In an interview with V magazine, the Oscar winner opened up about her early years in the business and how she felt the need to put up with questionable practices if she wanted to work.
“About 20 years ago, it was considered normal to ask an actor to push themselves with other actors to test chemistry, which is actually the most inappropriate way to do it,” Hathaway, 41, said.
“They told me: ’10 guys came today for the casting and you were chosen. Aren’t you excited?” she recalled. “And I wondered if there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t excited.”
Hathaway said she’s acutely aware of how easy it is to lose everything by being labeled “difficult”: “So I just pretended to be excited and carried on.”
The Princess Diaries star, who didn’t cite any movies by name, noted that that’s just how things worked back then.
“It wasn’t a power play, nobody was trying to be mean or hurt me,” she said. “It was a very different time and it’s better now.”
Hathaway is now starring in and producing her new film, The Idea of You, which means she has a say in how the casting process works.
In the film, Hathaway plays a 40-year-old single mother who falls in love with a much younger singer. However, the Devil Wears Prada star said she didn’t need to kiss a bunch of 20-something men to find her perfect co-star.
Instead of exchanging saliva, the actress asks each actor at the audition to sing a song, writes Edna.bg.
