Her acting style has been compared to that of
Judy Garland and
Audrey Hepburn[3] and she cites Hepburn as her favorite actress
[4] and Streep as her idol.
[5] People magazine named her one of 2001's breakthrough stars.
Hathaway was born November 12, 1982 .in
Brooklyn, New York, to Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. The family moved to
Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old.
[8] She was named after the
wife of playwright
William Shakespeare. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly
Irish and
French ancestry, with more distant
German and
Native American roots.
[9]
Hathaway was raised a
Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood.
[8][10] However, at the age of fifteen she decided not to become a nun after learning that her brother Michael was
gay.
[10] Despite her Catholic upbringing, she felt that she could not be part of a religion that disapproved of her brother's sexual orientation. She has stated that she is a non-denominational Christian.
[10]As a child, Hathaway was involved in a
Montessori program as a preschooler and was then able to enter first grade while she was technically still a kindergartner.
[11] Hathaway graduated from
Millburn High School where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a New Jersey Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress. During this time period Hathaway was also involved in plays such as Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Papermill Playhouse.
[12] 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.
[13] She referred to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to "grow up."
[14] Hathaway was a member of the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program and was the first teenager ever admitted into the program.
[15] She is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers performing on stage to film roles.
[8] A
soprano, Hathaway performed in 1998 and in 1999 with the All Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange. Three days after her 1999 performance at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived FOX television series
Get Real at age sixteen.
[16]Hathaway made her film debut in the Garry Marshall-directed The Princess Diaries (2001). It was generally well received by critics.
Hathaway's first role in a motion picture was as Jean Sabin in
The Other Side of Heaven opposite
Christopher Gorham. Before production of Heaven began in New Zealand, she auditioned for the lead role of Mia Thermopolis in the
Garry Marshall-directed
The Princess Diaries. Hathaway auditioned for the role during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand and won the role after only one audition. Marshall claimed that he loved her immediately because she fell off her chair during the audition and believed her clumsiness would make her perfect for the role.
[4] (However, in a 2008 conversation with
Steve Carell, Hathaway denied that she fell during this audition, although she openly admits to being a "klutz".)
[2] The Princess Diaries was released before The Other Side of Heaven in the hopes that its success would increase interest in Heaven. Across the world, The Princess Diaries was a commercial success,
[17] and a
sequel was planned shortly thereafter. Many critics praised Hathaway's performance in Diaries; a
BBC critic noted that "Hathaway shines in the title role and generates great chemistry."
[18] The Other Side of Heaven was received weakly by critics, but it performed well for a religious-themed film.
[19][20]
In February 2002, Hathaway starred opposite
Brian Stokes Mitchell in the
City Center Encores! concert production of
Carnival! in New York City, receiving positive reviews for her portrayal of Lili. Also in 2002, Hathaway began voicing the audio book releases of
The Princess Diaries and has since voiced the first three books of the series. She also provided the voice of the character Haru in the English version of Hiroyuki Morita's
The Cat Returns.
[21]Hathaway continued to appear in family-oriented films over the next three years and subsequently became known in mainstream media as a children's role model.
[22] In 2002, she appeared in
Nicholas Nickleby opposite
Charlie Hunnam and
Jamie Bell, which opened to positive reviews; the
Northwest Herald referred to it as "an unbelievably fun film,"
[23] and the
Deseret News said that the cast was "Oscar-worthy."
[24] Despite critical acclaim, the film never entered wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than
US$4 million in ticket sales.
[25] Hathaway's next film role was as the titular character in
Ella Enchanted (2004), the film adaptation of the novel, which opened to mostly indifferent reviews.
[26][27] Hathaway sang two songs in the film as well as three on the soundtrack.
In 2004, Hathaway was set to star opposite
Gerard Butler in
The Phantom of the Opera, but was forced to turn down the role due to the movie having a production schedule that overlapped with that of
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which she was contractually obligated to make.
