Anne Hathaway has come a long way since her Princess Diaries days.
Instead of getting typecast to romantic comedies, she broke into serious film with roles in Les Misérables , The Dark Knight Rises , and Brokeback Mountain .
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She has overcome a lot through the years, including the shame of that Oscar speech and her band of #Hathahaters. Let’s get into the article!
1. She was born in Brooklyn:
She didn’t stay there long though, as the family (she’s the daughter of a lawyer and an actress) moved to New Jersey when she was six.
While she always loved acting, she wouldn’t land her first gig until 1999.
2. She started acting at 13:
At this time, she joined a local theater group, landed herself an agent, and was doing commercials.
Her parents would drive her to and from auditions in New York City until the family relocated to L.A.
3. Her big break was in *The Princess Diaries*:
The movie was so popular that it spawned a sequel! There are even rumors about a third one!
After Anne shot to stardom, she continued to make a name for herself in Ella Enchanted and The Devil Wears Prada .
4. She weathered a lot of hate from the hashtag #Hathahate:
This happened after her Oscar speech after she won for her portrayal of Fantine in Les Misérables .
People thought the speech was horribly awkward and inauthentic. It even led to a think piece in The New York Times
5. She ended up addressing the controversy in 2014 to *Harper’s Bazaar*:
She described her speech as ” blergh ” and gave some context as to what had happened.
“While everyone was still getting onstage, I spoke. I should have gone after everyone else. I own that; it was rude. People saw that as grabby, I guess. I don’t know.”
6. She is open about her infertility struggles:
The star got candid when she announced she was expecting for the second time.
She wrote: “For everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies.”
“Sending you extra love,” she said, along with a heart emoji.
Thankfully, the struggles have been worth it as she and her husband, Adam Sulman, have two healthy children: Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman and Jack Shulman.
We are so happy for them!
7. She was on a ’90s TV show before she became famous:
The show was Get Real and it was about a family living in San Francisco. She played one of the older siblings alongside Jesse Eisenberg.
You probably never heard of it, though, since it was so short-lived.
8. She almost got a kitten to prepare for the role of Catwoman:
She told Interview that she convinced one of the assistant directors on the London portion of the film to get her a cat.
“The idea being that we were going to get a kitten from a rescue shelter.”
“And he was going to live with me, and I was going to observe it, and when I left London I was going to give it to her.”
In the end, though, her husband convinced her that it was a terrible idea.
She stuck to YouTube and watched a National Geographic video on cats instead.
9. She loved watching *Jersey Shore*:
She told Interview that it was her ” escapist pleasure ” since she spent every summer of her life going to Cape May.
But she had to stop once she saw too much of herself in Snooki. “I couldn’t lose myself in the show anymore because there I was.”
10. She quit drinking for her first son:
The lengths a mother’s love will go!
While on The Ellen Show she said, “I’m going to stop drinking while my son is in my house just because I don’t totally love the way I do it.”
“And he’s getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings.”
“I did one school run one day where I dropped him off at school, I wasn’t driving, but I was hungover and that was enough for me,” she said.
“I didn’t love that one.”
11. She was fired from *Knocked Up*:
Yup, she was almost the lead role!
The reason she got the boot before production began? She and the movie’s creator, Judd Apatow, disagreed about the explicit birth scene.
“I thought about that…Judd [Apatow] was right to include the shot. I didn’t disagree with the shot,” she told *Allure*.
She continued: “My issue with it was that having not experienced motherhood myself, I didn’t know how I was gonna feel on the other side about giving birth.”
12. She is a huge supporter of fellow actresses in the industry:
This is why she was so happy to be in the female-driven film, Ocean’s 8 .
“We were there for each other, and we were supportive. Why have I always been told that the opposite would happen?” she told Town and Country .
13. She loves to sing:
It was her voice you heard in Les Miserables . Her love of belting it out comes from her childhood.
“Singing and dancing forces you to open yourself up to vulnerability,” she told Allure .
14. She has no problem going nude for a film:
She bared all in Havoc and Brokeback Mountain .
“I don’t actively search for [movies] that I can get naked in,” Hathaway told Marie Claire .
“It’s not the most fun requirement of the job, but nor is it something that I would ever not do a job because of.”
“It is what it is,” she continued.
“Some people choose not to do it on moral grounds; I think that’s a shoddy argument.”
But the star does have her limits, as she once turned down a movie that was going to show another female’s downstairs area.
15. She is very particular about what she posts on Instagram.
Before she posts anything, be it a photo or a video, she never posts it right away.
She actually sends the photo with the caption to someone else, giving her an hour to reflect, before she decides whether or not she wants to post it.
16. She is known to be quite a researcher when it comes to acting:
She has called herself a nerd and others have called her the same on many occasions.
She likes to prepare for a scene, doing research and getting into character as much as she can.
17. When it comes to social activism, she is going through an “information-gathering stage,” according to *Town and Country*:
“Because I realized the anger was going to run out and it was just going to leave me exhausted and very possibly without actually having accomplished anything.”
She continued by saying:
“A huge part of doing the work, particularly as a white woman, is listening and hearing and valuing the voices of people whose voices are not allowed to be raised up as much as yours,” she said.
18. She has a system for dealing with her anxiety and stress:
She said that the best way is to set a timer, light a candle, and write down everything that is bothering you.
When you’re done, or the timer is finished, light the paper on fire and let it all go.
19. She thinks that her new outlook on life is thanks to her husband:
“He changed my ability to be in the world comfortably,” she told Elle . “I think the accepted narrative now is that we, as women, don’t need anybody. But I need my husband. His unique and specific love has changed me.”
20. She has her issues with Hollywood:
“Hollywood is not a place of equality. I don’t say that with anger or judgment; it’s a statistical fact. And even though I’ve been in some female-centric films, I’ve never been in a film like [ Ocean’s 8 ]. It just kind of makes you aware of the ways you sort of unconsciously change yourself to fit certain scenarios.”
“It’s not better or worse, or right or wrong, but there are certain things you understand about one another because of experiences you have in common…it’s probably easy for men to take that for granted.”
“Just being on a set where I’m the one who possesses that ease is really something. It’s a nice alternative narrative,” she said to Elle .
21. She told *People* that at one point, her anxiety was so bad that she could not handle awards season:
“But I remember 10 years ago being so scared going into the whole awards season and doing what I thought I was supposed to do, so I barely ate anything at Christmas.”
“I thought movie stars had to have a certain body. I was just smoking, just smoking my nerves away and wasn’t nourishing myself.”
“I just figured out how to say thank you to life by taking care of myself. By not apologizing for taking up space, which is not something I knew how to do 10 years ago.”
22. She has learned not to care about other people’s opinons:
In fact, she has admitted that if they’re going to be critical and negative about her, to at least do it properly instead of hating her for no reason!
That is definitely the attitude to have to get ahead of the hate!
Do you know any more interesting and random facts about the beautiful and talented Anne Hathaway?
Or were you pleasantly surprised by all of these facts? Either way, let us know down below in the comments section!
We would love to hear from you!
