Anne Hathaway Grows Up……

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Anne Hathaway, the young American born actress, has just completed filming the Jane Austen biography, “Becoming Jane,” in the UK, to be released in March of this year.  Although films have been made of Jane Austen’s books, this is actually the first film about the author’s life, and the story of her passionate love affair with an Irish lawyer.  Anne complained vehemently about having to cope with the inclement weather, losing her voice in the cold, and the sheer exhaustion from trying to perfect a British accent for the lead role, without sounding too stuffy or “hoity-toity.” It took her a good two months to recover, only to discover that much of the dialogue she had worked so hard on was at first unusable. 

It’s taken a while, according to Anne, to emerge from a self-imposed hibernation and an easy acceptance for the whimsical magical roles she settled for in the past to films like Brokeback Mountain and her role in The Devil Wears Prada, co-starring Meryl Streep.  She fully admits to having personal issues a few years back, but believes she has finally reached a comfortable level of confidence in her serious acting ability.  In a recent interview with the UK Sunday Times, she tells us that she experienced many of the same problems as other young actresses are now facing, all the problems of the non-stop party scene.  Anne gives a lot of credit to Angelina Jolie for helping her through some of the self-doubts she carried around for some time, thinking no one liked her, sitting around moping, and feeling sorry for herself.  She also praises her boyfriend Italian property developer, Rafaello Follieri, who has encouraged her along the way to success and helped her gain the self-esteem she previously lacked.  As Anne told her Mom not long ago about herself, “do you remember that girl…she is gone….” Indeed, Anne Hathaway has grown up in a most remarkable way.