For the past two decades, Anne Hathaway has been a regular and welcome presence in cinephiles’ lives. She shed the wide-eyed sheen of the two Princess Diaries movies to take on more adult roles, like her heartbreaking turn in Brokeback Mountain or the much-loved The Devil Wears Prada, to become a dependable and instantly recognisable representation of ‘big movies’.
Nowadays, Hathaway occupies rarefied air. She’s one of those actors who could make a dozen bad movies in a row and still come out looking like a million bucks. She is, to coin an overused phrase, Hollywood royalty, and it’s hard to imagine a modern movie scene without her in it. However, this wasn’t always the case.
Public opinion viciously turned on Hathaway in the early 2010s. Essentially, people saw her as “too perfect”, especially when she won her Oscar for Les Misérables. Her acceptance speech was viewed as “rehearsed” and “inauthentic”, which just amplified the ‘Hatha-hate’ she was already receiving online. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Hathaway recalled that tough period in her life, saying, “This was a language I had employed with myself since I was seven. 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.”
Mercifully, the One Day star got through this rough patch, thanks in part to her collaborations with Christopher Nolan. Hathaway joined the director’s Batman trilogy for The Dark Knight Rises, where she played an updated version of Selena Kyle’s Catwoman. Then came the pair’s most significant achievement – Interstellar. Hathaway dazzled as Dr Amelia Brand, a scientist on a deep space voyage to find a suitable replacement for planet Earth. Considering how often Nolan’s female parts can be one-note, Brand is a complex character, torn between her scientific duties and her love for her former colleague and lost coloniser, Dr Edmunds.
Hathaway herself confirmed that the British filmmaker played a big role in her recovery period. “A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” she said. “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.”
When speaking specifically about Interstellar, Hathaway doubted if Nolan “knew that he was backing me at the time” by casting her in such a prestigious role. “But it had that effect,” she continued. “And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”
Even after the success of Interstellar, Hathaway’s career wasn’t perfect. She had success with the likes of The Intern and Colossal but wasn’t averse to starring in stinkers like The Hustle or Robert Zemeckis’ remake of The Witches. Even Serenity, which reunited her with former co-astronaut Matthew McConaughey, was a total and utter flop. That wasn’t the point, though. Having two more beloved roles under her belt added to Hathaway’s legend and helped protect her against any future bad decisions. The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar were such big ticks in her ‘Pros’ column that they cancelled out several of the minor ‘Cons’ she would accumulate in later years. They established Hathaway as one of the untouchables, a position she occupied ever since.
Nolan hasn’t cast Hathaway again since his sci-fi epic, but that will change come the release of his as-yet-untitled 13th movie. His old friend will join fellow Nolan fave Matt Damon, as well as new pals Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, and Zendaya in the upcoming film, which is due for release in 2026.
