Anne Hathaway
Hathaway in January 2010 after being named Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year
Born	Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (1982-11-12) November 12, 1982 (age 29) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1999–present

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries (2001) and its 2004 sequel. Hathaway is also an Emmy-winning actress for her voice-over performance on The Simpsons.

Hathaway had dramatic roles in Havoc and Brokeback Mountain, both in 2005. She starred in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and in Becoming Jane (2007) as Jane Austen. In 2008, she was acclaimed for her lead role in Rachel Getting Married, for which she won awards and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2010, she starred in the box office hits Valentine's Day and Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, as well as Love and Other Drugs. In 2011, she had a voice role in the animated film Rio and starred in Lone Scherfig's adaptation of One Day. She portrays Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and Fantine in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables.

People magazine named her one of its breakthrough stars of 2001,^[1] and she first appeared on its list of the world's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2006.^[2]

Early life[link]

Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York.^[3] Her father, Gerald Thomas Hathaway, is a lawyer, and her mother, Kathleen Ann (née McCauley), is an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps.^[4] The family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old.^[5] Hathaway has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. She is of mostly Irish and French ancestry, with distant Native American and German roots.^[6]

Hathaway was raised Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood.^[5][7] However, she decided against it at the age of 15, after learning her brother, Michael, was gay.^[7] "I realised my older brother was gay, and I couldn't support a religion that didn't support my brother. Now I call myself a nondenominational Christian, because I haven't found the religion for me."^[8] In 2009, Hathaway stated that her religious beliefs are "a work in progress."^[7][9]

As a preschooler, Hathaway attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School. She entered first grade at the Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn while she was technically still a kindergartner.^[10] Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School, where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress. During this time, Hathaway was in plays including Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (which is located in Millburn, across the street from Hathaway's middle school).^[11] She spent several semesters studying as an English major and Women's Studies minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, referring to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions, because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to "grow up."^[12] Hathaway was the first teenager admitted into The Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program.^[13]

A soprano, Hathaway performed in 1998 and 1999 with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. Three days after her 1999 performance at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real at the age of 16.^[11]

Hathaway is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers performing on stage to film roles.^[5] Her acting style has been compared to those of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn.^[14] She cites Garland as one of her favorite actresses^[10] and Meryl Streep as her idol.^[15]

Career[link]

2001–2004: Career development[link]

Hathaway at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in 2008.

Hathaway's first role in a motion picture was opposite Christopher Gorham in Walt Disney's drama film The Other Side of Heaven (2001), inspired by John H. Groberg's memoir In the Eye of the Storm. Before production of the film, she was cast alongside Julie Andrews in the lead role of Mia Thermopolis in another Disney production, the comedy film The Princess Diaries, based on Meg Cabot's 2000 novel of the same name and directed by Garry Marshall. Hathaway auditioned for the role of a princess-to-be during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand and was cast on the strength of this one audition.^[10] She won the role over 500 other girls.^[3] Released prior to The Other Side of Heaven in hopes that its success would increase interest in Heaven, The Princess Diaries became a major commercial success, grossing US$165 million worldwide.^[16] Many critics praised Hathaway's performance, with a BBC critic noting that "Hathaway shines in the title role and generates great chemistry."^[17] Also released in 2001, The Other Side of Heaven, directed by Mitch Davis, met with mostly negative reviews, but it performed well for a religion-themed film.^[18][19]

In February 2002, Hathaway starred in the City Center Encores! concert production of Carnival! in her New York City stage debut, receiving positive reviews for her portrayal of Lili.^[20] Also in 2002, Hathaway began voicing the audio book releases of The Princess Diaries and has since voiced the first three books of the series. She also provided the voice of the character Haru in the English version of Hiroyuki Morita's The Cat Returns.^[21]

Hathaway continued to appear in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model.^[22] In 2002, she appeared in Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama Nicholas Nickleby, opposite Charlie Hunnam and Jamie Bell, which opened to positive reviews. The Deseret News said that the cast was "Oscar-worthy".^[23] Despite critical acclaim, the film never entered wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales.^[24] Hathaway's next film role was as the titular character in the rom-com fantasy film Ella Enchanted (2004), a loose adaption of Gail Carson Levine's 1997 novel of the same name, which opened to mostly indifferent reviews.^[25][26] Hathaway sang two songs in the film as well as three on the soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.

