Anne Hathaway on her vanilla, good-girl image: ‘I’m not Rihanna, I’m not cool’

I think I’ve figured out one of the big problems many of us have had with Anne Hathaway’s Oscar campaign thus far – I mean, beyond the “I won’t talk about my extreme weight loss, except I’ll talk about it nonstop because it’s a centerpiece of my campaign but I’m going to be twitchy about it” thing. No, the bigger issue is that Anne’s campaign is so blatant, so full-on, so in-your-face. Other celebrities have found a way to campaign but still leave some mystery, some of the withholding dance. Not Anne. She’s been doing non-stop interviews, non-stop magazine covers, non-stop promotion. Her publicist needs to encourage her to take it down a notch, because overexposure can really hurt an Oscar campaign too.

Anyway, here’s yet another magazine interview for Annie. She covers the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, and I’m not crazy about the photo shoot. They made her look haughty, right? And she already has a kind of haughty look, so this doesn’t help. You know what else doesn’t help? That even I, a Hathaway Apologist, find this interview super-annoying:

With her much lauded performance in Les Misérables garnering praise and box office gold aplenty, you’d think Anne Hathaway would be on top of the world. But the 30-year-old actress, who is being hyped for an Oscar for her performance as Fantine in the film, has revealed her inner torment at not being ‘cool.’

Hathaway hates that she’s seen as a ‘bizarre-world good-girl character’, and feels she’s labelled as ‘very vanilla, very sweet, very accessible and not interesting,’ despite posing in a corset for a racy new shoot for Harper’s Bazaar magazine.

‘I’m not Rihanna,’ she told the fashion mag. ‘I’m not cool. When people come up to me in the street, they often want a hug not a photo, and they want that because they like my work. For a long time it was me and her [her manager] against the world. I was seen as this bizarre-world good-girl cartoon that I in no way identified with – very vanilla, very sweet, very accessible and not interesting. I had no grit, no sex appeal.’

Hathaway, who married Adam Shulman in September, also worries now that she’s hit 30.

She said: ‘It doesn’t help that the new crop of girls is so gorgeous, and so 22 years old,” she said of her recent birthday. “But I’m excited about it.’

Hathaway also admitted that her husband makes her too happy to channel the misery she needed for Les Misérables.

‘He walks into a room, and I light up. I can’t help it’ she said. ‘A few days into it [filming Les Misérables] I said ‘I’m having too much fun, I just want to play with you and I need to be really sad right now.’ ‘

She said: ‘I knew from the second I met him that he was the love of my life.’

After an amazing year, it seems that Anne might be ready top settle down, after admitting to wanting a family.

She told Stella Magazine: “I’ve wanted to be a mom since I was 16. I’m 30 and I want to have a family of a certain size. I’ll start with one healthy kid but I’d like to have a few naturally and adopt. I gotta get on it, you know? I’d like to have as many as I can afford, not just financially but in terms of time, because you want to make sure each one feels special.’

[From The Mail]

Self-awareness is a good thing, but at some point, self-awareness crosses a line into a sort of hyper-aware, neurotic, vapid narcissism where a person seems solely focused on how other people see them. I’m not saying Annie has crossed that Rubicon here, but she’s closing in on it. I get the feeling that Anne wants to wring all she can out of two dueling and contradictory images – she wants older Oscar voters to still see her as vanilla and princess-y, but she wants Hollywood producers and directors to see her as cool, dangerous and sexy, her new image. But you know what really bugs? That Anne has been consistently painting herself as the underdog, the also-ran, the outsider. She’s not – she’s Establishment. She’s seen as one of the best actresses of her generation, and one of the few younger actresses who can carry a film. She really needs to re-vamp this campaign, right?

Photos courtesy of Bazaar UK.

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95 Responses to “Anne Hathaway on her vanilla, good-girl image: ‘I’m not Rihanna, I’m not cool’”

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  1. Amelia says:

    Well, we agree on something at least.
    Although I don’t know why she seems to consider *not* being Rihanna is a bad thing.
    Riri’s got a rather large douche in her life that will, with any luck, get locked up before the decade’s out.

  2. Riana says:

    I imagine much of this promotion has to do with the assumption that the audience won’t read every magazine and interview.

    That’s how I always feel. Too much of a good thing (or even a bad thing) when you read every single quote, every single statement, every single interview it gets annoying regardless.

