2001–2004: Early roles and breakthrough In 2001, Hathaway starred in the
Disney comedy
The Princess Diaries, based on
Meg Cabot's
novel of the same name. Hathaway portrayed teenager
Mia Thermopolis, who discovers that she is the heiress to the throne of the fictional Kingdom of Genovia. Hathaway auditioned for the role during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand. The film became a major commercial success, grossing $165 million worldwide. Many critics lauded Hathaway's performance; a
BBC critic noted that "Hathaway shines in the title role and generates great chemistry" and
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell found her to be "royalty in the making, a young comic talent with a scramble of features". She earned an
MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance nomination for the role. The same year, Hathaway starred with
Christopher Gorham in
Mitch Davis's
The Other Side of Heaven, which was also distributed by Disney. Inspired by
John H. Groberg's memoir
In the Eye of the Storm, the film met with mostly negative reviews and was a box-office failure. Owing to the success of
The Princess Diaries,
People magazine named Hathaway one of its breakthrough stars of 2001. In February 2002, Hathaway starred in the City Center Encores! concert production of
Carnival! in her New York City stage debut; she was cast as Lili, an optimistic orphan who falls in love with a magician. Before rehearsing with the full cast, Hathaway trained with a vocal coach for two weeks. She memorized almost all her lines and songs at the first read-through. She won a
Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female. Later, Hathaway voiced the audiobook release of the first three books in
The Princess Diaries novels. Hathaway portrayed princesses and appeared in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model. she starred in
Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama
Nicholas Nickleby (2002), which opened to positive reviews. However, the film did not enter wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales. The fantasy romantic comedy
Ella Enchanted (2004), in which Hathaway played the titular character, also performed poorly at the box office. She had first read
the book on which the film is based when she was 16, and stated that the script was originally much closer to the source material but did not work as a film, and therefore preferred the picture the way it turned out. Hathaway sang three songs on the
film's soundtrack, including a duet with singer
Jesse McCartney. In 2003, Hathaway turned down the role of Christine Daaé for
Joel Schumacher's
The Phantom of the Opera (2004), because the production schedule of the film overlapped with
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). but made $134.7 million against a $45 million budget.
2005–2008: Rise to prominence Hathaway began taking on adult roles to avoid
typecasting, After replacing
Tara Strong for the voice role of
Red Puckett in
Hoodwinked!, she starred in the drama
Havoc (2005) as a spoiled socialite, appearing nude in some of its scenes. While the film was thematically different from her previous releases, Hathaway denied that her role was an attempt to be seen as a more mature actress, citing her belief that performing nudity in certain films is merely a part of what her chosen form of art demands of her; because of this belief she does not consider appearing nude in appropriate films to be morally objectionable. The film was not released in theaters in the United States due to unfavorable critical reception. In the 2005 drama
Brokeback Mountain, which depicts the emotional and sexual relationship between two men married to women,
Ennis Del Mar (played by
Heath Ledger) and
Jack Twist (played by
Jake Gyllenhaal), Hathaway played Lureen, the wife of Jack. The actress was originally sent the script with the part of Ennis' wife in mind, but decided to audition for Lureen instead after she read it. She lied during the audition about her knowledge of riding so that the director
Ang Lee would cast her, but did subsequently take lessons. The film received critical acclaim and several
Academy Award nominations.
