Anne Hathaway is an actress with proven talent over two decades of acting on screen.
On screen, Anne Hathaway attracts the audience’s eyes with her fragile and seductive beauty – from Princess Mia of The Princess Diaries (2001), Seline/Catwoman of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) to Fantine of Les Misérables (2012)… Anne Hathaway was also the center of conflicts behind the scenes.
The beauty became the main character in the article titled Do We Really Hate Anne Hathaway? by The New York Times or Why do Women Hate Anne Hathaway? on The Cut and many other social media discussions.
Conflicts behind the screen once caused her to refuse an invitation to play the lead role in the hit movie Silver Linings Playbook before accepting a supporting role in Les Misérables – a role that brought her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress .
Turned down the lead role in an Oscar-winning film
According to Showbiz CheatSheet , Jennifer Lawrence’s famous role in Silver Linings Playbook was originally assigned to Anne Hathaway. But due to differences in creative opinions with director David O. Russell, the beauty left the project.
In an interview with Howard Stern on SiriusXM, Harvey Weinstein, a character who worked closely with the project, revealed the inside story of the incident. The two main roles in Silver Linings Playbook were initially given to Anne Hathaway and Mark Wahlberg, with Hathaway also being Weinstein’s top choice for the role.
Anne Hathaway in the image of Fantine. Photo: IMDb.
Anne Hathaway in the image of Fantine. Photo: IMDb.
However, everything fell apart when the beauty and the film’s director could not agree on work. As a result, the female lead role of Silver Linings Playbook was given to Jennifer Lawrence while Anne Hathaway took the supporting female role of Fantine in Les Misérables .
Both Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miserables are popular titles released in 2012, achieving commercial success and countless awards. According to IMDb statistics, Silver Linings Playbook earned 132 million USD from the North American market. This number is 148 million USD for Les Misérables .
For Anne Hathaway, appearing in Les Misérables was the right choice. In the film, Hathaway’s role as Fantine is a beautiful woman with a difficult fate. She had a child with her ungrateful boyfriend, became a single mother, had to work hard, even sell her teeth and hair to raise her child. The role brought the beauty a huge salary of $10 million and an Oscar.
Winning the Oscar is not only a golden milestone in Hathaway’s career, it is also a personal event for the beauty. According to The Hollywood Reporter , her mother played Fantine in the first time the play Les Misérables was performed in the US.
Wave of hate from the audience
Along with her success at the 2013 Oscars, Anne Hathaway also became the focus of mass audience rejection. The boycott wave was so strong that the New York Times wrote about it in a cultural research article published in April 2013 titled Do We Really Hate Anne Hathaway?.
The article listed many manifestations of boycotting Anne Hathaway online, as well as trying to dig deep and analyze the reasons behind this series of negative reactions.
There was even a contest held on The San Francisco Chronicle website with the title of Most Hated Artist of 2013 being awarded to Hathaway.
Hathaway’s outfit at the 2013 Oscars once caused her to be criticized. Photo: The New York Times.
Hathaway’s outfit at the 2013 Oscars once caused her to be criticized. Photo: The New York Times .
Actor James Franco and SiriusXM host Howard Stern once dissected the online community of people boycotting Anne Hathaway – called “Hathahaters” – on the show Mr. Stern .
In 2011, James Franco and Anne Hathaway became the focus of criticism when they became co-hosts at the Oscars. Both were commented on their lack of interaction. After the 2011 Oscars, there were rumors that the two actors’ obvious hatred for each other led to a “disaster” on the awards ceremony stage.
The New York Times article quoted comments from many viewers, as well as media experts, about the case of Anne Hathaway – when her illustrious career pushed the actress into a confrontation with her fans.
A netizen comment against Hathaway wrote: “There’s something about her that doesn’t feel right… It makes me feel like she’s not real.” This is Hathaway’s problem with many viewers: she is too perfect.
“I don’t really hate Anne Hathaway. I hate the surreal image of Anne Hathaway on the screen, an elite high school princess, good and talented, eating raisins for breakfast and not caring about boys and girls” – Sarah Nicole Prickett, writer for Vice and The New Inquiry shared.
New York Times writer Alex Williams concluded that Anne Hathaway of 2013 was a victim of “Tall Poppy” syndrome – the taller flowers are often the first to be cut.
First time transforming into a villain
However, the wave of negative reactions from the audience did not make the actress falter. The actress continues to shine on screen, becoming a beautiful and talented actress among the top group in Hollywood today.
Hathaway on the poster of the movie The Witches. Photo: Warner Bros.
Hathaway on The Witches movie poster . Photo: Warner Bros.
In 2018, Anne Hathaway spoke out on Instagram about negative comments aimed at her, especially the outfit she wore on the night of receiving the Oscar.
The post reads: “I have laryngitis but still have to sing, but the media still pays attention to negative comments about me? But you know what, I’m still the best.”
Upcoming, Anne Hathaway will play the supreme witch Evangeline Ernst in the film adaptation of the book The Witch, the Witch by famous writer Roald Dahl. Evangeline Ernst has a high-pitched voice and an ear-to-ear smile. Her plot is to turn children around the world into mice.
This is a strange role compared to most of the works in Anne Hathaway’s career. It marks the actress’s first time playing a villain on screen. In an interview with Empire on October 1, director Robert Zemeckis said he believes that if it weren’t for Hathaway, no one would have taken on this role.
