Anne Hathaway Devil Wears Prada Interview

If you want to break into acting, you could always try what Anne Hathaway did. She fell off a stool during her audition for The Princess Diaries. Director Gary Marshall was so impressed with her klutzy behaviour she got the part. It also didn’t hurt that Marshall’s kids thought Hathaway had ‘nice hair’. Luckily for her, the family friendly film did well at the box office and she was given another opportunity to prove she was more than un-coordinated, and well groomed. Roles in Ella Enchanted and Princess Diaries 2 soon followed but the novelty of wearing a tiara everyday was wearing thin. Hathaway decided it was time to distance herself from G Rated family fare. In 2005 she appeared topless in Havoc, and had a rather steamy sex scene. She followed that up with THE film of last year; the multi Academy Award winning Brokeback Mountain. Now that she’s proved she really can act, Hathaway returns to what she knows best, comedy. In The Devil Wears Prada, she stars as Andy, a recent journalism graduate who unfortunately ends up working as an assistant for Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep) the demanding, ruthless editor of top fashion magazine Runway.

Hathaway was at the recent Venice International Film Festival where Gaynor Flynn caught up with the busy young actress.

Gaynor Flynn In the film, your character Andy doesn’t know anything about fashion, what about you?

Anne Hathaway: I do like fashion a lot. I like it on other people but fashion for me means what’s clean that day so I do the best I can.


Gaynor Flynn: Did you relate to Andy’s struggle to succeed?

Anne Hathaway: Oh yeah absolutely. I love my job and I love trying to find a way to marry art and commerce and I think that’s very similar to the struggle that Andy has and there’s really no preparation that anyone can tell you. Everyone reaches success at different ages everyone has different climbs. I’ve already had swings and I’m only 23 and that’s very rare to have had quite a few highs and lows so early on and I think ultimately all you can do hope that you live without regret. And what keeps you from regretting the sacrifices, is making sure that you love the job so I think I have that in common with Andy. So now when I have to make choices that involve sacrifices I want to make sure that I really believe in them and I think once Andy realised what was required for her to succeed quickly she chose to step back. And I think that I’ve done that myself. I didn’t try to go off and just have a career by wearing a tiara for 30 years. I decided to step back and decide what was going to make me happy. What was going to make me a better actor.


Gaynor Flynn: How did you get into the headspace of the character?

Anne Hathaway: Well something that always helps me is the shoes because once you get their shoes you can figure out how they walk. But it was really helpful to have the costumes tell the story visually and that was just wonderful because then you can just trust the whole package. You can trust the way they’re shooting and supporting the genesis of the character as well as the look of it visually with the clothes.


Gaynor Flynn: What was the main challenge in this part?

Anne Hathaway: Working with Meryl Streep and not giggling through every scene because I couldn’t believe what I was doing. The audacity of me working with Meryl Streep and I think getting comfortable enough to get over the fact that I felt so beneath her level as an actress. Realising how much experience she has over me and there was just this moment when I was freaking out going how am I going to do it? And one of my favourite actresses is Uma Thurman and I saw Prime and I thought it was a really charming movie and as a New Yorker I really got it. I think Uma Thurman is one of the most beautiful, brilliant adorable watchable actresses out there and yet when she had a scene with Meryl I didn’t care, she could have been anybody. I was on Meryl and I realised that’s the power of her. And I realised you know what, they’re not even going to watch me (laughs) when I’m doing scenes with her. So I calmed down quite a bit after that.


Gaynor Flynn: In the film, much is made of your characters weight. Are you under a lot of pressure to lose weight?

Anne Hathaway: Honestly I suppose there’s pressure but I really don’t care. If I lose or gain weight its for a character its not really for me and I’ve done it. Like once I dropped 15 pounds for a character and for this one I dropped 5 pounds, and you kind of do what’s required. I think people take it a little bit too seriously and I think a lot of actresses put the pressure on themselves and I think one of the reason we put that pressure on ourselves is that we’re asked that question in every interview.


Gaynor Flynn: What do you think the difference is between Andy Sachs and Jane Austen your upcoming role?

Anne Hathaway: Well the societies in which they lived. Its impossible to compare the characters because they’re just two different characters but the fact that Andy said to her parents that she wanted to be a writer and they said great here’s money to go off to do that. And Jane Austen said she wanted to be a writer and her parents said go find a husband. That I suppose is the huge difference between the two of them.


Gaynor Flynn: You’re main fan base at the moment is teenage girls. Do you think that girls who go see this movie might come out and think oh I have to have those clothes and shoes and buy into that whole message?

Anne Hathaway: I really don’t know I think its up to them. I think that certain ones will get the whole package and certain ones won’t and there’s nothing that I can do about that. Somebody asked me earlier on if I was worried about girls who starve themselves to fit into size 2 jeans or that there are girls out there who are going without food to buy these fashion items and I was just like okay they should probably direct their gaze outwards and get happy with themselves and then if they’re fortunate enough they’ll get the handbag as well. You know I think there’s nothing wrong with wanting nice things, and wanting designer labels but I think you have to maintain a healthy respect for the fact that they’re not the be all and end all of life so I just hope parents raise their kinds right because then the kids will automatically know that.