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone wrote that Hathaway "excels at showing Lureen's journey from cutie-pie to hard case", and
Todd McCarthy of
Variety credited her for "provid[ing] an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment". Hathaway stated 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 actor. At this point, she realized that she wanted to play roles to move audiences or otherwise entertain them so much that they forget about their own lives. |alt=A picture of Anne Hathaway looking into the camera. Hathaway starred in the comedy-drama
The Devil Wears Prada (2006), based on
Lauren Weisberger's
novel of the same name, as a college graduate who becomes an assistant to a powerful
fashion magazine editor (played by
Meryl Streep). and in preparation she volunteered for a few weeks as an assistant at an
auction house. She also followed a weight-loss regimen, along with co-star
Emily Blunt, which made them hungry and led to crying. Hathaway stated that working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she did previously, though she admitted that her personal style was something she "still can't get right". It proved to be her most widely seen film to that point, with a worldwide gross of over $326.5 million. Originally cast in
Knocked Up, Hathaway dropped out before production and was replaced with
Katherine Heigl. This happened because, according to writer-director
Judd Apatow, the actress was uncomfortable with the use of real footage of a woman in labor; she believed it did not contribute to the film's story. Her sole release in 2007 was the biographical romantic drama
Becoming Jane, as the titular English author
Jane Austen. She received a
British Independent Film Award for Best Actress nomination for the film, although some critics negatively focused on her accent and performance. In October 2008, Hathaway hosted an episode of the
NBC late-night sketch comedy
Saturday Night Live. She also starred in
Peter Segal's
film adaptation of
Mel Brooks' television series
Get Smart, in which she played
Agent 99. Calling the role "a childhood dream come true", Hathaway learned martial arts and dancing techniques in preparation. Hathaway's two other releases of 2008 were the drama
Rachel Getting Married and the mystery thriller
Passengers, the latter of which was a critical and commercial failure. In
Jonathan Demme's
Rachel Getting Married, she starred as a young woman who, after being released from drug rehabilitation, returns home for her sister's wedding. Portraying a character she described as "narcissistic—downright selfish", Hathaway garnered critical acclaim for her performance. Peter Travers found her to be "raw and riveting" in the role, adding that she "acts the hell out of it, achieving a state of sorrowful grace". She received
Academy Award,
Golden Globe Award,
Critics' Choice, and
SAG nominations for Best Actress. She won the
Critics' Choice.
2009–2011: Romantic comedies and hosting events Hathaway starred in
Bride Wars (2009), which she described as "hideously commercial—gloriously so". The romantic comedy, in which she and
Kate Hudson played two best friends who become rivals after their weddings are scheduled on the same day, was a critical failure; it was named among the ten worst
chick flicks in history by
Time in 2010. Despite this, the film was successful financially and earned Hathaway an
MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance nomination. She played the heroine
Viola in a summer 2009 production of
Twelfth Night at the
Delacorte Theater in New York City. Charles Isherwood opined that Hathaway "dives smoothly and with obvious pleasure into the embrace of a cohesive ensemble cast". For her portrayal of the role, she garnered a nomination for the
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2010, she also won a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for providing her voice for the episode "
Once Upon a Time in Springfield" in
The Simpsons. Hathaway voiced different characters in
Family Guy in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, Hathaway appeared as a receptionist who dates a clerk (played by
Topher Grace) in the ensemble romantic comedy ''
Valentine's Day'', directed by Garry Marshall. The film was a commercial success, grossing more than $215 million worldwide against a budget of $52 million. Hathaway played the
White Queen in
Tim Burton's
2010 adaptation of the fantasy novels ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. She summed up her character with a caption on a magnet of Happy Bunny holding a knife; "Cute but psycho. Things even out." Hathaway described her interpretation of the White Queen as "a punk-rock vegan pacifist", drawing inspiration from Debbie Harry and the artwork of Dan Flavin. Alice in Wonderland'' received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the film's visuals but criticized the lack of narrative coherence. Commercially, it grossed $1 billion to become the
second-highest-grossing film of 2010. in 2010, which she hosted with actor
Denzel Washington Hathaway reunited with Jake Gyllenhaal as a free-spirited artist with
Parkinson's disease in
Edward Zwick's erotic romantic comedy-drama
Love & Other Drugs, based on the nonfiction book
Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by
Jamie Reidy. For the role, she spent time with a Parkinson's patient to research the disease, and in preparation for its nude scenes, she watched films of
Kate Winslet and