    I say this because I haven’t been paying attention to her campaign and nothing annoying stood out to me in what she said. I can’t imagine people thinking she’s cool either, nor can I imagine them accepting her as a sex symbol. It’s not a bad thing, but she is vanilla, course who the hell would want to be Rihanna.

  3. Agnes says:

    No, she’s not “cool”. Either way, taking it down a few notches would be awesome. Ha!

  4. FirstTimer says:

    In a way that’s true about your theory on her campaign, Kaiser. But these shoots were done months ahead of time right? Her PR team would’ve made sure the interviews/covers were released far in between in the course of the campaign. You know… To not let their strategy bite them in the ass later.

  5. marie says:

    this is the first time she’s been considered for an Oscar yes? If so, then I can kind of get why she’s so out there, everywhere-maybe she hasn’t realized less is more.. which is unfortunate cause I had nothing against her before, now she’s just super annoying.

    • Kaiser says:

      No, she was nominated for everything for Rachel Getting Married, and she even won some major awards for that role too. This isn’t her first time!!

    • FirstTimer says:

      No. She was nominated before for Rachel Getting Married. Won the Critics’ Choice as well for the same movie. But her competition that year was kinda tough and so she never really campaigned hard, you know? This time around, the only competition I could think of is Sally Field for Lincoln.

      • Hubbahun says:

        You know who should get nommed for Best Supporting actress but prob won’t? Brit Marling for Sound of my Voice. Watch that performance – AH couldn’t get near that level of performance in her life. But hey ho.

  6. Post-It's says:

    If Anne wants to be like Meryl, Cate and Kate, then she needs to learn from them and STFU. Meryl doesn’t need to do interview after interview. She does her job and her work speaks for itself. Same with Cate Blanchett. She lost a ton of weight for I’m Not There and she wasn’t talking to anyone who would listen about her weight loss and she still got an Oscar nod! Live and learn, Anne.

    • AmyB says:

      You are so right. She was great in Les Mis. Saw it, but….did you see Monique campaigning for Precious. NO. Meryl Streep one of the best actresses ever never did anything like this. Anne needs to stop talking. I almost hope she does not get the Oscar this year. And she was very moving in Les Mis.

  7. Eleonor says:

    she is not cool.
    she is not that good actress…

    *eyeroll*

  8. Jennika says:

    I used to like her, but now she’s bugging the shit out of me. At least Michael K’s rants about her are hilarious

    • Zombie Shortcake says:

      I know! It’s like, “yes Anne, we know you are not Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, or Kate Winslet. We also know you are not Rihanna, or anybody else. You are you. We know this.” Lol. Seriously, what is she doing???!!!

  9. brin says:

    And the award for most annoying Oscar campaign goes to Anne Hathaway.

  10. Emily says:

    Yeah, normally I’d like her, but the aggressive campaigning is just too much. (Especially because I’m not convinced that “The Flash” wasn’t deliberate.) It’s at the point where I’m actually cheering for her to lose.

    • CG says:

      That’s how I was with Clooney last year. His campaign was exactly like Anne’s: Non-stop, in-your-face, reeking of desperation. Normally I’m a fan of his movies, but his whole campaign was a total turn-off, so by the time the Oscars rolled around, I was like, “ANYONE BUT CLOONEY.” And I’m already that way about Anne, and it’s barely January, so there are weeks left of her being shoved in our faces. Ugh!

  11. Rikki says:

    We know you’re not cool and neither is Rihanna.

    • Heebeegeebee says:

      Exactly! It’s unacceptable that a grown woman would aspire to be like…….. Rihanna? Eew.

  12. Jess says:

    There’s a droop in her eye on that cover that is really unattractive. Like she’s aging, or has a really asymmetrical face… I would not have chosen that shot.

    • Veruca says:

      Thank you for saying it first. Her eye looks as though it’s going to fall off her face.

    • Peeky says:

      You know I just noticed this the other day looking at photos of her…she has a wonky left eye. Really, its noticable when photographed head on, her left eye is larger that her right.

      I had a friend who had a condition as a child that had to be corrected surgically, a lazy eye muscle that made him appear cross-eyed. His corrected eye looks a lot like Anne’s.

    • jaye says:

      Her eyes slope downward. That’s just what her face looks like.

  13. j.eyre says:

    It’s her contradictions that are losing me: I don’t want to talk about my weight loss but I lost all this weight; they only want young girls but I am really excited to not be young; everyone thinks I am vanilla but I just like to stay home and walk my dog; I’m not as talented as other actresses but I knew I could get this role if they heard me read.
    I don’t think she knows what her strategy is anymore and it makes me feel sad for her. She’s bright, beautiful, talented and used to be fun – somebody you’d want to go to coffee with. Now, I would probably let her calls go to voicemail.

