain. Um, and just for um in case there's anybody out there who doesn't know this film, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger played two men who realize that they're in love with each other, but um they they're afraid to come out. Um so, they build these other lives, and you become Jake Gyllenhaal's uh wife. And um I want to play a scene. Um Andis, the Heath Ledger character, calls you after getting back a postcard that he'd sent to Jack. And the postcard was marked deceased.

7:20 So Heath Ledger's character wants to know like what's going on. So he calls you and you tell him the story of what happened and how Jack died.

7:29 Well, to let you know what happened, but I wasn't sure about your name or address. Jack kept his friend's addresses in his head. That's why I'm calling is uh see what happened.

7:44 Oh yeah. [sighs] Jack was pumping up a flat on the truck out on a back road when the tire blew up. The rim of the tire slammed into his face, broke his nose and jaw and knocked him unconscious on his back. By the time somebody come along, he drowned in his own blood. He was only 39 years old.

8:11 Hello. Hello. Hello. Was he buried down there? He put a stone up. He was cremated like he wanted. Half his ashes was interred here. The rest are sent up with his folks. He used to say he wanted his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. But I wasn't sure where that was. Thought Brokeback Mountain might be around where he grew up knowing Jack.

8:42 It might be some pretend place where bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring. Of course, Brokeback Mountain is the place where the Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal characters fall in love. So that was my guest Anne Hathaway with Heath Ledger in a scene from Brokeback Mountain. In that scene, as you are explaining how Jack died, we're seeing for a few seconds another story. You're saying he died while fixing a flat

9:11 and what we're seeing is him being the victim of a gay bashing where he's beaten to death.

9:18 And it's very ambiguous in the movie. What are we seeing? Are we seeing what you know to be the truth of what happened, but you don't want to go to that truth? Are we seeing what Heath Ledger's character is imagining would happen? What are we seeing? Do you know?

9:33 I don't I don't know. I never asked Dang. Um, I played it both ways and those takes got merged in the final film, so I don't actually know.

9:43 What do you mean you played it both ways? I I played it as though I knew what was going on with uh with Jake's character, Jack, and that he had been cheating on me with men and and that um I knew about the gay bashing. And I also played it as though I had no idea and my that this is how my husband died. You know, it was a terrible accident uh with a with a car tire. So, actually, I don't really know which one wound up in the film.

10:10 Now, does it bother you that you didn't know? Do you think like you ought to know like what your character knows? Well, I did know within each take, but I'm an actor I who believes that uh film is the director's medium. And I got along so well with Angley. I think partially because I showed up and I said, "What color do you need me to be today in your painting?" I mean, I was so happy to serve him and his story and his vision. So, I just I would do anything he told me to do. So, um Ang knows the truth in his head and it's not important to me. I actually think I get to uh be a part of the film as an audience member because I don't know because I think the ambiguity is what is the strength of that scene and and what's heartbreaking about it.

10:50 I should mention this was maybe a good place to talk about it that your brother is gay and he got married in Canada

10:57 and I read that your family left the Catholic Church when your brother came out because the Catholic Church is so like anti-homosexual. So was it a hard decision or just like a no-brainer to leave the church when your brother came out? Well, it wasn't really like we had a family discussion about it. We didn't sit around the dinner table and say, "Okay, this is the decisive action we're going to take now." It was more something we realized we'd all done as individuals. And then it became something that we'd done as a family.

11:23 Um, and gosh, was it difficult. You know, when it's family and someone is excluding your family and someone is not accepting of your family, it does become a bit of a no-brainer, doesn't it? So, was it hard for you to leave the church? Was the church important to you before?

11:43 Faith is important to me, you know, being raised with one faith and having to go out into the unknown and try to cobble together another. That was hard. But I wasn't really leaving something because I realized I couldn't have faith in this religion that would exclude anyone. Particularly my brother for the way he's born and for loving someone. I mean, how do you exclude someone for love? That seems to be the antithesis of what religion's about. And by the way, I, you know, I don't mean a Catholic church bash. I do understand that for a lot of people, uh, the religion provides a lot of peace and, uh, direction, but uh, I don't know if they could be accepting of of women and of and of gays. I think that the religion gets a lot of things right. But, uh, for me, I couldn't lose myself in it. I couldn't look to it for guidance because it's like I said, I don't believe in in this aspect. Now, let me ask you about a role

12:37 that I think was um was a pretty breakthrough role for you. I guess you've had several breakthrough roles, but the the one I'm thinking of here is in Rachel Getting Married, which was directed by Jonathan Demi.

