When you first meet Anne Hathaway, you realise why Disney have been so keen to cast her in modern day Princess/Cinderella roles. There’s the long, lustrous Princess Jasmine hair; the petite frame that has served every Disney heroine from Snow White onwards; the Belle smile and of course, those famous Bambi eyes. While the 28-year-old New Yorker is grateful to movies such as 'The Princess Diaries' (2001), 'Ella Enchanted' (2004) and 'Becoming Jane' (2007) for establishing her in Tinseltown, any actress who counts Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep as her heroines knows that the day will come when it’s time to get serious.
Stage number one of that day arrived with the role of a recovering drug addict in 'Rachel Getting Married' ("my first time working without a net"), which resulted in the actress getting her first Oscar nod last year. That net is again absent for Hathaway’s latest movie, 'Love & Other Drugs', in which she plays a free-spirited young woman who refuses to let the onset of early Parkinson’s disease affect her ability to enjoy life to the full. Based on a true story, the movie co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal (with whom Hathaway previously worked in Brokeback Mountain) as a drug salesman with whom she conducts a torrid love affair. It’s all a far cry from Disney...
Michael Doherty: Can I ask you first, Anne, for a movie as emotional as Love & Other Drugs, did it help that you had already established a chemistry with Jake during 'Brokeback Mountain'?
Anne Hathaway: Yes and we had chemistry right from the first day on Brokeback. I didn't expect it to be there straight away when we started this movie but on day one, we picked up right where we left off.
Your performance has rightly been described as fearless, both emotionally and in the sense of the nude scenes involved. Did you have any reservations about doing the movie when you initially read the script?
To be honest, I was a little tentative because I wasn't quite sure who my character Maggie was, at first, and I wasn't sure what Ed [Zwick, director] had in mind as we searched for the character. But I saw that the story changed. What was initially a story about a man changed by love became a story about two people who changed each other. That required quite a level of generosity on Jake's part but he was there at every step with a huge level of generosity and support. That made it easier for me to embrace all aspects of the part.
Is it difficult to be intimate when you're surrounded by cameras and cables and technicians?
Basically, it's a real chore doing love scenes with Jake Gyllenhaal! People ask if it's uncomfortable but as an actor you work within those comfort levels and you suspend disbelief at very turn. The important thing is to stay in the moment. If you stop and think, ‘oh, I'm really uncomfortable right now’, then you've really shot yourself in the foot. You have to concentrate and put your feelings aside and get on with the work, and that isn't any different if you are in the nude!
But it must have been daunting?
It’s certainly not routine for me, but this is the film I signed up to do so I made my peace with it very early on. We believed that there should be nudity in the movie because these are two people who become physically intimate very quickly. Their emotional intimacy doesn’t happen until well into their relationship. I thought if I am literally trying to act and worrying, thinking: ‘oh I can’t turn this way because that’ll show a side of my breast that I haven’t negotiated’, it would just ruin the entire experience. So I sat down with Jake and with the director and said, ‘I trust you guys, I trust that you are both gentlemen and you are not going to exploit the situation. Go ahead and film what you want’. Jake and I had the final say over the nudity. As a result of all that, the sex scenes felt natural and very true to the characters.
Do you have concerns about family members watching this film?
I knew that my parents wouldn’t love it, but I also knew that the reason I am so comfortable with nudity is that they allowed me to watch movies that showed naked bodies when I was a kid. It never really struck me as anything odd or noteworthy, so I think they have to stick by their own lessons and values. I watched All That Jazz when I was eight years old. It’s funny because I think Americans are surprisingly sexual, despite a perceived prudishness. I think a lot of people are actually very comfortable with sex and with their bodies. I am also excited about showing a girl on screen that doesn’t have that kind of shame.
Did you lose spend time preparing physically to play the part?
I had to figure out what Maggie’s body would look like and I did a lot of research on the effect that Parkinson’s drugs have on one’s body. I discovered that they end up keeping you very thin in a sinewy sort of way. So that was the body I had to create for the character and I worked very hard to get that body, it’s not my natural physique. So when the day came to do the nudity, I just knew that I had done everything I could. I didn’t want to allow any sort of self consciousness about my body to stand in the way of enjoying the experience or getting to tell the story.
With your recent, diverse roles you've managed to avoid being typecast. Was it a conscious effort on your part to shake off the Disney Princess tag?
I think I've been very lucky. A lot of actors of my age haven't had the chance to show variety in their work. Some actors get stuck in one role, whether it's their choice or the choice of the studios. I started quite young and have been able to grow up on screen. As a result of that I've been able to tell a variety of different stories. It's not that I've been trying to avoid the typecasting you mention: it's more the fact that I'm always on the look-out for a variety of challenges.
One of those challenges comes with your next film, 'One Day', in which you play a well-loved character from a hugely popular book...
Yes and the first challenge was to make sure I got Emma’s Northern accent right. First and foremost I wanted to ground Emma’s identity in Yorkshire. I actually went over there five weeks early just to work with a dialect coach and to be around the accent. I love the book and it was really difficult to step into such a beloved character’s shoes, when everybody who has read the book has her voice in their head already and an idea of what she looks like. So that was nerve-wracking. But I also had to accept that a movie is inherently different from a book. The essence of the story is still in there, but there are some pretty definitive changes. I believe that I am the right Emma for the movie. I don’t want to sound arrogant! Hahaha!
I believe shooting this movie in England had an effect on your vegetarian outlook, too?
I’ve been a commitment-shy vegetarian since I was about 12. I wasn’t all that committed to be honest and then when I was in England this summer I don’t know what happened; I just didn’t want to eat meat any more but I was still eating fish. And then I was sent a copy of the book: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I read it and that was it for me in terms of being able to eat fish. I stopped, which is a shame because I enjoy the taste very much, but I just can’t support the way fish are farmed and caught. Go ahead and read it, but be warned, your life will be changed by this book! I’ve tried to give it to people and they say ‘I don’t want to know’. It’s amazing, but now when friends ask ‘do you want to go out and have sushi?’ I go out with them and order my cucumber roll and they say, ‘really?’ No matter how tempting it is to have a delicious piece of sushi, I just can’t anymore.
Going back to your career, did the Oscar nomination change your life?
Well I was at the World Bank recently [for a charity event] and they introduced me as ‘Oscar-nominated Anne Hathaway’. I think it gave me a gravitas that I didn’t have before. It was an endorsement by a well-respected body of people. As a result it has made people look at my work more closely, which is obviously all you want as an actor. You want people to have a reason to be interested in you, so that maybe they’ll hire you and you can do new things. So it has been enormously helpful in terms of finding the best possible material.
What are your hobbies or passions outside acting?
Right now I am setting up home and spending time playing with my dog, Esmeralda. I’m also learning to play the guitar and I’m learning to cook. I love to travel and hang out with my friends. I have a very normal life, nothing really special. I try to make time to do charity work and I read a lot. I am a curiosity junkie. I am currently reading The Elegant Universe [by Brian Green], a physics book on string theory. I’m also excited because I have just begun a relationship with an organisation called The Girl Effect. We did our first event together which was the AGI [The Adolescent Girl Initiative]. Researchers have come to the conclusion that the best way to eradicate poverty throughout the world is to invest money in the education and medical protection of teenage girls. They are the galvanizing force in the community and if you can empower them, you will change their communities. They are helping two to three thousand girls at a time and the results have been absolutely staggering.
Michael Doherty
