Posterized: Anne Hathaway
Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 11:20PM by Nathaniel R
Anne Hathaway's latest star vehicle, The Hustle, a gender-flipped loose remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), debuted this weekend. We're happy to see her back when she belongs -- in a leading role on the big screen.
She's one of our greatest contemporary stars, the haters be damned. Thankfully the anti-Hathaway brigade has quieted down a bit after her savvy post-Oscar low profile. She started right at the top with the $100 million hit The Princess Diaries, a rare and delicious but precarious place to start as a teenager as there's usually only one way to go (you guessed it, down). But Hathaway proved resilient, weathering the rise to adult stardom with inarguable skill buoyed not just by remarkable beauty (those huge expressive eyes are a camera's dream) but by even more remarkable talent and versatility as an actor.
The star, now 36, has made 27 features. How many of her films have you seen? The poster are all after the jump...
Introducing Anne Hathaway - Fresh-Faced Starlet
THE PRINCESS DIARIES (2001)
THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN (2001)
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (2002) NBR Ensemble winner
ELLA ENCHANTED (2004)
THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2 (2004)
HAVOC (2005)
What an introduction, huh? Not every A-Lister starts at the top. Hathaway was just 18 when The Princess Diaries hit movie theaters, becoming one of the 20 biggest hits of its year. She followed it up with more of the same young adult and family friendly material and then took her first adult risk with the little seen Havoc.
A Near-Perfect Transition to Adult Stardom
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005) SAG Ensemble nomination
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006)
BECOMING JANE (2007)
GET SMART (2008)
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008) Oscar, Globe & SAG Best Actress nomination. NBR and Critics Choice win
PASSENGERS (2008)
Either Hathaway is a gifted strategist or her management team is because her ascencion to the movie star A-List was as smooth but as range-testing as they come. A supporting role for a reknowned director (which became an Oscar hit), another comic blockbuster pairing her with a screen legend (a la Princess Diaries but with more adult material), a successful would be franchise starter (though no franchise emerged), and three projects to test her mettle as an actress, one of which netted her very first and very well deserved Oscar nomination (given the nominees that year, she should have won!).
The A-Lister and The Oscar
BRIDE WARS (2009)
VALENTINES DAY (2010)
ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010)
LOVE & OTHER DRUGS (2010) - Golden Globe Nomination, Best Actress in a Comedy
ONE DAY (2011)
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)
LES MISERABLES (2012) Oscar, Globe, SAG, BAFTA & Critics Choice winner, Best Supporting Actress. SAG Ensemble nominee. NBR Ensemble winner
SONG ONE (2013)
INTERSTELLAR (2014)
Lots of headlining roles, a few huge hits, and a couple little seen experiments and all sorts of genres (continuing to prove she can do anything): sci-fi, comedy, romance, superhero, musical, drama, fantasy...
Act 3 The Post-Oscar Now (2015 - present)
THE INTERN (2015)
ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2016)
COLOSSAL (2016/2017)
OCEANS 8 (2018)
SERENITY (2019)
THE HUSTLE (2019)
Hathaway felt the sting of all the online hatred surrounding her Oscar ascension (Another pathetic case of people turning on a young actress for being successful -- how dare she!) and savvily retreated. She's returned now with somewhat mixed results: a modest but amiable hit, an uneccessary sequel, two strange and underseen future cult classics, and the current movie which has been mauled by critics but opened to decent if unspectacular box office this weekend.
The future looks exciting / busy. Up next: a supporting role in an untitled film with Todd Haynes (a great actors director); the lead in Dee Rees (Mudbound) directed drama The Last Thing He Wanted; risking the ghost of a GREAT Anjelica Huston performance in a remake of The Witches; and something called The Lifeboat about a woman who survives a shipwreck and stands trial for murder.
How much do you love Anne Hathaway and how excited are you for her future movies?
Previously on this season of Posterized
• Zhang Yimou
• Dame Judi Dench
• Regina Hall
• Julianne Moore
Reader Comments (41)
I have seem seven of them. Christopher Nolan seems to like her and he likes recycling the same actors again so she has potentially a lot of blockbusters to come.
Apparently, Eva Green was second choice for Catwoman and she becomes Tim Burton's new muse instead. Maybe if the roles were reversed Anne would have played Angelique in Dark Shadows and the other Burton movies.
I've seen 21 of her films.
I fucking love her. I stand by the fact that she should be a two-time Oscar winner (Atress in 08 and Supporting Actress in 12), with 3 additional nominations.
I'm really looking forward to the Haynes film (Hopfully it's coming this year?), and am intrigued by The Witches. Would like to see her do a fully villainous role like THAT!
Also, she needs to do another musical. That voice is phenomenal.
