Anne Hathaway and her Eye Makeup of Doom cover the September issue of Allure. Anne is so pretty and her face can “take” a strong makeup look, but this is not the look. She looks like a drunk raccoon. Harsh but true, and also not her fault. Allure should have known better. Anne covers Allure because she’s hustling for The Last Thing He Wanted, adapted from the Joan Didion book of the same name and directed by Dee Rees (as of this writing, there’s still not a trailer). Anne chats about the movie, and her childhood and how the industry really does seem to be changing post-MeToo. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Learning how to make sushi: “Ordering sushi, all the containers, napkins…It would just be less expensive and less wasteful for me to do it at home.” Hathaway supports many eco- and environmentally friendly initiatives in the US and around the world. “I’ve been very lucky in life, and I just see this as my responsibility as a person with the time and means to do it.”
She grew up in a singing family: “My family sang constantly. I didn’t know that wasn’t normal until the seventh grade. One day a friend just sat me down and said, ‘I need to talk to you about the singing.’ I think there is no better way to express joy in a performance. Singing and dancing forces you to open yourself up to vulnerability. I don’t think anyone is expecting me to win a Grammy or anything, so I just kept my expectations realistic and did my best.”
She used to be more of a fighter: “I used to love to fight! It felt so good to fight and be right.” As anyone in a healthy relationship knows, an insistence on being right won’t last long in matters of love. Hathaway resisted. “You have those moments where you just want to grab them, like, Noooooo! I just want to be petty for a little bit longer.”
Her character in The Last Thing He Wanted: “I feel like something about working on The Last Thing He Wanted made my character so angry and so righteous. She’s not wrong for the reason she’s angry, but [it’s] taken over her life. Now she’s more angry than alive…. It had a big impact on me because anger is something that’s been a big part of my journey. Not necessarily neutralizing it, because anger is useful, but learning the whys of it. Learning how to ask, How does this serve me?”
They asked her to gain 20 pounds for the part: “At 16 years old, it was ‘Congratulations, you have the part. I’m not saying you need to lose weight. I’m just saying don’t gain weight.’ Which of course means you need to lose weight. So I had that, then 20 years later I have Ane Crabtree [costume designer for The Last Thing He Wanted] asking me what my body does on my moon — which I realized meant my period — so she can make adjustments for me. It was just this beautiful thing. I am cautious in my praise of how Hollywood is shifting. There is so much more body inclusivity — which is great! — but the thin thing is definitely still the centralized ‘normal’ expectation.”
She thinks things are improving in Hollywood: “It’s more nuanced, and it’s more interesting. It’s allowed for more interesting characters and stories. Now the big question is are audiences appreciating it? If it’s not supported, it won’t continue. It will go back to the way it was, and people will say, ‘Okay, that didn’t work.’ ”
It me: “I used to love to fight! It felt so good to fight and be right.” I still haven’t gotten to the point where I see the wisdom in being “mature” and not fighting. No, that’s not true – I leave things unsaid a lot because I don’t want to fight with certain people, but I’m still absolutely up for a GOOD fight some days. Some days I’m just hoping that someone says the wrong word to me so I can unleash.
As for the costume designer “asking me what my body does on my moon — which I realized meant my period — so she can make adjustments for me…” Wow, that’s amazing. I guess I never realized that a costume designer would have to think about “oh, this actress is bloated because she’s PMSing” or “she’s got her period so she went up a cup size.” Imagine that, women in power taking care of other women.
Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of Allure.
I’m in the fighting phase still, probably because I held it back for too long.
I love Anne Hathaway however I do still like to fight. I have ppl in my life who say stupid shit who need to be corrected. The eye makeup was a bad idea they could’ve done better.
I was also in the fighting phase for a long time myself. It felt better being RIGHT but I’ve grown over the years and realized it isnt always about being right but knowing when to just let it go and move on.
