- Anne Hathaway told Vanity Fair that "The Dark Knight Rises" was her physically toughest movie role.
- She said Christopher Nolan, the director, asked her to do almost every stunt in the film.
Anne Hathaway told Vanity Fair that Christopher Nolan gave her the toughest role on her résumé, but also saved her career during the "Hathahate" scandal.
Appearing on Vanity Fair's YouTube series "Scene Selection," Hathaway said it was a dream to play Catwoman in "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012 because she grew up loving Michelle Pfeiffer's portrayal of the character.
But at the start of production, Nolan, the film's Oscar-winning director, had a special request for Hathaway.
"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,'" Hathaway said. "'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.'"
"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," Hathaway said.
Hathaway's performance was one of the many highlights of "The Dark Knight Rises," which earned $1 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The performance won over Nolan, too, since he cast Hathaway to star in his next film, "Interstellar."
In a cover interview for Vanity Fair, Hathaway said the "Interstellar" role kept her career in motion at a crucial time. In the early 2010s, Hathaway faced a social media backlash, branded as "Hathahate," over the perception that the actor was being fake nice.
Hathaway told Vanity Fair that the backlash cost her roles, even after she won her first Oscar in 2013.
"I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I've had in one of the best films that I've been a part of," Hathaway said. "I don't know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect. And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn't backed me."
The gamble paid off. "Interstellar" was a success, making $733 million at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo. Hathaway went on to appear in major Hollywood productions such as "Ocean's 8" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass."
Now "Hathahate" is over, and Hathaway is having a comeback: appearing as the lead in the upcoming rom-com, "The Idea of You," and leading another drama, "Mother's Instinct," opposite Jessica Chastain later this year.
"Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through," Hathaway told Vanity Fair. "The key is to not let it close you down."