Anne Hathaway
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009. She was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015.
Hathaway performed in several plays in high school. As a teenager, she was cast in the television series Get Real and made her breakthrough by playing the lead role in the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries. After starring in a string of family films, including Ella Enchanted, Hathaway made a transition to mature roles with the 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain. The comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada, in which she played an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, was her biggest commercial success to that point. She played a recovering addict in the drama Rachel Getting Married, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Hathaway had further commercial success in the comedy Get Smart, the romances Bride Wars, Valentine's Day, and Love & Other Drugs, and the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland. In 2012, she starred as Catwoman in her highest-grossing film, The Dark Knight Rises, and played Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in the musical Les Misérables, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She has since played a scientist in the science fiction film Interstellar, the owner of a fashion website in the comedy The Intern, a haughty actress in the heist film Ocean's 8, a con artist in the comedy The Hustle, Rebekah Neumann in the miniseries WeCrashed, and an older woman dating a young pop star in the romantic comedy The Idea of You.
Hathaway has won a Primetime Emmy Award for her guest voice role on The Simpsons, sung for soundtracks, appeared on stage, and hosted events. She supports several charitable causes. She is a board member of the Lollipop Theatre Network, an organization that brings films to children in hospitals, and advocates for gender equality as a UN Women goodwill ambassador.
Early life and background
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born on November 12, 1982, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. She is of Irish, English, German and French descent. Her father, Gerald, was a labor attorney, and her mother, Kate, is a former actress. Hathaway's maternal grandfather was WIP Philadelphia radio personality Joe McCauley. According to The Daily Telegraph, she was named after William Shakespeare's wife. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. When Hathaway was six years old, the family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, where she was raised.At age eight, when Hathaway watched her mother perform in the first national tour of 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 to be "really strong values" and wished to be a nun during her childhood, but acting was always a high priority for her. Her relationship with the Catholic Church changed at age fifteen, after learning that her older brother was gay. Her family left the church, joining the Episcopal Church because of its acceptance of homosexuality, but they eventually left that too. In 2009, Hathaway described her religious beliefs as "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 took part in many plays, including Once Upon a Mattress, in which she portrayed Winnifred. Later, she appeared in the plays 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.
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. Early in her film career, her acting style and appearance would be likened 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. She 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. However, she said in 2008 that she had since grown from it. She missed her first college semester for the filming of her cinematic debut, The Princess Diaries. According to Hathaway, she never regretted not completing her degree, as she enjoyed being with others who "were trying to grow up".
Career
2001–2004: Early roles and breakthrough
In 2001, Hathaway starred in the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries, based on Meg Cabot's novel of the same name. Hathaway portrayed teenager Mia Thermopolis, who discovers that she is the heiress to the throne of the fictional Kingdom of Genovia. Hathaway auditioned for the role during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand. Director Garry Marshall 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 lauded 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. The same year, Hathaway starred with Christopher Gorham in Mitch Davis's The Other Side of Heaven, which was also distributed by Disney. 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 was cast as 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 of 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, she starred in Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama Nicholas Nickleby, 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 Ella Enchanted, in which Hathaway played the titular character, also performed poorly at the box office. She had 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 source material but did not work as a film, and therefore preferred the picture the way it turned out. It opened to mostly mixed reviews. Hathaway sang three songs on the film's soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.
In 2003, Hathaway turned down the role of Christine Daaé for Joel Schumacher's The Phantom of the Opera, because the production schedule of the film overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. She 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 $134.7 million against a $45 million budget.
2005–2008: Transition to adult roles and critical recognition
Hathaway began taking on adult roles to avoid typecasting, remarking 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". After replacing Tara Strong for the voice role of Red Puckett in Hoodwinked!, she starred in the drama Havoc as a spoiled socialite, appearing nude in some of its scenes. While the film was thematically different from her previous releases, Hathaway denied that her role was an attempt to be seen as a more mature actress, citing her belief that performing nudity in certain films is merely a part of what her chosen form of art demands of her; because of this 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.In the 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain, which depicts the emotional and sexual relationship between two men married to women, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, Hathaway played Lureen, the wife of Jack. The actress was originally sent the script with the part of Ennis' wife in mind, but decided to audition for Lureen instead after she read it. She lied during the audition about her knowledge of riding so that the director Ang Lee would cast her, but did subsequently take lessons. The film received critical acclaim and several Academy Award nominations. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that Hathaway "excels at showing Lureen's journey from cutie-pie to hard case", and Todd McCarthy of Variety credited her for "provid an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment". Hathaway stated that the content of Brokeback Mountain was more important than its award count, and that making the film made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actor. At this point, she realized that she wanted to play roles to move audiences or otherwise entertain them so much that they forget about their own lives.
Hathaway starred in the comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada, based on Lauren Weisberger's novel of the same name, as a college graduate who becomes an assistant to a powerful fashion magazine editor. She was "the ninth choice" for the part, citing this later as an inspiration for people to never give up, and in preparation she volunteered for a few weeks as an assistant at an auction house. She also followed a weight-loss regimen, along with co-star Emily Blunt, which made them hungry and led to crying. Hathaway stated that working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she did previously, though she admitted that her personal style was something she "still can't get right". The Devil Wears Prada 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". It proved to be her most widely seen film to that point, with a worldwide gross of over $326.5 million.
Originally cast in Knocked Up, Hathaway dropped out before production and was replaced with Katherine Heigl. This happened because, according to writer-director Judd Apatow, the actress was uncomfortable with the use of real footage of a woman in labor; she believed it did not contribute to the film's story. Her sole release in 2007 was the biographical romantic drama Becoming Jane, as the titular English author Jane Austen. A fan of Austen since age 14, 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 filming to improve her English accent. She received a British Independent Film Award for Best Actress nomination for the film, although some critics negatively focused on her accent and performance.
In October 2008, Hathaway hosted an episode of 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. Calling the role "a childhood dream come true", Hathaway learned martial arts and dancing techniques in preparation. While filming an action sequence, she 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 two other releases of 2008 were the drama Rachel Getting Married and the mystery thriller Passengers, the latter of which was a critical and commercial failure. In Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married, she starred as a young woman who, after being released from drug rehabilitation, returns home for her sister's wedding. Portraying a character she described as "narcissistic—downright selfish", Hathaway garnered critical acclaim for her performance. Peter Travers found her to be "raw and riveting" in the role, adding that she "acts the hell out of it, achieving a state of sorrowful grace". She received Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics' Choice, and SAG nominations for Best Actress. She won the Critics' Choice.