With the exception of Alice in the Looking Glass, Serenity, and The Hustle, I've seen pretty much a lot of what Queen Anne has done as I've made my own definitive list of what I think are her best performances so far...
She's my sister. Same birth year and day. I'm in shocked you didn't make more of a thing about The Witches remake? And since Anjel isn't dead could you not described a role she immortalized as the ghost of?
11. I think she makes smart choices in film, but her interview persona isn't the best. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Intern and Colossal.
It's strange to call a young Oscar winning actress underrated, but her haters are possibly the most intense we've seen towards a young actress in the modern age. I knew after Brokeback she was one of the four stars of that movie destined for greatness, and I'm still curious if it will be Williams or Gyllenhaal who next get the Oscar to match her and the talented, much-missed Heath. (Funny too that she and Heath ran away with their respective Nolan Batman films.)
I haven’t seen Havoc, but I have seen most of her other movies; I will in fact watch a movie just because she’s in it. The intensity of animosity toward her shocked me: She’s beautiful, she’s bright, she’s very talented; what on earth is there to complain about or dislike?
I have to shamedly put my hand up and say her public persona used to irritate me ("it came true")
But I really like her now, I don't know if she's eased off with that over-polished drama school graduate vibe... or if my cold heart has melted somewhat... but she seems like an absolute joy.
I've only seen her in 8 movies, but she's great in all of them.
"Colossal" is a masterpiece by future Oscar winner for Screenplay, Nacho Vigalondo. I mean, just look at his 4 films' screenplays (he is the Spanish Charlie Kauffman) and his Oscar nominated short...
Hathaway was completely Oscar-worthy in it... I still think, "Colossal" was the very best film of that year, and probably one of the best allegories for women empowerment put to screen.
21
I love her. I wish I could say the same thing about her movies.
I’ve seen 16. Count me on the unimpressed by her acting chops. In my opinion, her Les Miserables win will not age well (she mostly shouts and cries badly).
She's a wonderful actress - it seems that every actress that is as good as she is must suffer for it. I knew the night she hosted the Oscars with James Franco, she was "working" it too hard because Franco wasn't working it at all...She's very talented and will continue to thrive.
I've seen 14. Her performance in Brokeback Mountain seriously impressed me. She should have won for Rachel Getting Married, and recently her performance in Ocean's 8 was amusingly self-aware.
I remember when I first saw The Princess Diaries, I was curious as to what she would do next. But I've loved her in everything I've seen her in since. I even liked her portrayal of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.
I've seen 3 -- Brokeback, Prada, and Rachel Getting Married. Three stellar movies that give me nothing but good feelings, haters be damned.
Anne is A-ok with me. Thought she was brill in Rachel Getting Married, very good in Brokeback, and an appealing heroine in Prada, who managed to hold her own against the mighty Meryl Streep and a fabulous supporting turn by Emily Blunt as her office nemesis. I still say if they ever remake All About Eve she totally needs to play Eve.
19.
RGM, DK: Rises and Colossal are her best work.
She was annoying during her Oscar run in '12. People trying to rewrite history as if she was a harmless mockingbird are not doing her or female celebs in general any favors.
I love her. I am not a fan of the film Rachel Getting Married, but her performance is terrific. The Princess Diaries is one of my favorite movies, I can watch it all day. A great star.
Wish her well. I think saying people were dismissive because she was young and successful is kind of simplification. She was not painting herself in a positive light in many interviews from around the time the backlash started, often sounding quite arrogant IMO. And her awards speeches...
But the vitriol was certainly out of proportion and she's far too talented to pushed away so rapidly. I hope she has something substantial in the Haynes movie, he is a boone to many actresses. And while I think she's had as many misses as hits, it's clear that she's going for things that interest her while trying to balance it out with more commercial fare. Smart!
Love her. Her telephone scene in Brokeback is an all timer. She needs to do another musical stat. What a voice!
I’ve seen 14.
She seems to be good sport and a hard worker when dealing with poor material and scripts.
Some actors glide through muck (like Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey) and you
shrug, eh, garbage, so?
But Hathaway always hits some real, just right moments that throw into relief the glaring inadequacies of the material.
Maybe that’s what people resent, especially when the material is supposed to be “good”.
It’s always fun to see her run with the good stuff that’s worthy of her talents.
Love her as an actress. I find her interviews and personality annoying though so I understood the backlash (though it was definitely overblown).
So now I just watch her movies.
Another pathetic case of people turning on a young actress for being successful -- how dare she!
I don't think it was that it was her false modesty that most people could see right through.
Have to say that seeing her face on a movie poster makes me Not want to see a particular film. They have to sneak her into a project ( Interstellar, Alice in Wonderland, Brokeback Mountain, TDKRises, Devil wears Prada) before I can subject myself to her. She was great in Rachel and the 5 titles mentioned above-not BBM- but something about her makes me run...
