Hathaway on ‘How Toxic My Identity Had Become Online,’ Says Christopher Nolan Backed Her: ‘I Had an Angel’ in Him
“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” Hathaway now told Vanity Fair. “I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.”
“I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect,” Hathaway said about Nolan. “And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”
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“Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through,” the Oscar winner added. “The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold, and it can be hard because you’re like, ‘If I stay safe, if I hug the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.’ But if you want to do that, don’t be an actor. You’re a tightrope walker. You’re a daredevil. You’re asking people to invest their time and their money and their attention and their care into you. So you have to give them something worth all of those things. And if it’s not costing you anything, what are you really offering?”
Hathaway has sung Nolan’s praises following their two films together. During a conversation with Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” star Emily Blunt last year, Hathaway said that “the part that blows my mind about Chris is that he is authoritative in the best sense of the word.”
Hathaway “doesn’t love to look back on the time when people mocked her.”
Speaking to The Sun in 2021, the actor took a glass-half-full approach when asked about this period in her life, noting how backlash against her forced her to build self-confidence that might not have been built otherwise.
In interview in 2014, Hathaway said the backlash she faced after the Oscars made it feel like she “got punched in the gut.” The actress added she was left “shocked” and “embarrassed” by the hatred at the time, going so far as adding, “Even now I can feel the shame.”
Hathaway next stars in the romance “The Idea of You,” streaming May 2 on Amazon Prime Video.
Head over to Vanity Fair’s website to read Hathaway’s cover story.