Anne Hathaway Just Shut Down The People Who Questioned Her Involvement In “The Idea Of You” By Saying That She Just Wants “To Have Fun”
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When the first trailer for Prime Video’s upcoming movie The Idea of You dropped earlier this month, many were shocked to learn that 41-year-old Oscar winner Anne Hathaway is one of the leads.
The movie is due for release in May, and Anne plays Solène — a 40-year-old single mom who strikes up a relationship with a 24-year-old British boy bander called Hayes Campbell, who is played by Nicholas Galitzine.
The story follows Solène and Hayes’s unconventional romance after a chance meeting at Coachella, with Solène struggling to adapt to the publicity that comes with dating one of the most famous and in-demand people on the planet.
The Idea of You is based on Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name, and Lee previously told Vogue that she was largely inspired by One Direction, particularly Harry Styles, when she was writing the book.
As a result, many admitted to being confused by Anne’s involvement in the adaptation, and it was widely suggested that the movie was beneath her. Reacting to the trailer on X shortly after its release, one person wrote, “The woman that did Les Mis is now doing a harry styles fan fiction… a step down for Anne Hathaway.”
“does anne hathaway know she's in a harry styles fanfic?” somebody else asked at the time.
Another questioned, “How do you think they pitched this movie plot to Anne Hathaway for her to accept this role???”
“something died in me when i saw the ,Academy Award Winner Anne Hathaway’ name card,” one more tweeted, while somebody else said, “anne my love what are you doing.”
But while Harry was the initial muse behind The Idea of You, the book’s author has always maintained that the overall focus of the story is Solène “rediscovering herself” in her 40s.
She told Vogue, “It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole.”
And Anne alluded to this as she opened up about why she accepted the role at the movie’s premiere at SXSW on Saturday.
In video footage that was shared by Variety, Anne is overcome with emotion by the audience’s reaction to the film, saying in the clip, “You have no idea the gift that you’ve just given us with your responsiveness, by being so connected to every little nuance in this. I will never forget this screening.”
Reflecting on her role, she adds, “For some reason, we talk about coming-of-age stories as being something that happens to you in the earliest part of your life, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I keep blooming. So when Cathy [Schulman] and Gabrielle [Union] so generously offered me the part, I was thrilled to say yes.”
Anne then appeared to acknowledge the online discourse around her being in The Idea of You as she got seriously real about why the role appealed to her.
“I don’t want to be pigeonholed and don’t want to be placed in a box of what type of films I have to be making because of my age, gender, and because I won an Oscar," she reportedly said. "I want to have fun, dammit. It speaks to me.”
And this comment ended up striking a chord with people, who took to social media to praise the actor for her refreshing honesty.
Quote-tweeting Anne’s comment, one person wrote, “Want more actors to say this. Cause you lot on here get so annoying when they’re not doing Oscar baity films all the time as if it’s beneath them. Sometimes, people make fun moves.”
“film twitter needs to hear this,” another user agreed. “your [fave] actors are not as pretentious as you are! they want to have fun they want to do every genre they can and not be pigeon holed.”
“she's never been someone who runs towards prestige projects or someone who's awards hungry anyway..let a girl have fun!!” somebody else pointed out. One more wrote, “more actors and actresses need to be like her.”
“I love that she chose something fun over constantly trying to win another award,” another tweeted, while somebody else concluded, “I love this, no artist should be [pigeon] holed into making serious art only, sometimes we should have fun too.”
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