I've seen 18 (that I recall) so that means I'm excited because there are Anne Hathaway movies out there I've never seen. I think she has pretty much been the best thing in every movie I've seen her in, and that even includes things like SNL and talk show sketches.
Her last 6 movies have all been bad, mediocre at best. She needs better material if she wants to have a long run in movies.
I've seen 17. Adore her, grew up watching her. I think she'd be even bigger if Julia Roberts style star vehicles were still being made. And yes, get her a musical STAT.
12- and I love her
Rachel Getting Married is the one performance of hers I can say I genuinely think is strong. I don’t think she has great taste in material, and is limited in the roles she can play.
Also, being turned off by someone who seems to lack self-awareness and be desperate for attention does not make you a hater.
She defended Jennifer Lawrence’s rude behavior towards a reporter at the Golden Globes a few years back, saying that “beautiful and talented” J. Law did not deserve the criticism. I thought that was very telling of her character, believing that beauty and talent makes you beyond reproach.
I loved this review she got for The Hustle from The Guardian:
If J Robert Oppenheimer had witnessed this, he might have staggered out of the cinema auditorium, subjected the foyer to his stricken thousand-yard stare, and murmured that Hathaway had become Death of Comedy, the destroyer of gags.
12. Only impressed with Hathaway once in "Rachel Getting Married." That should have been her very easy Oscar win, instead of the crap that did win. I don't think she deserved the epic backlash that she received post-win to go in career hiding for as long as she did. But it's not easy to "root" for perceived faux humility, fair or not, especially when you're going to coast to an Oscar win and seem like you have the world handed to you on a silver platter. And hot damn, I hated "Les Miz" with a passion lol. Won't ever see "The Hustle," but get back to actressing again! The Todd Haynes one, check!
12. Mostly missing the very early and very recent films. This was educational though, as I thought Song One and One Day were the same movie until just now!
I will watch Ella Enchanted on loop. I like her as an actress, mostly, and have seen 20. It’s unfortunate that a lot of public perception of how these young actresses fare on press tours influence their “likeability” as performers (see also Kristen Stewart and Rooney Mara, who’ve managed to get fab roles despite this) but I guess it’s part of the game. I don’t think male actors get this much negative attention because they are awkward, or snotty, or earnest, or annoying on red carpets (eg Eddie Redmayne, Harrison Ford, Rami Malek)
LMAO Rachel Getting Married was such an authentic movie that it felt like a documentary. I didn’t even remember that Anne was in the movie!
I don't think Anne Hathaway backlash has as much to do with people being resentful of her being a young success actress as it does with her acting like a jerk at times. Getting pissy because they left an "e" off her name when she won the Critics Choice Award, hogging the microphone when Les Mis won Best Picture at the Golden Globes so she could continue her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech....she's definitely a diva at times.
I adore her.
I have worried about her, career-wise. Sometimes her movies seem too small (middling material) and too big (commercial expectations) at the same time? The Hustle feels like a setup for failure and it's not the first time.
Competent directors get really great performances out of her. Mike Nichols and James L. Brooks would've known exactly what to do with her.
Brokeback Mountain proves there's a character actress hiding under there. In most of these movies she plays a (more or less English, more or less sexy) version of herself. Maybe a Paperboy moment would be the best thing for her.
She and JLaw almost killed me during their awards season runs. The hate against Anne was overblown, but come on, she was annoying AF and I think she realized it afterwards. She's mellowed quite a lot since growing up and having a kid. I've always liked her as an actress and think she's super talented though.
Her performance in Rachel Getting Married easily should've won that year - I put it in the same reins as Cate in Blue Jasmine and Olivia Colman in The Favourite. Just stellar, inspired work.
Her upcoming slate of films look interesting, so I wish her well.
I've only seen 7? Really?
The First Princess Diaries
Brokeback Mountain
Ocean' 8
Dark Knight Returns
Les Miserables
The Devil Wears Prada
Serenity
She does come off as a bit of a "TryHard", but much better to actually Try Hard, then to coast and coast and coast.... See: Others of her Generation.
She's a future Best Actress winner.
I've seen 18.
She's incredibly underrated in The Devil Wears Prada for the open-hearted earnestness in which she plays Andie, but for the bright, quick wit.
I want that foursome to make another film together ASAP.
Her best work is the sublime Rachel Getting Married. Easily one of the best films of the decade and top 4 or 5 of 2008 easily. Kym is live ammunition wrapped in barbed wire. The way she's so aware of prickliness but also her willingness to exploit it makes her such a complicated woman to encounter let alone imagine at your wedding.
I'm ready for everyone to get over their baggage and love her again they way so many do. With the Todd Haynes and the Dee Rees films this year, fingers crossed.
Her reading of "You don't owe these people anything" in THE DARK KNOGHT RISES gets me every time.