Anne Hathaway Reflects On “Hathahate” And How Christopher Nolan Restored Her Confidence

Anne Hathaway was the It-Girl, until she wasn’t. The Hollywood Reporter published some of Hathaway’s comments from recent Vanity Fair profile covering her career. 

After winning an Oscar in 2013 for her performance in Les Misérables, Hathaway found herself the internet’s new biggest enemy. Social media was quick to dub her “annoying” for merely being herself on stage and being cast in a lot of movies around that time. This phenomenon, dubbed “Hathahate” ended up eclipsing Hathaway’s talent for a short while.

“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles, because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” Hathaway revealed. Thankfully, this was not a harbinger of career failings. “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,” Hathaway continued. Her casting in Nolan’s Interstellar (her second film with the director, after 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises), helped Hathaway revitalize her confidence. “I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect. And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”

In the decade since the height of “Hathahate,” Hathaway has learned how to persevere. She explains: “Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through. The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold, and it can be hard because you’re like, ‘If I stay safe, if I hug the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.’ But if you want to do that, don’t be an actor. You’re a tightrope walker. You’re a daredevil. You’re asking people to invest their time and their money and their attention and their care into you. So you have to give them something worth all of those things. And if it’s not costing you anything, what are you really offering?”

Hathaway’s next film, The Idea of You, is set to release on May 2nd after its recent premiere at the South by Southwest Film and TV Festival.