It's hard not to completely adore Anne Hathaway after watching her perform 'Wrecking Ball'
Anne Hathaway is back, and she came in like a wrecking ball.
In the April 9 episode of Spike TV's "Lip Sync Battle," Hathaway went against former co-star in "The Devil Wears Prada," Emily Blunt, in a performance of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" that came across as effortlessly fun and carefree.
This is not what people are used to from Hathaway, who in 2013, accepted the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Les Miserables" and stood on stage and softly said "it came true!" (a possible reference to the Les Mis song "I Dreamed a Dream") to seemingly no one but herself and the gold statue.
After that, it was hard to visit any website without finding a post about the unlikeable Hathaway. Though she is a wildly successful actress, the running theme of that Spring seemed to be comparing her to Jennifer Lawrence, who was somewhat of an "America's Sweetheart"-type after her breakout in "The Hunger Games."
Google the sentence "Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway" and you get pages upon pages of posts and essays written across the web, including a piece published in The New York Times in April 2013 entitled, "Do We Really Hate Anne Hathaway?"
"It's not really Anne Hathaway I 'hate,' " said Sarah Nicole Prickett, a writer for Vice and The New Inquiry, a culture and commentary site. "It's all the lesser, real-life Anne Hathaways I have known - princessy, theater-schooled girls who have no game and no sex appeal and eat raisins for dessert."
Ever since, Hathaway has been on a quiet mission to slowly change the narrative that was being constructed for her by the public. And Thursday night, just a little over two years after that article was published, Hathaway took the stage with "Lip Sync Battle" host LL Cool J to mouth along the words to Mary J. Blige's "Love."
This is not the same Hathaway we were hating on in 2013.
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Her carefree, fun-loving attitude is a 180 degree shift from what we'd probably expect. She looked like the kind of girl you want to invite to your next karaoke party because she'd help the shy guests feel comfortable enough to get up and sing.
This is an Anne Hathaway you enjoy watching, and not just for mean tweet fodder.
Even Chrissy Teigen enjoyed it.
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Then Emily Blunt fought back with her lip sync rendition of Blackstreet's "No Diggity."
Anne watched from the sidelines. So charming!
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Blunt gave Hathaway a run for her money. Anne even ran up on stage to "Kanye" Blunt as she was talking to LL Cool J (as if you could forget West's run in with Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs). And it was funny, for a joke that's nearly six years old.
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Then came round two, where Blunt gave a rousing performance of Janis Joplin's "Piece of my Heart."
But it was nothing compared to what Hathaway had in store.
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The crowd absolutely lost it. It was a risk! Two years ago, we would have probably hated it. It would have been too theatrical, or too try-hard, or simply, just too much.
But inexplicably, it was a perfect move for Hathaway, who seems to have played a very active role in turning her reputation around.
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Hathaway won Thursday night's episode of "Lip Sync Battle," and more importantly, she might have also won back all of our hearts.
Here's the full video: