Monday, November 12, 2012

Anne Hathaway Appreciation

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway
12 November 1982 (Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA)
"A man told me that for a woman, I was very opinionated. I said, ‘for a man you’re kind of ignorant’"

Today is 30th birthday of the lovely and talented Anne Hathaway. I have only recently became a fan of hers, after seeing her incredible work in The Dark Knight Rises, but she appeared in many memorable films and even went on to achieve her well deserved Academy Award nomination for her work in Rachel Getting Married.

Anne was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Gerald Thomas Hathaway, is a lawyer, and her mother, Kathleen Ann is an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. The family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old. 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.

She was raised Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood. However, she decided against it at the age of 15, after learning her brother, Michael, was gay; she felt she could not be part of a religion that condemned her brother's sexual orientation. In 2009, Hathaway described herself as a non-denominational Christian because she had not "found the religion" for her, and later stated that her religious beliefs are "a work in progress."

"There are people who have said that I’m being brave for being openly supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption, basically of gay rights, but with all due respect, I humbly dissent. I’m not being brave; I’m being a decent human being. And I don’t think I should recieve an award for that, or for merely stating what I believe to be true: That love is a human experience, not a political statement."

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. 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."

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

Anne is most known from her work in The Princess Dairies and its sequel, The Devil Wears Prada, Alice in Wonderland and most recently The Dark Knight Rises where she completely stole the spotlight from everyone else as Selina Kyle - the iconic Catwoman. I have yet to see a better performance this year and to be completely honest, I don't expect to. This year we will see her in Les Miserables, for which she has been getting considerable amount of Oscar Buzz. It is for this movie that Anne has cut her beautiful, long and dark trademark hair.

On September 29th she married her long time boyfriend Adam Shulman in a Jewish midnight ceremony, wearing a gown designed specifically for her by Valentino, before 100 guests in Big Sur, California. Anne is donating a portion of the sales from her wedding pictures to nonprofits advocating for marriage for same-sex couples and also to the American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children's Research and The Girl Effect.

Few years back she hosted Academy Awards with James Franco - the show was a disaster but Anne and her beautiful dresses were the only saving grace. Recently Anne has hosted Saturday Night Live, which was hilarious - especially Homeland spoof where she parodied Claire Danes's crying face among other things.

In addition to her lovely attitude and beautiful smile I adore Anne's style - she always looks so carefree and romantic.


5 favorite films:
Brokeback Mountain
The Dark Knight Rises
The Devil Wears Prada
Bride Wars
Becoming Jane

5 favorite performances:
The Dark Knight Rises
Rachel Getting Married
Brokeback Mountain
Alice in Wonderland
Love and Other Drugs


Y15 fun facts:
  • Goes by the name Annie with all of her friends.
  • Has the same name as William Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway.
  • She was a vegetarian for most of her life, but she has recently ceased this.
  • In July 2006 she spent a week in Nicaragua helping vaccinate kids there against Hepatitis A. She called the experience "..an eye opener" for her.
  • Favorite actresses are Cate Blanchett, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Pfeiffer
  • She befriended Emily Blunt on the set of The Devil Wears Prada. They are fast friends now, Emily calls Anne 'her rock'.
  • Favorite movies are Elizabeth (1998), Stand by Me (1986), Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001), Pretty Woman (1990) and Cidade de Deus (2002).
  • Favorite actors are Joaquin Phoenix and Ralph Fiennes.
  • Turned down the lead role in Knocked Up (2007).
  • Accidentally fell off of her chair during her audition for the role of the klutzy princess in The Princess Diaries (2001). She was hired on the spot.
  • Friends with Jake Gyllenhaal and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
  • Campaigned for the role of Stephanie Necrophuros in Nine (2009), but Kate Hudson was given the part instead.
  • Christian Bale said that his daughter cared more about Anne Hathaway’s dog, a chocolate Labrador named Esmeralda, than the filming on the set of The Dark Knight Rises - “She would be down all the time [and spent time with Anne Hathaway] - she loved her dog,”
  • Anne Hathaway’s mother was the understudy for Fantine on the American tour when she was growing up. The first day of filming of Les Miserables, Anne actually wore her mother’s Les Mis cast jacket from all those years ago.
  • Even though Anne is playing Catwoman in the new Batman movie, she is actually allergic to cats.

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32 comments:

  1. Anne is one of my favorite actresses working today. I saw that Homeland sketch last night, she was hilarious.

    Here's my favorite Anne Hathaway performances:

    1. Rachel Getting Married
    2. The Dark Knight Rises
    3. The Devil Wears Prada
    4. Becoming Jane
    5. Nicholas Nickelby
    6. Love and Other Drugs
    7. The Princess Diaries
    8. Ella Enchanted
    9. One Day
    10. Brokeback Mountain

    I can't believe she lost a part in Nine to Kate Hudson. Kate Hudson sucks. She was one of the reasons why I really hated Bride Wars. Anne was the only trying to create a performance that I liked.

    She's one of the actresses I'm currently writing projects for as I have a role for her in mind for a trilogy I'm trying to work on right now.