    • Jess says:

      Her campaign is for shit. I like her less every day. She has always annoyed me to no end, but she is really bringing it home with this one.

    • T.C. says:

      It’s not contradictions it’s faux modesty and all of us can see right through her.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        Yup.

      • I Choose Me says:

        Nailed it.

      • ??? says:

        Yup. She outdoes herself with her transparency.

        Even if this is part of her Oscar campaign, this interview confirms my suspicion that she is puerile, dim, and exaggerative.

        “For a long time it was me and her [her manager] against the world.” A bit melodramatic, aren’t we, Anne?

        “I had no grit, no sex appeal.”
        Are you under the impression that you now do? Because you don’t.

        As for her wishing she could be more like Rihanna … well, that needs no further comment.

        I somehow can’t shake the image of her as that obnoxious friend who volunteers TMI ad nauseam, and that girlfriend/fiance/wife who makes baby voices on a far too regular basis with her man. She is truly unfortunate.

    • Faye says:

      *Exactly* this, j.eyre. I think she’s just tap-dancing all over the place, trying anything she thinks will work. Faux modesty (“I’m not Meryl Streep or Cate Blanchett”) vs. uber self-confidence (“I knew I closed the door behind me after I auditioned for the role”). . .carrying on about the weight (“I ate 2 oatmeal past squares a day”) vs. not talking about the weight (“I don’t think it’s right to discuss the extreme measures I took, in case somebody tries to copy it”) . . .talking up about how she wants to be sexy and not seen as vanilla, then getting all prissy when asked about her biscuit-flash. It’s just exhausting, and so try-hard. I thought she was really good in “Rachel Getting Married,” and have been largely meh on her since, but this recent bout of campaigning has made me actively dislike her.

    • Peta says:

      You’re right she’s been all over the map and hyper to the max. You’d think her ultra-expensive pr team would have coached her a bit better. And the thing is she used to be fun to watch or read in interviews; witty, fun and somewhat humble. Where’s the old Anne?

      And her quote re her husband,‘I’m having too much fun, I just want to play with you and I need to be really sad right now.’…so I’ll send you packing from the set so I can emote better and hang with my co-stars. Didnt she admit she sent him home when making Les Mis? lol.

  14. manta says:

    “because overexposure can really hurt an Oscar campaign too.”

    Well, it certainly paid off for Natalie Portman. She was in our face non stop: the fiancé, the pregnancy, the dancing, the weight loss, the “how I endangered my health, my life for the sake of my aaart”, the almost bleeding feet after so much practicing etc…

    Anne Hathaway just thinks the same trick might work again.

    • FirstTimer says:

      Well, it was kind of predictable that year. She really just pushed it hard because she knew she can win it, and she did.

    • Annie says:

      It worked for Portman because there wasn’t much talent to write home about that year. I think Anne is far more deserving of an Oscar than Natalie yet Anne will be facing much tougher competition, especially from Sally Field. Just because the “pretty young actress starves herself/gains weight/makes herself unattractive for the sake of her art” thing works often doesn’t mean it always will – it’s all in the competition. Didn’t work for Rooney Mara.

      • manta says:

        Well, every opinion about talent is subjective. Mine is that there were more talent and more subtlety in Michelle Williams’performance in Blue Valentine than in the OTT act of Portman. Jennifer Lawrence and Kidman were also more powerful and less obviously oscar begging.

        Yet, the one with the “in your face” campaign won. It worked more than once, either in the leading category or in the supporting one. She and her team seem to think it could be one of those times. Time will tell.

    • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

      And then she gave out seeds at her wedding. …ye gods.

  15. Baskingshark says:

    Anne, seriously? You’re bitching about being 30 and worried about 22 year olds? Newsflash, even by actress-in-Hollywood-being-judged-by-studios standards, 30 is NOT OLD!

    Next week: Elle Fanning worries about the upcoming crop of 10-year-olds and Isabelle Allan’s concerns over competition from fetuses.

    Also keep the vag covered up, please, even Rihanna hasn’t resorted to such Lohantastic levels of self-promotion and we all know you know how to get out of a car properly.

    • Annie says:

      Well her Oscar competition will be women over twice her age, so take that, Anne. Hollywood isn’t quite as agist as claimed when an actor has ACTUAL TALENT.

