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It seems that all of it consists of successes and accomplishments. It seems that the Oscar and the Golden Globe in her career are a regularity … But for one role she had to lose four sizes, and for the other she shaved her head. She knew humiliation and a painful break with the one she loved, and once was on the verge of leaving the profession. So with Anne Hathaway it’s better to talk not about how a star lives, but about the life of a woman who has become a star, goes her way not at all like a red carpet and rather in sneakers than on stilettos.
Maybe they’re all French here… Or you can’t get enough of Oscar and Golden Globe winners here… Or maybe it’s a secret club for autists… So I think, looking at Anne Hathaway talking serenely with two waiters in the middle of a cozy room. , in French close «Cafe Luxembourg» on the corner of Broadway and 70th Street.
She says she comes here often, which is why she makes appointments here. She knows the waiters, even already friends — many of them are her fellow actors, who, according to the American tradition, work as waiters … But then I think: what if no one here pays attention to the star, because the star herself does not attract this kind of attention to herself? Because he behaves openly and without pomp? Her thoughts are sometimes ahead of her words, she smiles broadly, rubs her nose, obviously not afraid to damage her makeup. Yes, it is not observed — why is it for a woman with such bright features and skin, which in classical literature was called alabaster?
Anne Hathaway is nature itself, alien to secrecy. Therefore, it seems that she can be asked any question — she will not remain silent and will not be offended.
Psychologies: Your relationship with the public is quite dramatic. Even the term «hathahater» («hat-hater») appeared, and it was almost a mass phenomenon in social networks. For some reason, people could not stand you and poured accusations: she plays, even when she thanks for the prize, she is frankly ambitious. She was the worst host in the history of the Oscars… Anne, how do you explain the title of “most hated of stars” that is still circulating in the press? After all, it can not touch you …
Anne Hathaway: Of course it touched me! I could not understand what was the reason for the aggression. And, most importantly, I was angry that I could not correct myself, because I did not know what I had done wrong! But the most annoying thing was that all this passionate fuss about denying me flared up because of the role of Fantine in Les Misérables. And I really wanted to play her so much that I completely exhausted the director with calls and acting harassment! After all, this role for me … well, so personal!
You see, when I was 7 years old, my mother played this very role in this very musical. It is impossible to forget how I sat in the hall and was all there, on stage, with my mother. She was dying in that role, but on stage she was someone else’s mother, and all this merged for me into one thing — pride, and grief, and solidarity with another girl who was losing her mother … And besides, it was my mother’s last role — having played it, she left the stage because of me and my brothers. I decided to devote myself to my children and my husband. I wanted to restore some kind of universal justice: now I will play Fantine, I will continue what my mother started, because she thought that I should try to become an actress … And then nothing foreshadowed this!
Why is this? With mom something actress? And with your appearance?
Look, I’m from the grunge generation, I grew up in the 1990s. With two brothers — older and younger than me. I protested, hated myself and asserted myself at the same time. Teenage hormone riot — depression, rage and self-hatred. And as a result, to everyone around. And I didn’t have any appearance, well, that is, I didn’t take it into account at all. Until the age of 14, she wore the shirts of Mike, her older brother, and martens. By the last class of the school, she looked at herself from the outside and somehow softened her appearance — there was not at least a visible protest against everything that exists in it.
Then my mother had this idea that maybe I should become an actress … and I liked it. She gave me a sense of perspective, or something. Since then, I have been calm about my … physical incarnation. Yes, and to opinions about yourself, too. Although, of course, I was hurt by that wave of aggression. But… After it, I began to look at things more soberly, more simply, more directly, or something. I’ve grown up. I realized that everyone will not be happy for me indiscriminately. My victories do not have to delight anyone but me, mom, dad, brothers, best friends and — lucky! — my husband, who is just the same furious fan of mine.
I suddenly realized that the public openly expressed sympathy for me on only one occasion: I burst into tears in front of the cameras when my then boyfriend was arrested for financial fraud for six and a half million (Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri was caught in 2008. — Approx. ed. ). And never again … But most importantly, then, in the circumstances of «hat-hatred», I realized that I really was false: in order to live in the rays of spotlights, I had to pretend to be someone who can live in the rays of spotlights. And I’m not very good at them. And in fact it turns out that fame is not my style.
What is your style then?
You see, I—I’m a first reaction man. And, to be honest, I think the first reaction is the most natural and fair. I fought in my youth, but now I can say so! I do not tolerate injustice and someone’s desire to humiliate.
I am not adapted to live under the spotlights aimed at the stars. Although with my mind I never understood these lamentations of my colleagues: oh my God, how the paparazzi bother me! Woe, my private life is in the tabloids! Oh horror — they are discussing my extra pounds on Facebook! (an extremist organization banned in Russia) Friends, you have chosen a public profession. Didn’t they know that the deal would be, so to speak, a package deal — along with high fees, you will receive not always healthy attention to yourself? But when it comes to you personally…
You have a son. Do you protect him from the searchlights aimed at you?
The trick is that the main one who should be protected is the parents. That is, when you feel vulnerable, if you are anxious and insecure, this is transmitted to the child. Therefore, it is important for me: my calmness is the key to his well-being. I’m serious! A good mother should be a little selfish. When I realized this, I became capable of affection for people, of love. And to yourself too.