12:48 Um wonderful Jonathan Demi. Yeah. And in this, you play the sister of Rachel, and Rachel's getting married. You get out of rehab for a few days to attend the wedding.

12:59 And um so you've been in rehab for drug addiction, and you're you're very troubled. You're very angry. And we find out later in the movie why you're so angry at your mother.

13:09 But you know, here you're angry at your sister. She's getting married. There's just so radiant and you're in such trouble. And so I'm going to play a scene here where you give this is the uh rehearsal dinner and you're giving you're giving the toast.

13:23 But um somehow the toast ends up being all about you. And as we listen to this, imagine what we actually see in the movie, which is the the camera scanning the faces of the family and friends and the bride and groom to be whose facial expressions get more and more pained as as your toast goes on.

13:43 Here we go. Hello. Ah. Um, relax, said Zeltzer. Hello. Um, I am Shiva the Destroyer and your Harbinger of Doom for this evening. I would like to thank you all for coming and welcome you, even though I haven't seen most of you since my latest stretch in the big house, but you all look fabulous. Um, so during the 20 minutes or so that I was not in the hole for making a shiv out of my toothbrush, I actually did participate in the infamous 12step program. 12 steps. Step. will change. That will change. I'm still waiting for the change part.

14:26 So, um but you know, as they say that relapse is an almost always inevitable part of recovery. So, um I get high marks in that mode. Um anyh who I well as more of you know than are likely to admit one of the steps actual steps is about making amends. So, I did a lot of apologizing to people uh who some of whom [clears throat] barely remembered me, most of whom barely remembered anything. And I apologized for um you know, like bouncing a check or passing out in their bathtub or flooding their house. and um you know just basically for involving them in sorted activities that they were desperately trying to forget. I I had to call this one girl who was I I think 14, but she couldn't come to the phone actually because her mom had taken out a restraining order. But but anyway, so I I

15:47 my guest Anne Hathaway in a scene from Rachel getting married, there is so much self-consciousness self-hatred and anger

15:53 in that scene. What did you do to prepare to play this character and to prepare specifically for that scene?

16:01 Oh, I love my Kimmy. I love my Kimmy and Rachel. I just she's my favorite. She I think she always will be. She's got such a tremendous heart and um she the chips are so stacked against her in a lot of ways. How did I prepare? Well, I had been given the script for Rachel Getting Married by uh as I mentioned before, the wonderful my beloved Jonathan Demi. And um I've been given it about a year before um we actually filmed. And I just I don't know. I I bonded with her the first time I read it. Jonathan and I spent a year talking about the character until we got the financing together and we and we filmed it. And I just um she was I just I don't know. I just uh tried to get inside of her head as deeply as I could and I did a lot of research into addiction.

16:53 So when you're making that toast in the film, were you looking on a large table of pained people who were listening to you and thinking, "Oh my god, this is really horrible." Well, one of the things that was so gosh [sighs] amazing about Rachel getting married was the way it was shot. uh we didn't rehearse and so I never had any idea how any of the actors were going to say the lines. We never discussed backstory uh amongst with each other. We our relationships kind of were all filtered through Jonathan and so we all he put us in the same film and we just kind of all played and there was always usually about three or four cameras in the room.

17:35 We worked at the most basic of blocking and uh we just filmed it. So that rehearsal dinner, what we did was they had rigged the cameras on elastic and had them hanging from the ceiling. And that take was about an hour and the scene, which winds up being probably about 7 minutes in the film, was shot largely over an hour and a half uh in real time. And everybody got up and made made a toast. And so I'm absorbing them. People are like kind of some people are doing saying direct digs at Kim, other people are completely avoiding her, other you know, ignoring her. And so I I guess I didn't have to do too much except listen to everybody. So when I but when I stood up, people were reacting. They were so in the scene.

18:15 There was a palpable energy shift as it went on. And um and yeah, it was uh it was quite a gift to get to make that film and make that film in that way. Do you think it gave the film a more real look because things were not totally planned? Some of the reactions were spontaneous, genuinely spontaneous. I think so. I think some of the funniest moments in the movie happened because we hadn't rehearsed them. There's the scene where um my character and the beautiful Rosemary Ditz character Rachel, the titular character of the film, they've gone to have their hair done and some secret gets revealed. It's some dramatic moment happens in the hair salon. Rachel leaves. my characters to make it home and then we sort of we have a confrontation in front of the family and the one of the things that Jonathan did was he decided he wanted to score the movie live. So we had these wonderful musicians around all the time and

19:13 they're playing in the background and most scenes it actually really enhanced the experience. But we go through one take and I'm just sitting there and I'm I hadn't anticipated the scene would have them and so I go to Jonathan or I didn't actually went to the first AD to talk to Jonathan to say is there any possible we could we could do the scene without the musicians? They're they're great. I love them, but maybe not this one. And the note that I got back from from Jonathan was, "You don't like it? Do something about it." And in that scene, I wind up yelling at the musicians and and the line, you know, "God, do we have to have them all the time?" was improvd. And everyone just kind of reacted to it. And the reactions you get from that are completely spontaneous. And so, in that sense, it was invaluable. But it it also

19:51 I remember that scene. I didn't realize didn't really did not realize how that came about.