[13] Disney began production on The Princess Diaries 2 in early 2004 and it was released in August of that year. The film opened to negative reviews, but still managed to peak higher at the box office than its predecessor, commissioning $95.1 million against a $40 million budget.
[28]Hathaway began appearing in more dramatic roles after The Princess Diaries 2. She said that "anybody who was a role model for children needs a reprieve,"
[14] although she also noted that "it's lovely to think that my audience is growing up with me", a reference to her previous status as a children's actress.
[22] She voiced
Little Red Riding Hood in
Hoodwinked!, which received generally positive reviews. That same year, Hathaway starred in the R-rated
Havoc (2005), in which she played a spoiled socialite. In a surprise move, Hathaway was featured in several nude and sexual scenes throughout the film. Despite the content of the movie being radically different from her previous films, Hathaway denied that her role in the film was a blatant attempt to be seen as more of an adult actress, citing her belief that doing nudity in certain movies is merely a part of what her chosen form of art demands of her, and because of that belief she does not consider appearing nude in the appropriate films to be morally objectionable.
[29] After Havoc, she appeared opposite
Heath Ledger and
Jake Gyllenhaal in the drama
Brokeback Mountain, in a role that further displayed a more serious side of Hathaway. Havoc was not released in theaters in the United States (but was later released in other countries) because of its weak critical reception,
[30] but Brokeback Mountain won rave reviews for its depiction of a
homosexual relationship in the 1960s, and received several Academy Award nominations.
[31] Hathaway would later assert that the content of Brokeback Mountain was more important than its award count and also stated that making the film made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actress.
[32]Hathaway's next film was the 2006 comedy
The Devil Wears Prada, in which she starred as an assistant to a powerful
fashion magazine editor portrayed by
Meryl Streep, whom Hathaway described as being "just divine."
[8] Hathaway said that working on the film earned her respect in the fashion industry, but she claims that her personal style is something she "can't get right" and instead prefers "doing the things she loves."
[15]In an interview with
Us Weekly, Hathaway spoke about her weight loss for the film, stating, "I basically stuck with fruit, vegetables and fish (to slim down for the movie). I wouldn’t recommend that.
Emily Blunt and I would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry."
[33]Hathaway was initially cast in the 2007 comedy
Knocked Up but dropped out before filming began and was replaced by
Katherine Heigl. Writer/director
Judd Apatow stated in a May 2007 issue of The New York Times Magazine that Hathaway dropped out "because she didn't want to allow us to use real footage of a woman giving birth to create the illusion that she is giving birth."
[34] In an August 2008 interview with
Marie Claire magazine, Hathaway commented that she "didn't believe that it was necessary to the story."
[35]Hathaway was next seen in the 2007 drama
Becoming Jane, in which she portrayed English writer
Jane Austen.
[32] Also in 2007, Hathaway performed a selection from the musical
Saturday Night for Stephen Sondheim's 75th Birthday and ASCAP Foundation Concert.
Tim Burton considered Hathaway for the part of Johanna in his 2007 film
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, but in the end the role was given to
Jayne Wisener, a then-unknown actress, reportedly because Burton decided he wanted an unknown actress for the part.
Hathaway's first film of 2008 was a
modern adaptation of the 1960s
Mel Brooks television series
Get Smart, in which she starred opposite
Steve Carell,
Dwayne Johnson, and
Alan Arkin. The film was a hit at the box office and received mostly positive reviews, prompting talk of a sequel. She also made a cameo appearance in the corresponding film
Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control. In October 2008, she premiered the drama
Passengers, alongside Patrick Wilson, as well as the drama
Rachel Getting Married, opposite Debra Winger. Rachel Getting Married premiered at the 2008 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals and has generated Oscar buzz as well as a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Kym. Hathaway stated that the film appealed to her because of its real depiction of relationships and because of the strong emotional connection she felt with her character.