Penélope Cruz who, in Hathaway's view, had performed nudity with sensitivity and dignity. She believed these scenes would not discourage socially conservative people from watching the film. Critics generally praised the film's adult romance, but were unenthusiastic about its plot elements. Hathaway's performance, which Ebert called "warm, lovable", earned her a
Satellite Award and a nomination for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical. Together with actor
Denzel Washington, Hathaway hosted the
Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway in December 2010. Two months later, she and
James Franco hosted the
83rd Academy Awards. Critics were unenthusiastic about their chemistry, but thought Hathaway gave her best and did a better job than Franco, who they felt seemed uninterested. At the
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, she garnered an
Outstanding Variety Special (Live) nomination. In 2011, Hathaway voiced Jewel, a female
Spix's macaw from Rio de Janeiro, in the animated film
Rio, produced by
20th Century Fox and
Blue Sky Studios. It received generally positive reviews from film critics, who praised the visuals, voice acting and music. A commercial success, it grossed more than $484 million worldwide against a budget of $90 million. Later, Hathaway starred alongside
Jim Sturgess in
Lone Scherfig's
One Day, based on
David Nicholls'
novel of the same name. The film tells the story of two young people who meet annually for twenty years after they shared a platonic one-night stand together. Hathaway was clandestinely given the script, as
One Day was set in Britain, and Scherfig was not looking for any American actresses for the part. After a nonproductive meeting with Scherfig, Hathaway left a list of songs for the director, who after listening to them, cast the actress for the part. Hathaway later expressed regret that she might have unwittingly held
misogyny during production, as she came to feel that she had not trusted Scherfig as a director because of her gender. Her
Yorkshire accent in the film was considered subpar. Columnist Suzanne Moore, reviewing the film on
BBC Radio 4's
Front Row, said Hathaway's accents were "all over the shop", adding, "Sometimes she's from Scotland, sometimes she's from New York, you just can't tell". The film itself received polarizing reviews from critics, but became a moderate box office success.
2012–2014: Les Miserables and films with Christopher Nolan In 2012, Hathaway's audiobook recording of
L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was released at
Audible.com and garnered her an
Audie Award nomination for Best Solo Narration – Female. She then played the sly, morally ambiguous cat burglar
Selina Kyle / Catwoman in
The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment in
Christopher Nolan's
The Dark Knight trilogy. Hathaway auditioned not knowing what part she was being considered for, admitting that she had
Harley Quinn in mind but only learned her role after talking with Nolan for an hour. She described it as her most physically demanding assignment to that point, as she had to redouble her efforts in the gym to keep up with the requirements of the role. She trained extensively in martial arts, and looked to
Hedy Lamarr in developing her performance as Catwoman.
The Dark Knight Rises was critically successful and grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, becoming the
third-highest-grossing film of 2012.
IGN reviewer Jim Vejvoda labeled Hathaway "a magnetic presence whenever she's onscreen" and added, "Selina may be the proverbial good bad girl, the thief with a heart of gold, but Hathaway imbues her with a wounded spirit and a survivor's edge that makes her feel genuine and sympathetic even when she's being naughty." She won the
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Hathaway portrayed
Fantine, a prostitute dying of
tuberculosis, in
Tom Hooper's
Les Misérables, an adaptation of the
stage musical of the same name. Footage of the actress singing "
I Dreamed a Dream", a song from the film, was shown at the 2012
CinemaCon, where Hooper described her singing as "raw" and "real". In preparation for the role, Hathaway consumed fewer than 500 calories a day to lose , researched prostitution, and cut her hair. To adopt her character's mental space alone during production in London, she sent her husband back to the United States; this resulted in her becoming increasingly temperamental.
Ann Hornaday of
The Washington Post asserted that "the centerpiece of a movie composed entirely of centerpieces belongs to Anne Hathaway, who as the tragic heroine Fantine sings another of the memorable numbers". She won the
Academy Award,
Golden Globe,
Screen Actors Guild and
BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. Asked if she was pleased with her performance in the film, Hathaway expressed doubts, replying with "Eh". '' in 2014|alt=A short-haired brunette, wearing a black dress, is smiling to her left After briefly appearing in the romantic comedy
Don Jon (2013), Hathaway starred in and co-produced (with her husband and others)
Song One. In the drama film, she played an anthropology student who returns home to see her injured brother, Henry (played by
Ben Rosenfield), and soon begins a romantic relationship with his favorite musician, James Forester (played by
Johnny Flynn). Her character was originally written as a 19-year-old, but Kate Barker-Froyland, the film's writer and director, changed the part to that of an older woman after casting Hathaway. The actress said the reason she decided to produce the film was because of its depiction of the healing power of music and second chances. For the film's soundtrack, she provided her voice for the song "Afraid of Heights".