19:56 That that's how that came about. And I think what it did was, I mean, I don't know that this process could work with every cast, but we had Bill Irwin, we had Anna Deve Smith, we had Rosemary Dwit, Mather Zickle, and I just it was

20:11 Debra Winger's great in it. Deborah Winger, I mean, my goodness, I don't think it would work with every cast, but we were all game. We're all devotees of Jonathan. I think after the second day, we realized it was going to work, and so we just it made us trust each other more. From what I've read, it sounds like Meil Stre is one of the actresses you most admire. And you got Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I was going to say yes. Yes. Yes.

20:34 So, you got to act with her in The Devil Wears Prada where where she plays the editor of a top fashion magazine runway. The character is reminiscent of Anna Winter, the editor of Vogue magazine. And so, this character, the Muriel Street character, orders everyone around. She's very demanding. In fact, she's absurdly demanding. And this is your job interview with her to be her assistant. And at the end of this scene, the art director, Nigel, walks in and he's played by Stanley Tucci. Muriel Streeps speaks first.

21:01 Who are you? Uh, my name is Andy Saxs. I recently graduated from Northwestern University.

21:08 And what are you doing here? [clears throat] Well, I think I could do a good job as your assistant. And um yeah, I came to New York to be a journalist and uh sent letters out everywhere and then finally got a call from Elias Clark and met with Cherry up at human resources and basically it's this or auto universe.

21:32 So you don't read runway? Uh no. And before today you had never heard of me? No. And you have no style or sense of fashion.

21:46 Well, um I think that depends on what your No, no, that wasn't a question. Um I was editor-inchief of the Daily Northwestern. I I also um won a national competition for college journalists with my series on the janitor's union, which exposed the exploitation of

22:17 Yeah, you know, okay, you're right. I don't fit in here. I am not skinny or glamorous, and I don't know that much about fashion, but I'm smart. I learn fast and I will work.

22:30 I got the exclusive on the Cavali for Gwyneth, but the problem is with that huge feathered headdress that she's wearing, she looks like she's working the main stage at Golden Nugget. Mhm. Thank you for your time.

22:44 Who is that sad little person? Are we doing a before and after piece I don't know about?

22:50 I love that line. [gasps] Oh, Stanley. So, that's my That's it. My guest, Dan Hathaway with Merryill Streep and Stanley Tucci in a scene from The Devil Wears Prada. So, did you learn things from acting with Merryill Streep?

23:02 Oh my gosh. It was getting to watch a masterwork every day. Yes, I observed quite a few things that changed me. Tell us about one or two.

23:11 Her focus. I didn't realize that an actor could have that level of focus and still be spontaneous and still gosh, [sighs] her vocal work just amazed me. Her breathing, I mean, from a technical standpoint, I didn't know how she could be so on top of everything and still be so relaxed. And that just really blew my mind how deep in her bones she'd taken a character. I mean, it was an incredible thing to watch her transform, to have her be Merryill in the rehearsal room, and you'd get a, you know, like a good morning, sweetie, and then like, "Okay, bye. See you in a few." And then she would completely disappear for the next 13 hours. And um I I just I don't think I'd ever witnessed acting on the cellular level that she does it at uh up close before and for such a long period of time. So, I just uh it made me want I'm like I want to do that. I didn't How do you do that? You know, you mentioned

24:07 her vocal technique and her breathing. Um was this like preparation work that you're talking about?

