14 DAY TRIAL // 2013 proved an amazing year for actress Anne Hathaway, because she didn’t just get commercial success but also attained critical recognition, winning an Oscar for her beautiful role in “Les Miserables.” The backlash that followed after her Oscar campaign was just as harsh as the praise had been warm, forcing her to take some time off.
Thinking “people needed a break from me,” Anne stopped doing interviews and appearances, focused on whatever work projects she’d already said yes to and mostly spent time with her new husband Adam Shulman, whom she’d married only months before the Oscar madness began.
When it comes to speaking about learning the hard way what a thin line there is between love and hate in showbiz, there’s no better person than Anne.
Fame came too soon, too much
Even those who start in the industry dreaming of the day when they’ll be famous and everyone will know their face and scream their name, admit that there comes a point when they realize it’s too much. Anne is one of them: in her new interview with Elle UK, to promote Chris Nolan’s upcoming “Interstellar” film, she looks back on the previous year and almost can’t believe it happened to her.
She’s not a hypocrite to claim that she doesn’t like being famous or that she’s not happy she’s so popular that she must get thousands of movie offers a week, but she does say that she’s discovered there is truth to the saying “too much of a good thing can be bad.”
“This fame thing? [Messed] me up for a really long time. I didn’t know how to do it; I didn’t know how to engage with it; it stressed me out. And people would say, ‘You just have to be yourself,’ and I was like, ‘But I don’t know who that is yet!’” the actress explains for the magazine.
So after the awards season and the Oscars, she allowed herself to slip off the radar, getting to spend the next year with her husband, doing “normal” things, and not being a celebrity.
Break’s over, Chris Nolan came calling
All that said, Anne is ready to jump back in the saddle. She may have taken some time off from the spotlight, but she didn’t stop working – and one of the projects she’s been shooting is the upcoming thriller from famous writer / director Christopher Nolan, who also directed her in “The Dark Knight Rises,” the third and last installment in his Batman franchise.
In “Interstellar,” Hathaway plays an astronaut who is sent on a mission to find another habitable planet for humankind, before it becomes extinct. The Earth is dying.
Joining her are fresh Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Makenzie Foy, Ellen Burstyn, Casey Affleck, John Lithgow and Wes Bentley. The movie is bound to be a hit with fans and critics, as most of all Nolan films are.
Reviews of footage screened at various film and fan conventions describe it as “epic,” a “masterpiece,” a visual feat like only he can dream of accomplishing. We’ll see if they’re accurate starting November 7, when “Interstellar” opens in theaters worldwide – but it was definitely enough for Hathaway to come out of self-imposed “retirement.”