I have concluded that I would rather be happy than right. Life is too short to waste it fighting, especially with those I really care about. (And if I don’t really care about them, then what difference does it make if they have some stupid *wrong* opinion?) It just doesn’t matter. There’s more to life than being right.
I learned that it’s equally important to learn to be wrong, you can’t always be right. Seeing things from someone else’s perspective and a knowing that there can be more than one right to any wrong.
As an A cup, I love when I’m pmsing and my “moon” boobs come in. Lol.
Maybe a bit off topic, but I see a gender angle to fighting that’s become v important to me. Fighting is so draining but is sometimes necessary, esp as a woman when others too often encroach on our boundaries, physical, emotional, professional etc. I take it as another tax I have to pay to be treated fairer than I otherwise would be. I say this to encourage younger women, or any of us afraid of conflict, that sometimes fighting is the only option, and not to be dissuaded by the backlash, the “nasty woman” critiques — that’s a type of gaslighting, also a power move to keep us in our place. I no longer care if encroachers don’t like me (that took work); I care about protecting myself from them. I will say too tho, that learning to fight is something I’m always working on, when and how to speak up for myself strategically, in order to have the effect I want. Since Kavanaugh and the clear war on women we’re living through, I also feel a responsibility to do this on behalf of other women, esp at work. And btw — some of the worst people I’ve had to deal w have been other women, so it’s the patriarchy, not gender per se we have to fight against.
This part is gold “it’s the patriarchy, not gender per se that we have to fight against.”
I had a female manager that was the most outright sexist person that I’ve worked with & seeing how she treated the male boss plus other women was sick (ps- male boss lapped it up).
Oh, I was thinking I didn’t like to fight but put her in a ring with me and watch the sparks fly!
Yes, I’m dealing w a woman like this at work now. Awful, just awful… I’m actually finding some great male allies in it all, tho, which has been v helpful, and healing. Good luck to you!
I’m in my early 30s. I used to fight it out in my late teens and 20s and something just kind of shifted in me a few years ago where I realised I just don’t have the energy or the desire to argue anymore. I still get angry at people sometimes, but more often than not, I now react to those situations by “not reacting”. A friend says something snarky to me? I just reply “okay” and move along. I’ve also found that my desire to be around people who are trying to antagonize me (or at least seem like they are) disappears and I just stop speaking to those people.
I’m not saying it’s the RIGHT way to react by any means, it’s just a weird thing I have noticed about myself the past few years.
ETA I just realised that this could also be a symptom of the anxiety I started having a couple of years ago.
I think picking our battles is key. Fighting w annoying people who can’t or won’t listen, and/or just want to get a rise out of us, and esp if they don’t impact us unless we allow them to, then I agree, winning is walking away. But people who trespass in some way, literally or metaphorically, then I guess we still have to decide whether to fight to protect ourselves or walk away. Right now, I’m choosing to fight, but I could also see walking away, and finding other pastures at some point.
Really interesting point too re the link to anxiety. I hadn’t thought of that before, but have been feeling more anxious as well. One more thing — meditation has been helping me a lot! That and eating, sleeping, exercising well… Hang in tho, it can be tough out there…
Yeah, I agree about picking battles. I guess I’ve just been finding very few battles that are “worth” me getting involved in, I guess? It’s super weird because It’s completely opposite to how I used to be.
And thank you for your kind words! I actually finally went to my doc a week ago and was like “look, I need help”, so I am just starting some medication that will hopefully help the anxiety. I never, ever had it throughout my whole life until I was like 29 or 30 years old, maybe, but man, does it ever make up for the lost years!
Fighting to be right, is wanting to be heard.
Picking a fight, is wanting to be seen.
Fighting for the joy of fighting, is wanting to give unresolved painful emotions direction and meaning.
Fighting for you, for everything you are and the right to be who you are amongst everybody on this planet, is the only fighting you really should be doing.
With age I’ve learned that some situations need responding, and others need reacting.
Queen AnnE!
I was in the fighting phase for years until i met my current and thought he was mature. Turned out I should have faught him the hardest!