The movie Anne Hathaway is glad she never had to make: “I think of it as a lucky thing”
Many actors in Hollywood find themselves pining over movies they missed out on, coming to realise the depth of their mistake when a film they turned down actually hits the big time, cursing their judgment, sometimes forever, but not Anne Hathaway.
Acknowledging that you might not have been the best person for the job, regardless of the money or fame you might have missed out on, requires an astute understanding of one’s abilities, and to hear someone of Hathaway’s calibre admit that she made the right decision in not appearing in a blockbuster movie is a balm for sore ears.
The actor has appeared in plenty of hits over the years, ranging from beloved comedies like The Devil Wears Prada to musicals like Les Misérables, but in 2017, she signed onto a project that was potentially going to be her most ambitious yet: Barbie. You might be thinking, ‘Anne Hathaway? Surely that has always been Margot Robbie’s role?’, but before it ended up in the hands of the Australian star, Hathaway was ready to bring the Mattel doll to life. Well, that was after Amy Schumer dropped out of the part, which surely would’ve been a very different Barbie movie entirely.
So, with Hathaway on board, Sony began planning out the movie, which involved filmmaker Alethea Jones, but as things sometimes go in the industry, this version of Barbie just didn’t come to fruition. Why exactly remains a mystery, but the actor was hardly disappointed once the Greta Gerwig-helmed blockbuster emerged, because who else, really, could’ve played Barbie other than Robbie? She was basically born for the part.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hathaway revealed her excitement for the version that saw the light, stating, “What’s so exciting about what Greta and Margot and that phenomenal team [did] is they hit a bullseye. The bullseye caused the entire world to reach this level of ecstasy. Now imagine that version… that much energy, that much anticipation, that much emotion… but it’s not the right version. I actually think of it as a lucky thing.”
Certainly, Barbie reached unprecedented heights of cultural phenomena when it was released in 2023, with endless advertisements and brand partnerships emerging in the run-up to its release. You couldn’t go to a cinema without seeing a giant doll box propped up for movie-goers to pose in, while swathes of fans donned pink to go and see the film, battling it out with Christopher Nolan’s polar-opposite blockbuster Oppenheimer, which was released on the same day.
“Margot is sublime. What she is doing as a creative person and a producer is so exciting and inspiring,” said Hathaway, “The mythic giants they toppled that have kept certain narratives in place that have not allowed opportunities to develop for so many people… they ran straight through it!”
She continued, praising the fact that Barbie has brought female-centric cinema to the mainstream, while also restating the fact that what’s out there is the best possible iteration, and she would have nothing short of that, even if it meant her bowing out of the venture: “If I believed that the version I was attached to could have done that, I might feel differently about it, but I genuinely think their film was the best possible version. It’s easy just to be thrilled and happy. I love watching women kill it.”
In that, Hathway concluded with a very optimistic vision for the future, noting, “To do so well, so undeniably that they actually had to write new records…come on! I think it will probably make things better.”