Song One premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the
30th Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, and released in theaters the following year to mixed reviews from critics. Commercially, the film failed to recoup its $6 million investment. Hathaway reprised her role as Jewel in the animated film
Rio 2, her third film with
Jamie Foxx, which was released in 2014. It grossed nearly five times more than its $103 million budget. Her sole live-action release of 2014 was Christopher Nolan's epic science fiction film
Interstellar. Set in a dystopian future where humanity is struggling to survive, it follows a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for mankind. Hathaway was drawn to the part of
NASA scientist Amelia Brand due to the character's growth from an arrogant to a humbler person. With a budget of $165 million, the high-profile production co-starring
Matthew McConaughey was filmed mostly using
IMAX cameras. Hathaway nearly experienced hypothermia while filming a water scene in Iceland, as the
dry suit she was wearing had not been properly secured. Reviewers for
The Independent and
Empire found her to be "affecting" in the part of a scientist unable to decide between her personal feelings and professional responsibilities, and took notice of the "soulful nuance" in her performance.
Interstellar grossed over $701 million worldwide, and earned Hathaway a nomination for the
Saturn Award for Best Actress.
2015–2021: Mixed success Hathaway began 2015 with an appearance in the first season of the musical reality show
Lip Sync Battle. In the episode, she competed against her
The Devil Wears Prada co-star
Emily Blunt; she lip synced "
Love" by
Mary J. Blige and "
Wrecking Ball" by
Miley Cyrus.
Nancy Meyers'
The Intern was Hathaway's sole film release of 2015. It tells the story of Ben Whittaker (played by
Robert De Niro), a 70-year-old widower who becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site run by Jules Ostin (Hathaway). She had aspired to work with De Niro and Meyers, her favorite actor and director, respectively; impressed with the film's story, she auditioned for the third time for a Meyers film. Reviews of the film were generally positive; one in
Roger Ebert's website found her to be "extremely appealing" and a reviewer for
New York magazine wrote, "
The Intern gets off on De Niro's amiability and Hathaway's sweet energy". The film grossed $194 million worldwide against a $35 million budget. The 2015
found footage horror film
Be My Cat: A Film for Anne, about an aspiring Romanian filmmaker who goes to shocking extremes to convince Hathaway to star in his film, was officially selected and had its North American premiere at the 2016
Nashville Film Festival. Hathaway reprised the role of the White Queen in
Alice Through the Looking Glass, the 2016 sequel to
Alice in Wonderland. That March, it was reported that she would reprise her role for
The Princess Diaries 3; the project was shelved after the death of
Garry Marshall, who was set to direct the film. Hathaway is one of several actors featured on
Barbra Streisand's 2016 album
Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Along with
Daisy Ridley, Hathaway and Streisand performed the song "
At The Ballet" from
A Chorus Line; she played the role of Maggie, one of a trio of dancers hoping to be cast in an upcoming show. Her final film that year was alongside
Jason Sudeikis in
Nacho Vigalondo's science fiction black comedy
Colossal (2016). Playing an unemployed young writer, Hathaway was the first actress to sign on at a time when the project had no financial backing. She was drawn to the genre-hopping nature of the script, later comparing it to
Being John Malkovich (1999), one of her favorite films. The film received positive reviews from critics, but earned only $4 million at the box office. After a two-year absence from the screen, Hathaway starred as a famous actress in ''
Ocean's 8, an all-female spin-off of the Ocean's Eleven'' franchise from director
Gary Ross. Co-starring
Sandra Bullock and
Cate Blanchett, it follows a group of criminals who plan to rob the
Met Gala. Hathaway was drawn to the idea of playing someone with an immense ego and saw the part as an opportunity "to lean into all the ridiculous fame nonsense that I've been trying to side-step for all of these years." She hoped the film would be profitable so that it could debunk claims that female-led films do not succeed commercially. Critics generally considered Hathaway to be a scene-stealer among the cast, with
ABC Online's Jason Di Rosso writing, "The film's best moments belong to Hathaway as the anxiety-ridden, vain and capricious starlet. She's the only successful meld of comedy and pathos—a victim of the celebrity treadmill who is also capable of outsmarting it." ''Ocean's 8'' was a box office success, grossing over $297 million worldwide against a $70 million budget. Hathaway's first two films of 2019, the thriller
Serenity and the comedy
The Hustle, were poorly received by critics. In the former, she starred alongside her
Interstellar costar
Matthew McConaughey as a woman who tasks her ex-husband to kill her new abusive husband, a role for which she dyed her hair blonde.