24:13 No, no, no. It literally I mean the first time I saw her playing Miranda was in the table read and I thought, you know, whatever how older it was, 22year-old I was at the time. Um you know, with all my in great instincts, I was like, well, she's going to be barking out orders. She's going to be talking loudly. She's going to be talking over everybody. And Merryill came out with this whisper. And it was so genius to watch because at the table read, every last person in the room leaned forward and she had everyone from that point on. She had all the power in the room and she had all the power on set. It was something to witness. I'll tell you. I'll confess it always bothers me a little bit when somebody as like really beautiful as you is supposed to be early in the film. somebody who's like so ordinary and mousy and like people are just like dismissing her like gh are we doing a makeover, you know,

25:00 like what is this? I I don't even know what my question is. I just wanted to express that that

25:05 express your outrage. Well, it's I just sometimes feel a little bad too that ordinary people don't get to play ordinary roles. Do you know what I mean? This

25:13 I don't know. I don't know. I'm I'm I'm no, you know, Megan Fox or or Kate Beckensdale or or those kind of, you know, like jaw-dropping beauties. I think I'm I think I'm a pretty regular girl. I just get what I get to do is I get to dress up a lot. So, you're just used to seeing me all shellacked. But if you saw me right now, I don't think you'd doubt it. So, I think your first big film role was the The Princess Diaries.

25:36 Yes, it was. Yeah. In which you play an awkward 15-year-old who finds out that her father was a prince and that she's actually a princess.

25:44 And so, Princess of Govia. Of Govia, which I guess is like Monaco or something. A little little teeny

25:49 country. Yeah. Yeah. It's a small European principality, right? Okay. Fictional, of course.

25:54 Yes. I I wonder what your perspective as a woman is on the whole like princess fantasy thing.

26:02 I never had the princess fantasy thing. So, for me, it was more about a girl who believes she's very ordinary, who's being asked to become bigger than herself to meet this extraordinary opportunity where she can do a lot of good in the world. And that was always the aspect of it that appealed to me. the whole princess aspect of it kind and I know I should have probably been involved because it's got princess in the title, but that whole thing kind of kind of passed me by.

26:28 Well, let's hear a scene and this is the scene where your paternal grandmother, Clarice Raldi, played by Julie Andrews, tells you you're meeting her for the first time and she tells you that your father was the crown prince of Govia and since his recent death in a car crash, you are now heir to the throne. So, here's the scene. Why on earth would you pick me to be your princess?

26:51 Since your father died, you are the natural heir to the throne of Govia. That's our law. I'm royal by marriage. You are royal by blood. You can rule. Rule. Oh no. Oh no. No. No. No. Now you have really got the wrong girl. I never lead anybody. Not at Not at Brownies. Not at campfire girls. Um, Queen Clarice, my expectation in life is to be invisible, and I'm good at it.

27:23 Amelia, I had other expectations also. In my wildest dreams, I never expected this to happen. But you are the legal heir, the only heir to the Govian throne. And we will accept the challenge of helping you become the princess that you are. Oh, I can give you books. You will study languages, history, art, political science. I can teach you to walk, talk, sit, stand, eat, dress like a princess. Given time, I think you'll find the palace in Govia a very pleasant place to live.

27:53 This country, Amelia, really. Whoa. Whoa. Just rewind and freeze. I'm no princess. I am still waiting for normal body parts to arrive. I refuse to move to and rule a country. And do you want another reason? I don't want to be a princess.

28:10 Okay. She means it. Yes. My guest Anne Hathaway with Julie Andrews in a scene from The Princess Diaries. Did you grow up with Julie Andrews movies like Mary Poppins, Sound of Music?

28:20 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Staple in my household. We're uh we're big musical uh musical theater fans. So, Julie Andrews was kind of, you know, one of our our icons.

28:30 So, what was it like uh being in a scene in so many scenes with her? Oh, man. I was I was so tongue-tied around her all the time. I was always worried about saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. And she's the nicest person. and she couldn't be warmer. I was just incredibly intimidated. Um, and I'm so gosh, I haven't seen that film in years and years and years. And just listening to it, I can't even imagine what what it must have been like for for her to work with me. I was so green and so kind of at sea in a lot of ways. And she and Gary really, you know, were kind to me and and and did a lot uh to shape my performance. And just listening to her work in that and how she really keeps the scene on point. And I'm just kind of, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm like a I'm like a boat butting against the raft hitting it a little bit too hard. But that is such we So she was amazing.

29:17 How old were you? I was 17 when we shot that and I turned 18 while we filmed. You are now preparing to play Judy Garland

29:27 in an adaptation of Gerald Clark's book Get Happy, a biography of Judy Garland. Um, and so, so recently on Saturday Night Live, you did Judy Garland in a parody of The Wizard of Oz, but I'm wondering like in going back and watching Judy Garland movies and her variety show, um, listening to her sing, what what are some of the things that you're picking up on that strike you as, you know, essential Judy Garland qualities that no matter what she was doing, no matter how unreal the circumstances, and especially in that early work when she had to do things that were quite a bit fluffier, she's always present. her emotions are present in every single scene. She knows what she's doing. Um, and I think the effortlessness with which she performed when watching the the Wizard of Oz again in preparation for Saturday Night Live this weekend.

