Anne Hathaway has both been universally loved and universally hated. But was there really a reason why everyone had turned on her during the 2010s? Let’s debunk. Anne Hathaway first came into public consciousness as a young teen acting in the classic princess movie, The Princess Diaries. The Princess Diaries had a lot of charm and heart, making Anne Hathaway a sweetheart to many and relatable to similar-aged teens and tweens at the time.
After The Princess Diaries came out, Anne Hathaway cemented herself as one to watch by landing the leading role in the indie cult classic The Devil Wears Prada. The Devil Wears Prada, based on a book of similar name, showcases a young woman working for an overbearing boss in the fashion industry. The overbearing boss in this case was played by Meryl Streep. The movie made such an impact because it showcased how challenging the fashion industry can be and how much work and energy one has to put in in order to climb the ladder to the top. It also really showcased how hard it can be for those just starting out and how grueling it can be to be someone’s intern or assistant. Finding your groove in your early career isn’t easy, and Anne’s portrayal of Andy at the time resonated with many young adults. The movie became an instant favorite among Millennials, and is also a movie that is still talked about in today’s pop culture world. The movie has timeless appeal and has been referenced (and has gained a resurgence) by Gen Z, who are now finding their footing in the corporate and creative spaces. When it came out, the movie cemented Anne Hathaway as a rising star. It proved that not only could Anne act in fun teen movies, but that she also had cross-over appeal to more sophisticated adult audiences as a young, growing professional actor.
Anne Hathaway was everywhere, but was that part of the backlash?
Because of this, Anne started getting gigs all over the place and became a staple of the pop culture conversation of the early and mid-aughts. She was in cute and sweet movies like Ella Enchanted and Becoming Jane. She was also in indie classics like Rachel Getting Married and intense dramas like Brokeback Mountain. Anne was not only someone that one watched and admired; she was also someone that many could relate to. She was someone that people wanted to be friends with. She had the best friend vibe-down pact, but she was also a really talented and good actress as well. Because of her rising stardom, she was often featured on the covers of a variety of magazines, including Vanity Fair, Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Harper Bazaar. She was invited to a multitude of events, including Paris Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, and more. She was the it girl of the late 2000s and early 2010s, and she was the one everyone wanted a piece of until they didn’t.
In the 2012, Anne Hathaway played a leading role in the musical Les Misérables. Les Misérables was a French musical centered around 19th-century France, and the poverty that the everyday French person experienced at a time where the gentry and nobility took everything and left nothing. Anne Hathaway portrayed a young woman named Fantine. This was a part where she plays a critical and crucial character in the film—the factory worker's daughter. She got to showcase not only her acting chops, but also her singing chops. This role was every theater kid's dream, which was especially compelling since Anne Hathaway had called herself a theater nerd for a while. Some people called her role and portrayal of Fantine magnificent. Others said it was lackluster. There was debate on whether the movie was worth its salt or just hype. Many people went out and saw it, selling it out week after week. It was an experience. It was a spectacle. It changed the game for her. The movie transcended Anne Hathaway by changing her life, putting her in another stratosphere. It also put her under an intense microscope. The movie was then nominated for several Oscars, including one for Anne Hathaway’s part as Fantine. Much to a lot of people’s surprise, she got it. It was a triumph. It was a celebration. It was a target.
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After Anne won the Oscar for her portrayal in Les Misérables, she was seen everywhere. She was on every morning show, every evening show, and every tabloid. Everyone wanted to know what she was wearing, what she was doing, and what part she was going to play. She was in commercials. She was the face of makeup companies, perfume companies’ fliers, and more. She was the moment. Until she wasn’t. In late 2013, people started to get tired of her. Really tired of her. People started to become really critical of her. People started to question whether or not she could really act. People questioned if she really deserved her Oscar, despite most critics agreeing that the role and her acting did deserve universal acclaim. It did not matter. The seeds of doubt served their purpose. They caused other people—a lot of people—to join in on the internet choir, and maybe Anne Hathaway was doing too much. Maybe she was too much in the spotlight. Maybe her accolades were not well deserved.
The pile-on became relentless around 2013–2015, to the point that Anne Hathaway effectively disappeared from the spotlight. She played small roles here and there. She was in Ocean’s 8, The Hustle with Rebel Wilson, and The Intern (one of my personal favorites), but she was not promoted or marketed in the same way that she had been before. She was not featured in complex roles or nail-biting dramas. Most likely in a way to preserve herself (and her sense of sanity), she made a choice around her career. She decided to opt out to risk further damage to her reputation and her health. She decided to go under the radar while other stars took over the spotlight. She chose herself and a quieter life, at least during that time period.
It is worth noting that these critiques (mainly found online) were not actually grounded in anything real. Most people cannot pinpoint the exact reason why everyone hated Anne Hathaway, or why the pile-on got to the point where she had to distance herself from Hollywood. There was no real reason why everyone was eager to put her down, especially when she was on such a meteoric rise. But it is a telling case of overexposure and how overexposure can ruin (or derail) a career before it even gets started. Overexposure is what happens when an audience becomes saturated with a certain celebrity. They are always doing the rounds on talk shows. They are always on your television screen on late-night shows. They are always in the latest movie. They are always in the gossip magazines or in commercials. When a celebrity is overexposed, it causes the audience to feel fatigue, almost as though the artist is infallible and also inescapable. This can cause frustration, anger, and annoyance with the artist or celebrity, which can lead to long-term negative feelings and criticism. Overexposed celebrities risk their reputation becoming misaligned, and risk having a more topsy-turvy career rather than one with steady longevity.