Gaynor Flynn: What’s your favourite fashion item?

Anne Hathaway: Shoes are it for me. I’m not really much of a jewellery girl. I’m very simple.


Gaynor Flynn: Any particular designer in shoes?

Anne Hathaway: Its funny with clothes designer I will always love Channel. Anything Channel makes, I think is absolutely brilliant. I’m irrational when it comes to Channel. I’ll look at a dress and I won’t like it and then I’ll hear its Channel and I do like it and it’s the only designer I can say I’ve been like that with. I’m just in love with it. But with shoes its different. A designer can have 12 completely different pairs of shoes within a season so you really just need to go by the individual shoe but I do love Marc Jacobs for shoes a lot.


Gaynor Flynn: Was it your influence who got Channel to come on board in the film?

Anne Hathaway: Well when I told Pat (costume designer Patricia Field from Sex and the City) that I loved Channel and I’ve had a really good relationship with them for a few years, Pat called them and they were really chuffed to be a part of the film and be used so much.


Gaynor Flynn: After working with Pat on the film did your personal style change, how much influence did being in a film about fashion have on you?

Anne Hathaway: Well it definitely made one of my New Years resolutions be to try harder. Pat taught me how to make fashion accessible for me because it was always something that I viewed with a certain sense of trepidation and almost with a sense of insecurity. Like I’d think, oh I can’t really do that or wear that or I’ll never be able to pull that off and what she made me realise and so many women have said it before but I never really got it before, you have to be the one to wear the dress. And she said if you’re not going to be the one to wear the dress then take off the dress. It doesn’t matter how beautiful it is find something that you’re going to be in control of and then make it work for you and so she taught me how to make fashion work for me as opposed to the other way around.


Gaynor Flynn: Did you get to keep any clothes?

Anne Hathaway: We actually auctioned off the clothes for charity.


Gaynor Flynn: Did you keep anything?

Anne Hathaway: I got one shirt, a Marc Jacobs top which is amazing and I wear all the time and I actually bought one of the coats from the auction.


Gaynor Flynn: Which one?

Anne Hathaway: The vintage green one with the leopard cuffs and normally I would never wear fur but oh Jesus who cares its gorgeous.


Gaynor Flynn: Who designed that one?

Anne Hathaway: It was vintage.


Gaynor Flynn: How much did you pay for the coat at auction?

Anne Hathaway: I’m going to keep that one to myself. It’s really honestly unconscionable so I’m not going to mention it.


Gaynor Flynn: What are you wearing today?

Anne Hathaway: I’m wearing a lovely pair of vintage Channel pants that I just had for years and years that they gave to me oh my god and I’m wearing a Temperley jacket that I don’t’ think they will give to me. That’s the kind of the thing when you’re an actress you can never really fall in love with an outfit because if you do you’ll have to buy it and god who can afford that? So its really cool when you really, really, really fall in love with something and they say ‘oh just keep it’.


Gaynor Flynn: Is there a danger in the magazines where they say oh she wore that before. Do you ever think about that when you’re out at a premier and then six months later you’re wearing the same thing again?

Anne Hathaway: People don’t realise that I rotate the same three shoes to premiers all the time and nobody’s ever called me on it. I have a pair of black Prada’s, a pair of black open toed Marc Jacobs and a pair of gold Manolo Blahniks and I’ve literally worn the same shoes for the last five years and no ones’ notice and now the secret’s out but I wont’ stop and I know there’s certain dresses I’ve been photographed in that I can’t wear to events but I’ll wear them in my personal life. Not that there’s anything bad about it but I guess there’s a certain aspect of selling the outfit that you’re in and I don’t know why its important its just considered not very good to be seen in the same thing twice.


Gaynor Flynn: When were you least content with the way you looked?

Anne Hathaway: I think when I was an adolescent. I mean I’ve never met an adolescent who liked the way they looked so that was probably the hardest time for me dealing with all that and then I grew up and realised there are more important things in life than the size of your hips.


Gaynor Flynn: Who do you really look up to style wise?

Anne Hathaway: You know no one ever gets this because she’s never been known for her style but Kate Winslet. I love the way she dresses its always just so down to earth but also really, really chic. I love Emily Blunts’ style to be perfectly honest. She would just come on to set and look great and individual. Kate Moss is always the ideal and no one else can really pull it off. I also think Catherine Zeta Jones is also a great dresser. Catherine Zeta Jones is somebody I really look up to because we’re similarly built so its great to look at her choices over the last decade and see the way she’s brought glamour back and made it okay.


Gaynor Flynn: Do you think this movie will have a bigger impact on your career or Brokeback?

Anne Hathaway: They’re both so different you know. I mean America could ignore this one as well. But the thing that was so wonderful about Brokeback was I think I’d been, and probably rightfully so, labelled a one trick pony, and I kept assuring people that no, no, no there’s more to me than just the tiara I swear. And finally with Brokeback Ang Lee helped me give a performance that proved that and it was the most extraordinary experience and I hope I’m able to do it again because you don’t know how cool it is when everybody thinks they know you and you’re able to completely surprise them. It’s the most rewarding thing as an actress.


Gaynor Flynn at Venice International Film Festival