In 2003, Hathaway dropped out of her role 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, which she was contractually obligated to make.^[27] Disney began production on The Princess Diaries 2 in early 2004, and it was released in August of that year. The film opened to negative reviews, but made $95.1 million against a $40 million budget.^[28]

2005–2007: Career transition[link]

Hathaway at the 2007 Deauville American Film Festival

Hathaway began appearing in dramatic roles after The Princess Diaries 2. She said that "anybody who was a role model for children needs a reprieve", although she noted that "it's lovely to think that my audience is growing up with me".^[12] She voiced Red Puckett in the animated comedy Hoodwinked! (2005), based on the Little Red Riding Hood folktale, which received mixed reviews by critics. That same year, Hathaway starred in Barbara Kopple's drama film Havoc, in which she played a spoiled socialite, appearing nude in some of its scenes. Although the content of the film was different from her previous films, Hathaway denied that her role was an attempt to be seen as a more mature actress, citing her belief that doing nudity in certain movies is merely a part of what her chosen form of art demands of her; and because of that belief she does not consider appearing nude in appropriate films to be morally objectionable.^[29]

After Havoc, Hathaway was cast alongside Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee's drama Brokeback Mountain (2005). While Havoc was not released in theaters in the United States because of its weak critical reception,^[30] Brokeback Mountain won rave reviews for its depiction of a homosexual relationship in the 1960s and received several Academy Award nominations.^[31] Hathaway would later assert that the content of Brokeback Mountain was more important than its award count and that making the film made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actress.^[32]

In 2006, Hathaway appeared in David Frankel's comedy The Devil Wears Prada, in which she starred as an assistant to a powerful fashion magazine editor portrayed by Meryl Streep, whom Hathaway described as being "just divine".^[5] Hathaway said that working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she had previously, though she claimed that her personal style is something she "still can't get right".^[13] In an interview with Us Weekly, Hathaway discussed the weight loss regime she and co-star Emily Blunt followed for the film, she stated, "I basically stuck with fruit, vegetables and fish [to slim down]. I wouldn't recommend that. Emily Blunt and I would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry."^[33]

Hathaway was cast in the 2007 comedy Knocked Up, but dropped out before filming began and was replaced by Katherine Heigl. Writer/director Judd Apatow stated in a May 2007 issue of The New York Times Magazine that Hathaway dropped out "because she didn't want to allow us to use real footage of a woman giving birth to create the illusion that she is giving birth".^[34] In an August 2008 interview with Marie Claire, Hathaway commented that she "didn't believe that it was necessary to the story".^[35]

Hathaway was in the 2007 drama Becoming Jane, in which she portrayed English writer Jane Austen.^[32] Tim Burton considered Hathaway for the part of Johanna Barker in his 2007 film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, but the role went to Jayne Wisener, a then-unknown actress, reportedly because Burton decided he wanted an unknown, younger actress for the part.^[36]

2008–present[link]

Hathaway on the red carpet in 2009 at the 81st Academy Awards

In January 2008, Hathaway joined beauty giant Lancôme as the face of their fragrance Magnifique, and in October of that year, Hathaway hosted the NBC late-night sketch comedy Saturday Night Live.^[37] Her first film of the year was a modern adaptation of the 1960s Mel Brooks television series Get Smart, in which she starred opposite Steve Carell, and Alan Arkin, portraying Agent 99. Directed by Peter Segal, the film was a hit at the box office, prompting talk of a sequel.^[38] She also made a cameo appearance in the corresponding film Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control. Also in 2008, she premiered the drama Passengers, alongside Patrick Wilson, as well as the drama Rachel Getting Married, opposite Debra Winger. Rachel Getting Married premiered at the 2008 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals and garnered her widespread critical acclaim for her performance as Kym, including nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Hathaway stated that the film appealed to her because of its real depiction of relationships and because of the strong emotional connection she felt with her character.^[39]