      • Baskingshark says:

        Excellent point! Hathaway seriously needs to get over herself. And to think that back in ’01 I told all my friends that my pick for our Guys’ Night Out movie was The Princess Diaries because I thought she was cool..!

  16. T.C. says:

    One of the few younger actresses who can carry a film? She’s only in Les Miz for 15 min and in TDKR for 1 hr of a 2.5 hr film. These are supporting roles, she’s not carrying any of these films from 2012. I don’t understand how she is getting all these big magazine covers for 15 min of work in a 2 hr 40 min film. It’s like no one else but Anne Hathaway is in Les Miz. This is why her Oscar campaign is so obnoxious. Her faux modesty and name dropping is so tiresome.

  17. Jayna says:

    Dear God, she’s been pulling that good girl thing for eight years. She left the Disney princess thing a longtime ago. She posed topless in Brokeback Mountain and played a tough girl. No good actress like her idols Meryl and Cate are Rhianna, a pop singer.

    Yawn.

  18. elceibeno08 says:

    Anne really! Stop this faux modesty act. You know you are awesome. If you continue this self-pity stuff that we don’t buy anyway, we’re going to turn on you.

    • jaye says:

      GONNA turn on her?? Based on the posts here, the turn has already happened.

      I don’t know, I kinda like Anne Hathaway. Does she take herself a bit too seriously…sure, but she’s harmless. There are more try hard-y actresses out there.

  19. Sugar says:

    whether you win or not may come down to if Oscar & co figure out the new computerized system.

  20. Ella says:

    Why does she always look half asleep in photo shoots?

  21. Barrett says:

    Please she has an ex-con for a boyfriend!

  22. carrie says:

    she really has “droppy eyes” on the cover

  23. QQ says:

    This is that fucking “Natalie Portman- We-all-Ended-up-hating-you” Campaign all over again, also topical why guys aren’t required to come off like these neurotic I wanna be a mom puppies and rainbows smug little shits… Well they usually arent, Ben Affleck and the dimples parade is a whole other thing

    • KC says:

      Don’t forget Justin Timberlake when he was trying to get nominated for The Social Network.

  24. the original bellaluna says:

    I used to find her tolerable and non-offensive, but now, she’s irritating me.

  25. commentatrice says:

    She’s an Actress , and a good one … why she has to be Cool … and what’s the matter if she’s annoying, her job is doing good movies , not entertain us through TV shows

  26. Vanesaa says:

    Doesn’t she have the same publicist as Jennifer Aniston? I think his PR strategy is more about quantity than quality. He certainly gets them both lots of press, but sadly the over-exposure hurts them in the long run I believe.

    But then again, you’ve got to remember that a lot od people don’t follow the gossip blogs, so the opinions here are not neccesarily the concensus, thus Tom Cruise maintains a very succesful career, and Ann will probably win that Oscar.

  27. anneesezz says:

    Rihanna is not cool. She’s a dumb skank.

  28. Marianne says:

    The only thing about the whole “oscar campaign” business is that her movie came out on Christmas Day, which makes sense that she’s been doing a lot of interviews lately.

    This would have been no different if the movie came out in May. She probably would have done the same amount of interviews.

  29. Sweet Dee says:

    No, Anne, you’re not cool. Neither is Rihanna. The least cool thing about you, though, is that you act like you want to be like Rihanna. Please. She is a mess and you would never trade your life for hers.

    RE: her eyes looking weird. That’s how they look naturally, droopy like that. Not saying it’s bad, just saying. She has an excellent makeup stylist who usually can disguise it most of the time and she knows how to pose her face on the red carpet/when she gets papped so it doesn’t stand out in photos. Nobody “made her” look weird. That’s her natural eye shape.

  30. garvels says:

    I saw Les Miserables with family and friends on Christmas Day. The general opinion was that the cinematography was great and the singing was below par. Anne did fine but for the most part we weren’t raving academy award performance…but then I attended with several musical theater people who were highly critical of the singing especially Amanda Seyfried,Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.

    Bottom line Anne needs to put a sock in it and realize that less is more.

  31. stinky says:

    TRY.
    H-A-R-D.
    ugh….

  32. keats says:

    I don’t think she can be accurately called self-aware when the entire world is saying shut uuuuupppp already

  33. Thiajoka says:

    Ah, Anne, Rihanna really isn’t cool. LOL.