30:15 You're watching her and she was um I think she went from 13 to 15 when she made the Wizard of Oz. Um, cuz I know they filmed it over I think about 18 months. And you're watching her work with people twice, three times her age who've had a lifetime to hone their skill. and she's matching them step for step. And oftentimes when she's sharing the screen with someone, you can't take your eyes off of her. And she just she was a prodigy. She was an absolute prodigy. And she wore it like like nothing. She wore it she wore it like a second skin.

30:47 Are you going to do your own singing for the movie? There's been talk of that. I I don't want to say yay or nay. Uh, I think if I c because, you know, I think people love Judy's voice and and um I certainly want to be able to to to do her voice, but uh but I don't know if I'm going to do it or not. There's been talk of of of both or either rather.

31:08 Now, you sang in Ella Enchanted. You you sang the Queen song, Somebody to Love and um you sang in Sonheim's 75th birthday tribute.

31:19 You did What more do I need? A song from Saturday night. you it must be frustrating for you to not get a lot of chances to sing. Oh, you were also in the uh Encor's production of uh you know a revival of Carnival.

31:33 So it is it frustrating that you don't get more opportunity to sing. Uh far be it for me to complain about working. So if the work doesn't involve singing, I'm not no I don't I don't notice it. I if I wanted to be a singer, I'd be a singer. Um, I love to sing, but I love acting so much more. And when I get a chance to do both, of course, I'm happiest. I love performing, but uh, but no, no, no. I'm I'm I'm I'm very happy to be to be an actor who sings.

32:03 One more thing I just want to squeeze in before our time runs out. I read that you were originally supposed to have the role that Katherine Hygel got in Knocked Up,

32:11 the Jud Appattow film, and that you didn't like the idea at the end, you know, she gets pregnant. Um, and at the end when she gives birth, we actually see a real birth. I mean, we see the whole detail of it head on. Why did you decline because of that, you know, actual footage of of birth?

32:30 Well, first of all, let me just say I I love Jud and I I had talked to him about this and he told me that this shot was non-negotiable and then I thought I had to really think about my feelings about it. It wasn't the shot that was the problem. I actually think the shot's great. uh and and totally and he was absolutely right in doing it and his reasons for it was you know you've had all this buildup to the birth what you're going to cop out before the ending of it and I thought he was right and obviously as is evidenced in my new film I'm fine with nudity that wasn't the issue for me it was um when I do nudity it's me it's my body up there it's my decision but in approximating birth I would be and I know this might sound a little off but I hope to be a mother someday today and it's one of the things I'm looking forward to the most in my life. And I want that experience, that really intimate experience to be between

33:21 me and them and my husband or my lover or whatever my situation is at the time. And I just couldn't at the time and I think I was 24 years old when when that film was when I was attached to that film. I couldn't imagine inviting the world into that moment of what I hoped to be in my life. I and I couldn't it's the only time I've ever felt that way as an actor. It must be hard to say no. Um, either way, it's scary. Saying yes is just as scary as saying no. Um, I find that people usually find the part that they're meant to do. And when you don't do something and someone like like this is a perfect example, Katherine Higgel became a big big big big movie star from her work in Knocked Up. And that was the right role for her. That was supposed to be her role. And it was just and and the reason it didn't work out for me was because it wasn't mine. And um I'm very comfortable with that. And I think that

34:18 you know I look at a role like the Devil's Prada that I got to do. I had to wait for seven girls to turn that down. And I think the reason why it got to me was because it was my role. Interesting way to look at it. Well, you got to keep your sanity somehow.

34:35 Okay. An Hway, thank you so much for talking with us. Terry, this was such a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Anne Hathaway (2010 interview) | Fresh Air"?

Terry Gross (Host), Anne Hathaway (Guest).

What is "Anne Hathaway (2010 interview) | Fresh Air" about?

In a 2010 interview, Anne Hathaway discusses her diverse film career, highlighting her roles in notable movies like *The Devil Wears Prada* and *Rachel Getting Married*, while also focusing on her latest project, *Love and Other Drugs*, where she plays a woman with stage 1 Parkinson's opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. The film explores themes of attraction and the challenges of relationships when facing…

What is mentioned in this Fresh Air episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Rachel Getting Married, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, The Princess Diaries, Love and Other Drugs. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Anne Hathaway (2010 interview) | Fresh Air"?

The episode runs 35 min; the transcript is about 6,627 words in 90 timestamped sections.

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