But Johnny is a little less than three, and as for extraneous attention, everything is not very dramatic yet. In the future, I’m afraid the only way left for us is to actually be normal, ordinary people. To pretend that the photographers that suddenly appear around him is just a misunderstanding, a ridiculous side effect — it really is — of our fame. So that he grows up in a healthy environment and a person with a coordinate system that is not distorted by parental stardom. Ha, everyone wants their child to be extraordinary and live an extraordinary life. And I’m probably the only mother who wants her child to be ordinary.
Your husband Adam Shulman was an actor. But after his marriage, he took up jewelry design. Is it to avoid competition in the family?
Have you seen his work? Have you seen the pendant «holding the light»? It’s called Lightkeeper. Pendant in the form of a light bulb, with a gold base, and inside, in a glass flask, bright pebbles. And they shimmer as if the truth is that light and a rainbow are concentrated in them. When Adam gave it to me, the very first copy, it was revealed to me that he really is not only an actor, but also an artist. And it is not known which of these two is stronger in it!
Yes, Adam would never have thought of competing. He is aware of his importance. And therefore he is generous and incapable of envy.
The story with your previous partner was really high-profile and cost you tears in public. Was it difficult to build a new relationship afterwards?
You know, Raffaello was convicted quite rightly. But it was not this fact that separated us at all, although, of course, the search and use of my personal diary as evidence is an unpleasant experience. We were torn apart by something else.
When we met, I was 21 years old. I fell in love completely. The parents did not have «old money», only what dad earned as a lawyer. We lived in New Jersey, as is customary for poor New York families with children. And here is the passion, the wealth of the beloved, the loft in the Manhattan Trump Tower … the cook for my dog! And my first success. It was not a move from New Jersey to Manhattan, but from reality to a fairy tale.
But then, a year before the money laundering scandal, somehow imperceptibly, relations began to go wrong. There were rumors about the models that Raffaello was seen with while I was on the set. And it turned out that we have different positions on everything. Violent controversy. And it seemed to me that it was revealed: we are not on the way. Relationships became unhealthy, inflamed. Secularism, gifts — all this continued. But the gifts are gone. I see love as a gift, something that comes out of nowhere and makes you happy. And now these gifts were no more. Not for him, not for me.
And then the investigation, the FBI in the apartment, my diary was confiscated … And I left. Going nowhere. If not for mine, not for my brothers and parents, I don’t know what would have happened to me then. And then Trump, now our president, spoke out about me. He likes to speak out on issues that have nothing to do with him. So it was then: they say, I, a windy person, left a good guy who got into trouble. But I wouldn’t vote for him without it.
Well, then pretty soon I met Adam. But I was sure that he had a girlfriend. Thank God, it soon became clear that he also thought of me and that we were free for each other. And now, for example, I don’t need freedom. I really need my husband. Our relationship has changed me. I have become trustworthy and I like it.
Is a designer husband a factor influencing your tastes? For the tastes of someone who survived grunge, «martens» and brother’s shirts?
In my own way, yes. By nature, I’m almost a downshifter. Adam, on the other hand, believes that walking in the same jeans for two years is a bad form. And at the same time, in some situations, he is an ordinary man. Just a month before that Oscar, when I was nominated for Les Misérables, I found an amazing dress. It shimmered, I seemed to radiate a rainbow in it … However, I postponed the decision of the issue closer to the ceremony. And two days before her assistant called me almost in tears: someone reserved the dress for the same Oscar!
I rushed to Valentino, he is my friend and, of course, helped out. And went to the rehearsal of the ceremony in his dress. And there is Amanda Seyfried, she also starred in Les Misérables, in the same outfit, only lilac — from Alexander McQueen. Imagine two different designers! Now I was almost in tears: all social networks and tabloids hate me anyway, and here there is no dress!
But in the morning, on the day of the ceremony, a miracle from Prada was delivered to me — pale pink, minimalist. It seemed to express my confusion, incomprehension of the hatred that was breathing all around. I looked at myself in the mirror for a long time, Adam looked into the room and, like a patient parent, said: “Annie, the red carpet is about to end!”… Adam, like most men, does not take into account that clothes are an issue for women self-expression, a message to the world. And this is exactly so. And I’m telling you this as a downshifter.
Three favorite books by Anne Hathaway
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
“I was 12,” Ann recalls. — I saw the cover, at the bottom of it: «Translated by Mirra Ginzburg.» She was a collector of fairy tales, I read her as a child. That’s why I got that book from the school library. «Master and Margarita» Bulgakov! Fantasy: a talking cat, writers from a special house for writers in the country from which Gorbachev came from… I come from a Catholic family and knew a lot about Christ, but Yeshua… In general, I’m waiting for the film adaptation! No, it can’t work in the cinema — only in animation. And then I will insist that they give me the voice of Gella!
«Secret Garden» Francis Burnett
“It’s strange, but I read the girlish novel The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett, on the contrary, I was already too old for such a book — at the age of 15,” Hathaway admits. — Probably, mom or dad slipped me into my difficult adolescence. The heroine, unsociable and offended by life, the girl Mary, finds a neglected garden on her uncle’s estate, where she was brought from India after the death of her parents. And he begins to transform it with new friends. And she transforms herself. Perhaps it was because of this book that I was able to find my way.”
«Just for the Kids» by Patti Smith
“But this is not a memoir! argues with Anne’s invisible opponent about Just Kids by Patti Smith, a book written by the musician and singer about her partnership and friendship with the great photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. “This is a portrait of an era and a generation, as a peer and witness sees and understands it! And I’m not sure that it will be possible to write something as meaningful about our time and my generation. Those people did not think about the material at all, they were interested in ideas! Do you think I idealize them?» We think so.