  34. gg says:

    Newz for ya, honey, Rihanna certainly ain’t cool either.

  35. Luxe says:

    Just think…two more months of namedropping. Gosh, she is annoying.

    Please please please let there be a dark horse in her category for ALL of the awards.

  36. Jaxx says:

    Does this chick ever get tired of talking about herself?

  37. dcypher1 says:

    When she said that lindsay quote it made me laugh. This im vanilla and I hate it is hilarious. u dont want to be riri shes a mess with a douche.

  38. moo says:

    MAN! Am I tired of this girl…. doesn’t she have a project to work on? Hopefully where she gains lots of weight??? ugh… go away!!

  39. KC says:

    I don’t know if it was a typo or not, but the phrase is “crossed the Rubicon,” not “crossed that Rubicon.”

    The Roman history buff in me cringed.

    • cve2 says:

      As a historian I can tell you an intentional variation on a quote is allowed. I believe it was supposed to be fun.

      Author was just enjoying the English lang, that’s all.

      • KC says:

        Crossing the Rubicon isn’t a quote, it’s an idiom. And I do know that variation is allowed with idioms, but “crossing that Rubicon” is not the common turn of phrase and I personally find it annoying because it implies there are multiple Rubicon Rivers. And I think it’s more likely that she accidentally mixed “crossed the Rubicon” and “crossed that bridge” as opposed to her trying to be fun.

        That being said, it’s obviously a personal issue and doesn’t make the writer bad or anything.

      • Rose says:

        Cve2,
        Please use the English language instead of the English lang.
        Thanks,
        My eyes and brain

      • rose says:

        Please use the English language instead of the English lang.
        Thanks,
        My eyes and brain

  40. TG says:

    All of these hollywood tartlets mentioning Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett is getting on my nerves. It’s like they feel they have to mention them as their heros/idols even if it isn’t true. It is the same with every hollywood acrtess metnioning Marilyn Monroe as the best thing to happen to mankind. It is getting boring. Why doesn’t anyone mention Dame Judy Dench or Maggie Smith or I don’t know someone else?

    If her eye wasn’t so wonky that would be a gorgeous picture since I love her hair and the dress in this photo.

  41. Porsha says:

    Okay – so she is upset that she has no sex appeal and Scarlett Johansson is upset that she has sex appeal – oh well what to do

  42. Nicolette says:

    Why would anyone want to compare themselves to a walking punching bag such as Rihanna? Does Anne think busted lips and black eyes are “cool”?

  43. SayItIsn'tSo says:

    She is so phking ugly. With or without hair. Nasty. And the attitude doesn’t make it any better for her. Such a turn off.

  44. Shelly says:

    I think these Bazaar photos are gorgeous, but she is becoming increasingly annoying whenever she opens her mouth to speak.

  45. paranormalgirl says:

    I used to not be annoyed by her, now I am. Oh well.

  46. cve2 says:

    Everything she said is true. Except internet men think she’s fun.

    They think the crude rumor about herbedroom hijinks (her liking rear stuff) is true. Men are oinks.

  47. MM says:

    She’s getting kind of Tyra Banks-ian with all the false self-deprecation. Its like insert one self-aware sounding thing so that you seem “relateable”. It just gets fake when you’re constantly being self-deprecating. Also it seems like a sort of reverse compliment to herself by saying she’s not cool, yet comparing herself to Rihanna.

  48. Carolyn says:

    Anne’s PR campaign is suffering because she’s trying to be everthing to each target audience….and none of them are “buying” it. In reality she’s rather boring and mundae.

    Is she really expecting us to go “oh yes Anne you really are cool” in response to the quote comparing herself to Rhianna? Puhlease.

    Anne would get far more respect if she shut up and let her roles do the talking. Unless she’s forced into this campaign by her agent and whichever movie she’s representing….which is a different spin on it.

    • Carolyn says:

      oh now I get it. Anne has the same agent as Aniston. Huvane tried the same thing with her (hairstyle Jen, poor Jen, workout Jen, badgirl Jen and now fiance she finally found a man Jen) and now he’s doing the same thing with Anne. Zzzz…..

      I can’t help hoping (as others have said) that a dark-horse actress will run away with the Golden Globe and the Oscar for whatever category Anne is nominated for 🙂

  49. Velouria says:

    I can’t stand over bleached eyes and teeth (photoshop)

    You’d think Bazaar would do a better job at it than the head-shot gurus at Toddlers & Tiaras.