Editor’s note: “She Came to Me” received an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA, allowing the promotion of the film while adhering to current strike rules
Anne Hathaway has been acting professionally since she was a teenager. And yet, she’s pretty sure she’s only scratched the surface of what she can and wants to do in her career.
In her new film “She Came to Me,” written and directed by Rebecca Miller and in theaters now, Hathaway stars as a therapist-turned-wife to Peter Dinklage’s character, an opera composer. But, by the end of the film, Patricia (Hathaway) is a therapist-turned-nun, who answered what she felt was her higher calling.
Tack that onto the other roles she’s played — a princess (later a queen) in “The Princess Diaries,” Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” an astronaut in “Interstellar,” to name a few — Hathaway has gotten a lot of variety on screen. So, what remains on her list of hopes?
“I know this sounds maybe disingenuous, but it is genuine, it is really how I feel. I feel like I’m just getting started,” Hathaway said.
It may sound odd, considering she’s starred in more than 30 movies and multiple TV series at this point, but for Hathaway, her catalogue has served as her education up to this point.
“I did not go to an acting school. I didn’t audition for any, so I didn’t get rejected from any, but also, my path to feeling — my path to my craft, I guess, has been through the workplace,” she explained. “And I very very, very consciously, with the help of my amazing, amazing team, including my manager, who I’ve been with since I was 16 years old, have wanted to — the M.O. has always been: choose the most interesting parts, with the best directors that’ll have you.”
She continued, “And in that way you will expand your range, you will learn how a set works, you’ll just become a flexible, nimble, imaginative, hopefully free actor.”
Hathaway added that her latest role in “She Came to Me” was “so essential to that” process, and she’s more excited about acting than ever.
“So I can’t help but think that like everything! There’s everything left to do,” she said.
Hathaway particularly loved how her character in “She Came to Me” largely struggled because “the thing about Patricia is she has the misunderstanding that she is in control. And I think a lot of people relate to that.”
“That’s one of the things that I love about movies like this in particular, because I need movies like this,” Hathaway explained. “And especially when I was growing up, trying to make sense of all the different parts of myself, a movie where I could see an actual human being up there on screen, let alone several, let alone beautifully woven together in a romantic operatic way. I mean, movies like this, especially growing up, made me feel so seen, and so excited, in my own way, about being a human being.”
“She Came to Me” is now in theaters. You can watch TheWrap’s full interview with Anne Hathaway and director Rebecca Miller here.