Anne Hathaway Rewatches The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada & More | Vanity Fair

[Anne gasping]

- Who are you?

- Sorry, I just have to pause.

Just so you understand,

all of you have seen this movie

way more recently than I have.

It's been, if not over a decade,

maybe two decades since I've seen this movie.

So this is like, this is amazing.

Hello, I'm Anne Hathaway,

and today I will be rewatching scenes

from throughout my career.

[upbeat music]

[tape clicking]

[electronic whirring]

- You're late.

- I know, I'm really sorry about it.

- And where is Paolo?

- Send in Paolo.

[Paolo speaking Italian]

- We're so pleased you could make yourself

available to be here.

- I'm sorry, I just have to pause there,

and say how radiant is Julie Andrews?

I was 17 years old when we made this,

and so I hadn't met as many people yet in my life.

And so I knew Gary Marshall was really special,

and I knew Julie Andrews was really special.

But now sitting here watching this from this point of view,

they're two of the most magical people I have ever met.

This was the film that changed my life.

Like it's so weird to watch it.

I haven't seen this movie in maybe 20 years,

and it's a little,

I'm a little bit speechless with this one.

This is, it's actually, it's very emotional to see it.

- [Paolo laughing] Like a wolf.

[dramatic music]

- Ow.

- It's all right [Paolo laughing],

[brush cracking]

- So he really had to break the brush in this.

They pre-broke the brush,

and it was supposed to break kind of easily,

but it didn't quite happen [Anne laughing].

So that's me and Larry kind of improving,

trying to get it to go.

And I don't remember if the ow was real

or if I was just buying him some time.

But the brush was being stubborn that day.

- Take this and this,

and give you!

- [Both] A princess.

[ethereal music]

- I don't know what to say.

It's like it's almost too big to,

it just, it felt so big at the time,

and it wound up being so big,

and it's kind of just gotten bigger

as my life has progressed.

So this is total fusion of life and work,

and all the things,

and I'm just so proud to be in this movie.

I'm really glad that I'm that girl right there.

[upbeat music]

[tape clicking]

[electronic whirring]

- This is foul.

Don't let her see it.

- That's-

- Go!

[Anne laughing]

- Emily is so brilliant in this movie.

I mean, period, but like, also she's just like,

let's see [gasps].

- Who are you?

- Sorry, I just have to pause.

Just so you understand,

all of you have seen this movie

way more recently than I have.

It's been, if not over a decade, maybe two decades

since I've seen this movie.

So this is like, this is amazing.

Yeah, I came to New York to be a journalist,

and sent letters out everywhere

and then finally got a call from Elias-Clarke

and met with Sherry up at Human Resources,

and basically it's this our Auto Universe.

- So you don't read "Runway."

- I was there the first time Meryl walked into that set,

and I saw the way she respected the work

of our production designer,

but also like crafted it into something

that felt more the way she saw the character,

and I just, I was such a sponge around her.

I just wanted to absorb everything.

The way she did it.

Look at that wig.

Oh my god, Roy J. Helland, who is the next, like,

next level at his craft.

- You have no style or sense of fashion.

- Well, um.

- And just look at my wonderful costume [Anne laughing].

I mean, I know the costumes wind up becoming more glamorous,

but I have to say that is post grad frump

gorgeousness right there.

I remember thinking the corduroy,

the corduroy of the jacket felt like the right choice,

and I knew that that color sweater,

the kind of bruised lilac

wasn't the most flattering on me. [Anne laughing]

So yeah, wait, sorry, I'm taking up too much time.

Oh my gosh, reminiscing is fun.

- That wasn't a question.

- Um, I was Editor in Chief of The Daily Northwestern.

- She's being very brave right now.

- I also won a national competition

for a college journalist

with my series on the janitors union,

which exposed the exploitation of.

- That's all.

- [Interviewer] When you were shooting this film,

did you have any sense for how huge it would become?

- Yeah, I did, I did.

Not as huge as it's become,

but I just had, it had a magnetic quality to me

that I had to be a part of it.

Not this though, not the way

that it's just sort of woven into the culture now,

and it's become such a touchstone for so many people.

I didn't realize it was gonna have

such a lasting impression,

so I didn't realize it was gonna leave such a legacy.

[upbeat music]

[tape clicking]

[electronic whirring]

[dramatic music]

[Anne gasping]

I'm so sorry.

- I remember every second.

I remember every second of all of this,

but I remember every second of this.

- It is Mr. Wayne, isn't it?

- I'm so thrilled I'm in this movie.

- You wouldn't beat up a woman

anymore than I would beat up a cripple.

[Anne laughing]

- Oh, that's such a good edit.

