The one actor Anne Hathaway said “there are no actual adjectives” to describe
Anne Hathaway’s film career may be marked by dramatic highs and lows, but it’s been her ambition to take a more expansive look at what constitutes “acting”.
If there’s one person who feels guaranteed to dominate popular culture in 2026, it’s Anne Hathaway. Within the next 12 months, she will be reprising her role in The Devil Wears Prada 2, co-starring with Josh Hartnett in the Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, joining the expansive cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, appearing in the mysterious science fiction thriller Flowervale Street, and transforming into a pop star for David Lowery’s enigmatic new musical thriller Mother Mary.
It’s unusual for any actor to be in so many highly anticipated titles within a given year, but it’s even more rare for someone of Hathaway’s stature to be doing such versatile work. She has been a star whose attracted both criticism and praise because she’s been able to do a little bit of everything; although she may have started out as a “Disney star” thanks to The Princess Diaries, she evolved into someone who could realistically appear in R-Rated comedies, action blockbusters, musicals, prestige dramas, and whatever Nolan project she was interested in.
But Hathaway’s talent has expanded beyond the silver screen itself, as she recently co-starred with Jared Leto in the Apple TV miniseries WeCrashed, and has also frequently acted on stage. While being involved in different mediums is an impressive achievement, Hathaway knows that it’s not unheard of. In fact, she told Yahoo that there was a specific star that she drew inspiration from.
“When I was coming up as an actress, I always observed that British actors weren’t film actors, and they weren’t TV actors and they weren’t theatre actors, they were actors,” Hathaway said.
Adding, “Someone like Helen Mirren, and there are no actual adjectives to describe Helen Mirren because she’s just Helen Mirren, she would do limited series, she would do film, and she be on stage.”
When it comes to versatility, there aren’t many figures within Hollywood history who have Mirren’s range. A British theatre star who steadily transitioned to the big screen, Mirren became someone that Hollywood took an interest in when she proved that she could go toe-to-toe with Harrison Ford in Peter Weir’s underrated adaptation of The Mosquito Coast. She evolved into one of the most decorated screen idols of her generation with four Academy Award nominations, including a win in the ‘Best Actress’ category for The Queen.
It would only seem natural that Mirren’s talents on stage would make her a perfect fit for prestige British miniseries, but her work on television is not relegated to the costume drama category. Within the last year, Mirren re-teamed with Ford for Taylor Sheridan’s epic western 1923, and also entered the Guy Ritchie universe by playing a dangerous criminal on the Paramount Plus show Mobland. Mirren’s willingness to simply try anything is perhaps her greatest strength; there’s no one else who can say that they’ve won Tonys for Shakespearean plays and also earned a recurring role in The Fast and the Furious franchise.
Although it’s unlikely that anyone will attain the reputation that Mirren currently has, the fact that Hathaway is pursuing it does speak highly of her ambitions. Mirren and Hathaway may have appeared in different episodes of the limited anthology series Solos, but it would seem like they’d have more than enough reason to work with one another again.
