“I WAS A CAREER WOMAN AT THREE YEARS OLD” – ANNE HATHAWAY

In New York City, Elizabeth Lee meets the 40-year-old actor to talk role models, ageing and what it means to be a woman with ambition.

“I’m here to offer some insight into ageing, but I don’t know, you guys – I don’t think about it that much! As far as I’m concerned, ageing is just another word for living,” quips Anne Hathaway to a crowded room of editors and key opinion leaders on the top floor of the swanky new Virgin Hotels New York City.

I am in the Big Apple for an exclusive event with Shiseido, and The Devil Wears Prada actor, who was recently named a global ambassador for the Japanese beauty brand, is positively glowing on stage – in part due to the shiny gold gown that long-time collaborator and celebrity stylist Erin Walsh has put her in, but also very much because of the charming energy she seems to exude effortlessly.

As the newest spokesperson for Shiseido Vital Perfection, Anne says it’s a collaboration that she’s “proud and grateful to be a part of”. “The idea of a partnership between Shiseido and myself had great potential. To bring that forth, it took time, care, patience, persistence and love,” she says.

In perhaps a rather usual direction for a beauty campaign, the new Shiseido Vital Perfection video featuring the mother-oftwo is almost entirely shot in black and white. She shares: “As the creative team and I spoke on [a Zoom] call, I noticed that each time I moved my head, that light would shoot out from behind it. To be honest, I probably just needed to clean the camera on my computer!

“It produced such a lovely effect and I was inspired, so I asked them if playing with light, shadow, and the prismatic refraction of light, was something that interested them, as it did me. An authentic excitement began to fill the call, and ideas started pouring out of everyone. And suddenly, in this international Zoom [meeting], to discuss a Japanese product for a film that would star an American actress, we found ourselves collectively inspired, connected, by something genuinely universal: radiance,” she says.

“Radiance goes beyond age,” she continues. “It’s a current that runs through all of our individual lives. It’s something that uplifts and illuminates. Radiance is something that is welcome, and whose appearance is a gift, and exactly what better protection is designed to do.”