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    1. Kate Hudson rocked it in Nine.
      Film sucked though.

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    2. Meh, Hudson was ok in Nine, but rocked? I'm not sure. Of course comparing to overall quality of the movie she was one of the best things about it.

      I like Bride Wars, I thought it was a charming, breezy comedy, kinda felt like the old school whimsical movies with two female protagonists fighting over something.

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  2. I'm glad she won you over. Not many people thought she could pull-off Catwoman. In fact, I think after Princess Bride, it was hard not to get stereotyped into that kind of role. Glad she succeeded.

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    1. I was sure she will be awful as Catwoman yet she was so utterly fantastic.

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  3. Wow! Awesome post! These pics are gorgeous.

    She seems like a wonderful person, and I love a lot of her work. I even like her performance in Get Smart. If she can't win an Oscar for TDKR, I hope she at least gets one for Les Miserables.

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    1. Thank you! They weren't hard to find, she photographs so well!

      She was pretty fun in Get Smart, definetly made the movie watchable for me.

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  4. I think Hathaway gets a bad rep in the blogging world, which is unfortunate because I think she is a great actress. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but I am looking forward to seeing her in Les Miserables next month. Great spotlight, Sati!

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    1. Thank you! I think things may be turning around this year, with two good performances. I'm kinda surprised people didn't love her in Brokeback - that telephone scene was amazing.

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  5. Love this post. Ive always been a Hathaway fan, ever since Princess Diaries (which I still love). She's so cute and talented and def. the best part of TDKR. Also I am looking forward to Les Mis mostly for her (and Jackman).

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    1. Thanks! She is crazy cute, I love that she is always smiling. I'm probably going to check Les Mis on DVD, not quite my cup of tea but I'm curious about her performance.

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  6. Great article. You wrote a lot of things about Anne(Or Annie as her friends call her) that I had no idea about. I'm glad to see that she turned down the role for Knocked Up

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    1. Thank you! Yeah, I learned some of this stuff only over the weekend, I think it's lovely what she does for gay community.

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  7. Happy 30th birthday Annie~

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  8. I really like Hathaway, I think she's very underrated. I'm really excited for Les Mis; from what i've seen it looks like it's gonna be fantastic. She also pleases my eyes too :-)

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    1. I think she is very underrated too, she was terrific in Brokeback Mountain and yet somehow her work went unnoticed.

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  9. Very nice post, you might also enjoy an overview I did on her roles a while ago:

    http://myfilmviews.com/2012/05/25/the-many-faces-of-anne-hathaway/

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  10. God, I adore Anne Hathaway. She is just...everything. I had to laugh when she totally pulled off Catwoman, because so many people didn't think she could do it. Really, she can do just about anything!

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    1. Hopefully she will be in more serious projects after such a great year, I like her in comedies but I think she has so much more to offer.

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  11. See I thought my comment didnt come through, but unfortunately I can never tell because of your anti spam protocols... Not moaning just annoyed that the comment I left failed to show up!!

    Anyways, I am quite the fan of Hathaway, she is easy on the eye and a good actress to boot!! Nice post matey

    Sorry I have been absent for a bit, back now

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Some users have some trouble with that, that's blogger's fault though, unfortunetly there is nothing I can do about that.

      It's all right, I'm crazy busy too :)

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  12. Sometimes I really like Anne Hathaway and other times she seems a bit spastic.. like is she really that excited about everything?! I was disappointed they didn't utilize her more on the last episode of SNL because I think she's pretty fantastic as a host and could've been given more. I loved her in Love & Other Drugs (despite the movie not being the best ever), DKR (always thought she was a great choice for Catwoman), and Brokeback Mountain. I still need to see Rachel Getting Married. Seems like she'll be the one to beat Oscar season.

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    1. I agree, she was terrific in SNL, wish she had even more to do. She was very good in Love & Other Drugs, shame the movie didn't work, glad to read you like her in Brokeback Mountain not many people appreciate that performance.

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  13. Great tribute as always Sati. I might steal your style of doing tribute tonight for my longtime crush, it'll be a day late for his b'day though.

    I had no idea her name is William Shakespeare's wife, very cool. Y'know I wasn't always a fan of hers but I thought she was great in TDKR and those Les Miz trailers, it has become one of my anticipated films now.

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    1. Thank you! I know who you mean, can't wait to see what you will do! :)

      She looks great in those trailers, she is the only reason I'll see this movie - I'm not a fan of either Crowe or Jackman.

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  14. I love her short hair, giant sunglasses look.

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    1. She looks so pretty with this hairstyle, I hope she keeps it!

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  15. You put together the most gorgeous posts! I agree that she was terrific in Brokeback Mountain and Rachel Getting Married.

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  16. Great post. I am still sitting on the fence about her. I recently read a fascinating article about her and people's response to her. No doubt she is talented but some contest that her earnestness is a little to much for their liking. Anyway, she chipped away at my ambivalence with her performance in The Dark Knight Rises.

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    1. Thank you! I think she is lovely but I can see how her chearfullness may be a bit much for some.

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