[36]Hathaway has finished filming the comedy
Bride Wars, in which she will star with
Kate Hudson. The film is scheduled to be released on January 9, 2009. She appeared with Hudson on the February/March 2008 cover of Modern Bride, despite her admission that she is "not the type of girl who dreams about her wedding."
[37] Her future projects include a film adaptation of the Julie Buxbaum novel
The Opposite of Love, a
Tim Burton-directed
adaptation of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass alongside
Helena Bonham Carter and
Johnny Depp, and the romantic comedy The Fiance, in which she will play a woman who ends her engagement only to have her overzealous parents try to get her back together with her ex.
[38]In January 2008, Hathaway joined beauty giant
Lancôme as the face of their fragrance Magnifique.
[39] In October of that year, Hathaway hosted
Saturday Night Live, with musical guest
The Killers.
Hathaway is involved with various charities including The Creative Coalition, The StepUp Women's Network, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The Human Rights Campaign, and The Lolipop Theatre Network, an organization that screens films to critically ill children. In 2008, she was honored at Elle Magazine's "Women in Hollywood" Tribute and has also been honored for her work with The StepUp Women's Network and The Human Rights Campaign.
In early 2007, Hathaway spoke of her experiences with
depression during her teenage years, and said that she eventually overcame the disorder without medication.
[40] In a fall 2008 appearance on the
Late Show with David Letterman, Hathaway noted that she had once again stopped smoking. The actress, who had begun smoking “heavily” while filming
Rachel Getting Married, had "quit for a while", but had started again in the wake of her stressful summer and the end of her relationship with Raffaello Follieri.
[41][42] [43] She credited the decline in her stress level to her quitting smoking. She also declared her return to being a vegetarian.
[43]As of November 2008, Hathaway is reportedly in a relationship with actor
Adam Shulman.
[44]In regard to personal strife and subsequent media attention, Hathaway's self-subscribed
mantra is a quote by
Oscar Wilde: "The less said about life's sores the better."
[45]
In 2004, Hathaway began a relationship with Italian real estate developer
Raffaello Follieri.
[8][46] During their relationship, Hathaway took part in the development of the charitable Follieri Foundation, serving as a financial donor as well as a member of the foundation's board of directors until 2007.
[47] A Manhattan-based charity founded in 2003 focusing on programs such as providing vaccinations for children in Third-World nations, the organization had come under investigation in early June 2008 by the
IRS, reportedly for failing to file tax papers required from non-profit organizations.
[48] Citing the fear that this and other ongoing legal issues involving Follieri would become detrimental to her acting career, as well as for her own ethical reasons, Hathaway ended her relationship with Follieri in mid-June 2008.
[47]Follieri was arrested in June 2008 on fraud charges for allegedly fleecing investors out of millions of dollars in a
scheme involving purchasing Catholic properties in the U.S. for re-development. Court papers state that Hathaway was an unwitting beneficiary of the stolen money which had in large part paid for Follieri's opulent lifestyle of jet-setting, shopping sprees and fine dining.
[49] It was reported that the
FBI had confiscated Hathaway's private journals from Follieri's New York City apartment as part of their ongoing investigation into Follieri's activities; however, Hathaway was never implicated in any wrongdoing from the events.
[50]In the October 2008 issue of W Magazine, Hathaway spoke for the first time of the break-up and Follieri's subsequent arrest. She related that she "spent a week in shock" after Follieri's arrest, and credited the kindness of friends to her ability to keep working during such difficult times.
[51]more
n 1999, she played three roles that raised her profile outside the UK: She was the ill-fated "Perfect Girl" dropped by Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, appeared as Esther in the American TV mini-series Noah's Ark, and was Angelina, the star of the film-within-a-film, in the upscale slasher flick Scream 3.
n 1999, she played three roles that raised her profile outside the UK: She was the ill-fated "Perfect Girl" dropped by Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, appeared as Esther in the American TV mini-series Noah's Ark, and was Angelina, the star of the film-within-a-film, in the upscale slasher flick Scream 3.
