Anne Hathaway
As a teenager, Hathaway was cast in the television series Get Real (1999–2000). Her breakthrough came when she starred as Mia Thermopolis in her debut film, the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (2001). In 2005, Hathaway played more mature roles in the dramas Havoc and Brokeback Mountain.
The comedy The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which Hathaway plays an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, was her biggest commercial success to that point. She played a recovering alcoholic in the drama Rachel Getting Married (2008), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
She subsequently appeared in the commercially successful romantic films Bride Wars (2009), Valentine's Day (2010) and Love & Other Drugs (2010).
In 2012, Hathaway starred as Selina Kyle / Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, her first of three collaborations with director Christopher Nolan. That year, she also played Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in the musical romantic drama Les Misérables, for which she earned multiple accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Hathaway went on to play a scientist in Interstellar (2014), the owner of an online fashion site in The Intern (2015), a haughty actress in Ocean's 8 (2018), a single mother in The Idea of You (2024), a journalist in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) and Penelope in The Odyssey (2026).
In television, Hathaway won a Primetime Emmy Award for her guest voice role on The Simpsons in 2010, and starred with Jared Leto in the miniseries WeCrashed (2022). She has sung for soundtracks and has performed on stage, and she advocates for gender equality as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Hathaway is married to Adam Shulman, with whom she has two children.
Early life
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 (née McCauley), is a former actress. Hathaway's maternal grandfather was the WIP (AM) Philadelphia radio personality Joe McCauley.
According to The Daily Telegraph, she was named after William Shakespeare's wife. When Hathaway was six years old, the family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, where she was raised.
Hathaway became fascinated with the stage at age eight, when she watched her mother perform as Fantine in Les Misérables. Her parents were not keen on her pursuing an acting career, and her mother eventually quit acting to raise Hathaway and her two brothers. Hathaway was raised as Roman Catholic with what she considers to be "strong values".
She wished to be a nun during her childhood, but acting was also a high priority for her. Her relationship with the Catholic Church changed at age 15 after she learned her older brother was gay. Her family left the Catholic Church and joined the Episcopal Church because of its acceptance of homosexuality, but they eventually left that church too.
Hathaway attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School and Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn. 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 attended Millburn High School, where she played soccer and took part in many plays, including Once Upon a Mattress, in which she portrayed Winnifred.
She also appeared in the plays Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. Between 1998 and 1999, she sang soprano with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and acted in plays at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. Three days after a performance at Carnegie Hall, she was cast as Meghan Green in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real. Hathaway suffered from depression and anxiety as a teenager.
Hathaway spent several semesters as an English major and political science minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York; she missed her first semester due to the production schedule of her film debut, The Princess Diaries (2001). She later transferred to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Early in Hathaway's film career, her acting style and appearance were likened to Judy Garland—whom she cites as one of her favorite actresses—and Audrey Hepburn.
Career
2001–2004: Early roles and breakthrough
In 2001, Hathaway starred in the Disney comedy film The Princess Diaries, based on the novel The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. Hathaway portrays 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. Ben Falk of the BBC said that Hathaway shines in the title role and "generates great chemistry", while Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times described her as "royalty in the making" and "a young comic talent".
Hathaway was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance for the role. The same year, she starred with Christopher Gorham in The Other Side of Heaven, which was also distributed by Disney.
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 played Lili, an optimistic orphan who falls in love with a magician.
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. Charles Isherwood of Variety called Hathaway the highlight of the show, "remarkably unaffected and winning", and convincing in her performance.
Hathaway won a Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female for her performance. Later, she voiced the audiobook release of the first three The Princess Diaries novels.
[Princess roles] are so much fun to do, I figure I might as well get the most out of them while I can. Then [I'll] go off and play all the drug addicts and the prostitutes, and all the good ones you win Oscars for.
Hathaway portrayed princesses and appeared in family-oriented films over the next three years, becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model. After voicing Haru Yoshioka for the English version of The Cat Returns (2002), she starred in Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama Nicholas Nickleby (2002) and the fantasy romantic comedy Ella Enchanted (2004). Hathaway sang three songs on the Ella Enchanted soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.
In 2003, Hathaway turned down the role of Christine Daaé in Joel Schumacher's The Phantom of the Opera (2004), because the production schedule of the film overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). 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 to generally negative reviews while earning $134.7 million against a $45 million budget.
2005–2008: Rise to prominence
According to The Independent, Hathaway began taking on more mature roles to expand her acting range and avoid typecasting following The Princess Diaries 2. After voicing the character Red Puckett in the animated film Hoodwinked! (2005), she starred in the drama Havoc (2005) as a spoiled socialite.
She appeared topless in the film, but denied that the role was merely an attempt to be seen as a more mature actress. The film was not theatrically released in U.S. theaters due to unfavorable critical reception.
In the 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain, which depicts the emotional and sexual relationship between two men, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), Hathaway played Jack's wife Lureen. Hathaway was originally sent the script with the role of Ennis' wife in mind, but decided to audition for Lureen instead.
She lied during the audition about her knowledge of horseback riding so that director Ang Lee would cast her, but she did subsequently take lessons. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that Hathaway "excels at showing Lureen's journey from cutie-pie to hard case", while Todd McCarthy of Variety said she provided "an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment".
Hathaway said that Brokeback Mountain made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actor. At this point, she realized she wanted to play roles that would move audiences or entertain them so thoroughly that they would forget about their own lives.
Hathaway starred in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), based on the Lauren Weisberger novel The Devil Wears Prada (2003). Her character is a recent college graduate who becomes an assistant to a powerful fashion magazine editor (Meryl Streep). Hathaway said she was "the ninth choice" for the role, which she prepared for by volunteering as an assistant at an auction house.