Anne Hathaway represents some of the earliest examples of modern 2000s celebrity overexposure. She was everywhere all at once, and that became too much for some people. Additionally, the incident also coincided with the early days of social media. In the early days of social media, there were no clear-cut or cut-and-dry rules. Yes, most people were using social media to share snippets of their everyday lives with their friends, but a lot of people were also using social media to gossip about celebrities. Celebrities and celeb-adjacent people have always seemed fair game to gossip about, as they are public figures, and many people say that's what they signed up for. That meant gossip sites and gossip communities that were formed during the time were oftentimes not moderated, toxic, uninformed, and eagerly waiting to take a celebrity down.
Additionally, the time period also represents an interesting and early case of internet group-think. Group-think happens when people conform to or accept an idea without vetting it or researching it because others in a particular group have already accepted the idea. We see this all the time online. If a conversation is controversial or promotes divisive opinions, people want to join in on the conversation more than if the conversation is mostly positive. People who may not have had much of an opinion on a subject want to join the discourse on the internet and add to the conversation. The discourse begins to take on a life of its own, for better or for worse.
When it comes to the Anne Hathaway case, the pile-on became relentless because of both group-think and overexposure. She was an easy person to drive discourse, even if she did not want to be part of the discussion. It was easy to attack her not only because of her high profile, but also because she was supposed to be 'relatable' to the mass of consumers and the target audience at the time. She was, in some sense, the girl next door. Although some people wanted to see her rise, many wanted her to know her place. To them, her place was in small films, indie films. Her place was working on small-budget movies, indie movies, and maybe a unique drama or two. They did not want to see her ascend. They did not want her to win an Oscar or reach another height of fame. The internet group-think wanted her to stay in her lane, and she didn’t. She wanted more. She deserved more.
Anne Hathaway, unfortunately, was not the only person who went through this. Jennifer Lawrence went through something similar after winning an Oscar—and tripping right before going on stage—for the movie Silver Lining Playbook. She went from a fan favorite for her portrayal of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series to someone who seemed ‘public’ and was ‘doing too much'. Katherine Heigl went through this after winning an Emmy for her role on Grey’s Anatomy. She wanted to pivot from the small screen to the big screen and center her acting around romantic comedies. However, the pivot never fully took hold as people in her close inner circle labeled her ‘difficult’, which made it harder for her to secure projects and led to her taking a brief career pause before re-emerging in the drama Firefly Lane on Netflix. Halle Berry was also someone who went through this in the early 2000s, where after her portrayal in Monster’s Ball, she was ridiculed, shamed, and cast aside. She was shamed for showing too much too soon, and she was rejected for prominent movie roles even though she had the brains, beauty, and skills to match.
All four women have managed to recover and make something more out of their careers, but it did take a long time for each to get back into the good graces of society and re-find their footing in the Hollywood industry. And they are not the only stars in entertainment to have their careers halted because of public discourse and public opinion. Stars from Brittany Spears to Amy Adams to Lea Michele to Brie Larson to Selena Gomez to Constance Wu also had to deal with different levels of intense public and media scrutiny, with people questioning their behavior, their thoughts, and all aspects of their lives.
Resurgent artists and celebrities are changing the narrative.
The resurgence of Anne Hathaway is interesting, as it does suggest that people can overcome overexposure and public criticism to have a second act and still make a change in their career on their own terms. The resurgence also signifies how attitudes and behaviors can shift over time and across generations. Those who hated Anne Hathaway in the past have grown up and focused their attention elsewhere. Those who find her previous work and movie projects charming and endearing now are the ones driving conversation. Many have softened their stance towards Anne, who has become a bit of a style icon and looks very secure in her skin. She is a wife and mother now, which probably helps her public image and perception of herself. Plenty of people are looking back to a decade ago and wondering why there was ever anything to hate in the first place.
Anne Hathaway, like the women mentioned before, is capitalizing on the resurgence by staring at a multitude of projects. IMDb shows Anne acting in several projects, including a rom-com drama based on the book The Idea of You. Anne is also set to star in The Lifeboat, an intense drama based on survival, and She Came To Me, a comedy about rediscovering one’s passions. Anne has also become somewhat of a style icon for the younger generation, who generally look favorably at and admire her. The rebrand also coincides with the proliferation of streaming. Many artists and actors have found a second life due to streaming. Netflix, Apple, and Amazon all have a glut of content that they are putting out and want well-known stars to host more of their ambitious projects. This is a win-win because the projects get some name recognition and the artists get to broaden their horizons, try new things, and connect with a new audience. This means actors and actresses who would be traditionally winding down their careers are finding a second life in capturing a new generation’s attention. They also get to tell the story of older, more mature women and men who have been increasingly forgotten on screen.
Now that she has a renewed sense of purpose in her career, Anne doesn’t have to focus on the past. And she shouldn’t. Very, very few celebrities go through their careers unscathed or without someone having to face some criticism from some person online. There are very few that come away without any incidents impacting their career. If anything, the situation with Anne Hathaway proves that you can have the last laugh, even in a fickle industry like Hollywood. Lucky for her, she is only in her forties, so she still has time to continue to build her resume and continue her amazing portfolio whether people like her or not.
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