The Washington Post dismissed her performance as "cartoonish", adding that her
femme fatale character was reminiscent of "a kind of live-action
Jessica Rabbit". The latter film was a remake of the 1988 film
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, co-starring
Rebel Wilson, which emerged as a
sleeper hit. Hathaway next played a woman with
bipolar disorder in an episode of the
Amazon Prime Video romantic anthology series
Modern Love. She then played the wife of
Mark Ruffalo's character in
Todd Haynes' legal drama
Dark Waters, about environmental poisoning committed by the chemical company
DuPont. Writing for
Variety,
Owen Gleiberman termed her supporting performance "a piercing dance of agony and loyalty". Hathaway began the new decade with the political thriller
The Last Thing He Wanted (2020), based on the
book of the same name by
Joan Didion. She considered herself to be an unlikely choice for the part of a headstrong journalist, as it differed from her own "puppy dog" personality. It received negative reviews from critics. She then starred in
The Witches, an adaptation of the
novel of the same name from director
Robert Zemeckis, in which she played an
evil witch. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who deemed it inferior to the
1990 adaptation. Hathaway's performances in both films earned her nominations for Worst Actress at the
41st Golden Raspberry Awards. In 2021, she starred in the heist film
Locked Down, directed by
Doug Liman, which premiered on
HBO Max. Set during the
COVID-19 pandemic, it co-starred
Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film was shot over the course of 18 days with limited resources. She next took on a role in one episode of the Amazon Prime Video anthology series
Solos.
2022–present: mainstream resurgence Hathaway executive produced and starred opposite
Jared Leto in the
Apple TV+ miniseries
WeCrashed, about the company
WeWork. It received favorable reviews, with particular praise for Hathaway's portrayal of
Rebekah Neumann. Angie Han of
The Hollywood Reporter commended her for resisting "the temptation to turn Rebekah into an exaggerated caricature of an entitled woo-woo type, which ultimately only makes Rebekah funnier". Hathaway starred in
James Gray's semi-autobiographical period drama
Armageddon Time, portraying a character inspired by Gray's mother. David Rooney of
The Hollywood Reporter considered it her best performance since
Rachel Getting Married, while
Owen Gleiberman of
Variety praised Hathaway for making her character "at once affectionate and blinkered". In her two film releases of 2023,
Eileen and
She Came to Me, Hathaway played emotionally troubled psychiatrists.
Eileen, based on
Ottessa Moshfegh's thriller
novel of the same name, starred
Thomasin McKenzie in the title role and premiered at the
2023 Sundance Film Festival. Hathaway described the project as "
Carol meets
Reservoir Dogs". Ryan Lattanzio of
IndieWire believed that "Hathaway has never been better in a role that feels [...] tailor-made for her". At
that year's Berlin International Film Festival,
Rebecca Miller's romantic comedy
She Came to Me, was released. Hathaway's first release of 2024 was as a grieving mother coping with the loss of her son in the thriller ''
Mothers' Instinct''. A remake of the
2018 Belgian film, she co-starred with
Jessica Chastain. Hathaway created a "protective layer" between herself and her character, requesting for cast and crew members to refer to her by her character's name as she deemed the loss of a child her "worst fear". Writing for
The Guardian,
Peter Bradshaw thought that her performance was overshadowed by that of Chastain. She next led the romantic comedy
The Idea of You, based on
Robinne Lee's novel of the same name, playing a divorced mother who begins a romance with a younger pop star. Alissa Wilkinson of
The New York Times believed that the film "succeeds mostly because of Hathaway's performance", and praised her chemistry with co-star
Nicholas Galitzine. In 2026, Hathaway starred alongside
Michaela Coel in
David Lowery's
Mother Mary and reprised the role of Andrea "Andy" Sachs in
The Devil Wears Prada 2. She will next reunite with Christopher Nolan on the historical epic
The Odyssey as
Penelope, and will star in
a film adaptation of
Colleen Hoover's thriller novel
Verity. She will also lead
David Robert Mitchell's science fiction film
The End of Oak Street. ==Public image==