She also followed a weight-loss regimen which led to crying breakdowns. She stated that working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she did previously. The Devil Wears Prada received generally positive reviews and became Hathaway's most popular film at the time, with a worldwide gross of over $326.5 million.
Hathaway was cast in the female lead role in the comedy Knocked Up (2007), but dropped out because she did not agree with director Judd Apatow's decision to use real footage of a woman giving birth, according to Apatow and the film's male star Seth Rogen. In 2007, Hathaway portrayed the English author Jane Austen in the biographical romantic drama Becoming Jane.
A fan of Austen since the age of 14, Hathaway prepared for the role by learning sign language, calligraphy, dance choreography and piano, and by examining Austen's letters. She moved to England a month before filming to improve her English accent. She believed that if she did not perfect her accent, people would dismiss her performance in the first five minutes of the film. She was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Best Actress for the film.
In 2008, Hathaway starred as Agent 99 in Peter Segal's film adaptation of Mel Brooks' television series Get Smart. Calling the role "a childhood dream come true", Hathaway learned martial arts and dancing techniques in preparation for her performance. While filming an action sequence, she suffered a shin injury that required 15 stitches.
After the financially successful Get Smart, Hathaway starred in Jonathan Demme's drama Rachel Getting Married (2008) as a young woman who returns home for her sister's wedding after being released from drug rehabilitation. Hathaway described her character as narcissistic, and earned critical acclaim for her performance.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described Hathaway as "raw and riveting" in the role, writing that she "acts the hell out of it, achieving a state of sorrowful grace". Hathaway received Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics' Choice, and SAG nominations for Best Actress, winning the Critics' Choice award. The same year, she starred in the mystery thriller Passengers and hosted an episode of the sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live.
2009–2011: Romantic comedies and hosting events
In 2009, Hathaway was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The same year, she starred in the romantic comedy Bride Wars, which she described as "hideously commercial—gloriously so". The film, in which she and Kate Hudson play best friends who become rivals after their weddings are scheduled on the same day, was successful at the box office and earned Hathaway a nomination for the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance.
During the summer of 2010, Hathaway played the heroine Viola in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater in New York City. For her portrayal of the role, she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2010, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for providing her voice for the episode "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" of The Simpsons. Hathaway voiced characters in Family Guy in 2010 and 2011.
In 2010, Hathaway played a receptionist in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, directed by Garry Marshall. The film was a commercial success, grossing more than $215 million worldwide against a budget of $52 million. The same year, Hathaway played the White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. She described her version of the character as "a punk-rock vegan pacifist", and drew inspiration from Debbie Harry and the artwork of Dan Flavin. Alice in Wonderland received mixed reviews from critics while grossing $1 billion to become the second-highest-grossing film of 2010.
In December 2010, Hathaway and Denzel Washington attended the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, honoring imprisoned Chinese writer and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. The following day, they co-hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
In Edward Zwick's romantic comedy-drama Love & Other Drugs, Hathaway reunited with her Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gyllenhaal. She plays a free-spirited artist with Parkinson's disease. To prepare for the film's nude scenes, she watched films of Kate Winslet and Penélope Cruz, both of whom she felt had performed nude scenes with sensitivity and dignity.
Hathaway's performance earned her a Satellite Award and a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical. Hathaway and Denzel Washington hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway in December 2010. Two months later, she and James Franco hosted the 83rd Academy Awards, which earned them a nomination for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
In 2011, Hathaway voiced Jewel, a Spix's macaw from Rio de Janeiro, in the animated film Rio. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its voice acting. A commercial success, it grossed more than $484 million worldwide against a budget of $90 million. Later that year, Hathaway starred alongside Jim Sturgess in Lone Scherfig's One Day.
The film tells the story of two young people who meet annually for twenty years after sharing a platonic one-night stand. Hathaway was clandestinely given the script, as One Day was set in Britain, and Scherfig was not looking for an American actress for the lead role. After an unproductive meeting with Scherfig, Hathaway left a list of songs for her.
After listening to them, she cast Hathaway. Hathaway's Yorkshire accent in the film received criticism, with Suzanne Moore of BBC Radio 4's Front Row saying that Hathaway's accents were "all over the shop ... Sometimes she's from Scotland, sometimes she's from New York, you just can't tell". One Day received mixed reviews, but became a moderate box office success.
2012–2014: Les Miserables and Christopher Nolan films
In 2012, Hathaway's audiobook recording of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was released at Audible.com and garnered her an Audie Award nomination for Best Solo Narration – Female. She then played the morally ambiguous cat burglar Selina Kyle / Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy.
Hathaway thought she was auditioning for the role of Harley Quinn; after an hour of talking with Nolan, he revealed that he was considering her for Catwoman. Hathaway had to redouble her efforts at the gym to meet the requirements of the role, which she described as her most physically demanding assignment up to that point.
She trained extensively in martial arts, and looked to Hedy Lamarr in developing her performance as Catwoman. Jim Vejvoda of IGN called Hathaway "a magnetic presence" who imbues her character with "a wounded spirit and a survivor's edge that makes her feel genuine and sympathetic even when she's being naughty." Hathaway won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The Dark Knight Rises was critically successful and grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2012.
Hathaway portrayed Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012), a film adaptation of the stage musical Les Misérables. In preparation for the role, Hathaway consumed fewer than 500 calories a day in order to lose 25 pounds (11 kg). As part of her effort to inhabit Fantine's misery, Hathaway deprived herself of her husband, sending him back to the United States while she was filming in London.
Reviewing the film for The Washington Post, Ann Hornaday called Hathaway "the centerpiece of a movie composed entirely of centerpieces". Although Hathaway herself felt lukewarm about her performance, she won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. In January 2013, Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100.
📚 Source: Wikipedia
