'I'm not a good celebrity'
2007-08-03 12:08
Los Angeles - She has acted opposite stars
like Meryl Streep and in hit movies including Brokeback
Mountain, but for Anne Hathaway, the pressure of playing
British writer Jane Austen in film drama Becoming Jane was so great, she almost quit.
Hathaway, 24, is one of Hollywood's rising young stars who
mostly stays out of tabloid headlines dominated by the likes of
Lindsay Lohan and other troubled young celebrities. Her new
movie Becoming Jane opens in major US cities on Friday.
"A lot of people put pressure on me. I put a lot of
pressure on myself," Hathaway said in an interview. "There was
a time when I considered stepping away from the project because
I really didn't want to fail."
She stayed on, Hathaway said, because she felt she had more
to gain by overcoming her fears than walking away.
The actress became a teen sensation in 2001's The Princess
Diaries, displayed real acting talent as the wife of a gay man in Brokeback, and held her own as a plucky assistant to a wicked fashion editor (Streep) in The Devil Wears Prada.
Becoming Jane marks the first film in which her
popularity is the key draw.
For the movie, Hathaway had to master an English accent as
well as learn the history and customs of the late 18th century.
Further raising her anxiety was the fact Becoming Jane is a fictional tale of Austen's life.
The movie imagines Austen as a young woman falling in love
with a brash young man, Tom LeFroy, and it creates events that
audiences are led to believe could have shaped Austen's novels
such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.
Raising eyebrows
Taking liberties with history has raised eyebrows among
Austen purists, but Hathaway argues that little is known about
Austen's early years and what influenced her writing.
"The fact of the matter is no one can write the definitive
portrait of Jane Austen," she said. "The film says, these are
the influences, and whether her experience or imagination made
her a great writer, we'll never know."
Hathaway said she read Austen's novels as a 14-year-old,
and while they take place some 200 years ago, the stories'
themes are still relevant today.
"Her novels are unbelievably entertaining, but they also
ask some pointed questions about the lot of women in life,"
Hathaway said. "She had a mind of her own. She questioned the
world around her, and that is something very modern."
The actress was raised in New Jersey and when she was
young, dreamed of playing Broadway. She said she never thought
acting in Hollywood also would require being a celebrity.
But Hathaway has used fame to raise money and awareness for
causes supporting women and kids, among others.
Unlike Lohan or other Hollywood contemporaries, such as
Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, Hathaway described herself as
a "private person" who prefers to stay out of the limelight.
That changed in June when Los Angeles investor Ron Burkle
sued Hathaway's boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri, claiming
Follieri improperly used investment funds for personal
expenses.
Thankfully, that remained primarily a business scandal that
didn't draw her in, Hathaway said.
"I know I'm not a good celebrity," she said. "I'm boring and closed and probably seem very safe."
- Reuters