- Sometimes exceptions have to be made.

- Oh, I worked so hard on this back flip.

- Goodnight, Mr. Wayne.

- Christopher Nolan came to me

at the beginning of production, and he said,

I'd like you to train very hard for this.

It has nothing to do with anything

except that I would like you to do

as many of your stunts as possible,

as much of the fighting, anything that, you know,

isn't like a ridiculously special skillset

like riding the Batpod, I want to be you.

And I want you to be able to do it every single take,

which, and sometimes we film these sequences for three days,

and I said, sign me up, no problem.

And so I went straight to the gym, and up to this point,

this was the hardest I'd ever trained for a role physically.

[dramatic music]

[footsteps crunching gravel]

Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman

was everything to me growing up.

So when I found out that there was a chance

for someone of my generation to play this,

to play Selina Kyle,

I was just like, I don't. [Anne exhaling deeply]

And with Christopher Nolan,

and this franchise

that was so unlike anything that had ever been.

I wanted to do her justice.

And it's kind of cool to see it

right after those first two roles

where I was playing such kind of younger women

who were a little insecure and unsure of themselves.

They're stuttering a little bit more,

and to see the scene begin that, and then that oops happens.

- Oops, nobody told me it was uncrackable.

- I'm kind of amazed that this happened,

and that that's me, that's really cool.

[upbeat music]

[tape clicking]

[electronic whirring]

♪ There was a time love when was blind ♪

♪ and the world was a song ♪

♪ and the song was exciting. ♪

- I just feel really bad for her.

So my mother played this part,

and we were talking about it,

just the song and the interpretation,

and I told her that I sort of imagined,

you know, when you're watching a match go out,

and you just hope it stays a light, but it shrinks

and you just want it to hold on but it doesn't?

That's what this song is for me.

It's the extinguishing of a flame,

which is just so sad.

So when I see that I'm watching someone's life

like drain out of them.

So it's just, it's hard to watch.

♪ There are dreams that cannot be ♪

♪ And there are storms we cannot weather ♪

- The thing that was so magical about singing live

is that you're in some ways the conductor

and the performer at the same time.

Like right at the end you can see

I kind of held some emotion come up,

and I took a few extra breaths.

If you're on stage or in maybe a larger number

or if you're doing it to a track,

you have to decide all of those things in advance.

And so a spontaneous thing occurring like that,

it might not make it into the movie.

And so being able to do it live

allowed us a certain amount of emotional freedom.

It also demanded quite a lot of technical precision.

I found the process fascinating.

You know, it was hard,

but that's the kind of hard that you pray for.

♪ I had a dream, my life would be ♪

♪ So different from this hell I'm living ♪

- Russell Crowe was such an important part of the process

'cause he would have us over on Friday nights,

and we would sing in front of each other.

And that was such a huge part of breaking down nervousness

and fear and us getting used to just being this film family,

this cast, this ensemble

where singing was just as normal as talking.

I don't know that they've done a live sung musical since.

It had never been attempted before.

So, I don't know.

We went through something really beautiful.

[upbeat music]

[tape clicking]

[electronic whirring]

- This is a surprise.

- I did some online sleuthing for a Solène of Silver Lake

and well, I have this very large empty flight in London

that desperately needs some artwork.

So I was thinking maybe you could,

- Okay, um.

- I'm wearing vintage Chanel in this,

and that purple on the top

became such an essential thread to my character

because she is a gallery owner.

And so she really responds

like in an almost psychedelic way to color.

And that color like led me through finding her.

So much of this movie is about a woman's bloom

at a stage in her life where she's,

I mean, where women are often told that we're going to dull,

but actually she opens and learns more.

And so the color palette in this movie was so important.

And anyway, I'm just really enjoying seeing it.

So these pieces were thrown

by a fantastic potter we work with called Susan Habel.

- Mmm, she threw them at the wall?

- Mm, no, she,

that's what they call it when they do the work on the wheel.

It's called throwing.

- Right.

- Right.

- This was the audition scene.

We met with amazing, amazing actors for this role.

And Nick kind of had the part

from the second he just walked in.

He just was, he just, he was just it.

He was everything we needed.

We needed such a specific talent for this.

Like the movie needed it.

He needed to be able to sing, act, dance.

He needed to be charming.

You needed to, I mean, he was just,

I just, we're so lucky that Nick Galitzine is here.

[upbeat music]

[tape clicking]

I'm proud.

I'm not someone who spends a lot of time

looking back or reflecting.

I work really hard to be present

and to look at like kind of what's coming.

So this has actually been a joy,

and I'm really proud to have a filmography

that makes me so happy and brings me so much pride.

That's lovely.

Thanks for watching.