HOLLYWOOD’S UNICORN
Anne Hathaway’s latest role is starring in the tale of a real-life financial unicorn that fell to earth, but the actor is something of a rare beloved creature in Tinseltown herself. Happily married, a down-to-earth mother of two, and constantly in demand
Not much fazes Anne Hathaway. The Academy Award-winning actress, wife, and mother of two sons has lived a life – and then some. Although she appears to have led a charmed existence, and in many respects she has, it hasn’t been without its share of bumps in the road. Her films have amassed over US$6.7 billion dollars globally, for example, but her popularity level has often far from aligned with the extent of her career success. For example, she endured backlash and a media onslaught almost a decade ago, following her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for Les Misérables. Her sin? According to the cynical hipster set, she was too earnest in her acceptance speech, and a slew of subsequent others. Even hate groups emerged online. At the time, Hathaway admitted she felt like she’d been “punched in the gut” and, to her credit, she handled the unexpected drama with grace. Anyone with less resolve would have faltered.
But the vast range of emotional experiences and inevitable highs and lows has ultimately proved advantageous because this former Disney darling, who first made waves in 2001’s The Princess Diaries opposite Julie Andrews, has moved on to play heroes, villains, and everything in between with equal depth and assuredness.
Her good-girl image was further cemented by films like Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Ella Enchanted (2004), and Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). But once Hollywood had stereotyped her as its new girl-next-door, she quickly swerved out of that lane and pivoted to edgier material. Roles followed in Brokeback Mountain (2005), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and Rachel Getting Married (2008), which earned her Golden Globe and Oscar nods. Other notable roles include Alice in Wonderland, Interstellar, The Intern, Ocean’s Eight, Dark Waters, Locked Down, and The Hustle, in which she starred opposite Rebel Wilson.
SILICON VALLEY SAGA
Now she’s an entrepreneur of a different kind in upcoming Apple TV+ series, WeCrashed, based on the real-life financial scandal surrounding WeWork entrepreneurs Rebekah and Adam Neumann, played by Hathaway and Jared Leto. Rebekah Neumann, incidentally, is Gwyneth Paltrow’s real-life cousin, a fact referenced throughout the show. Founded in 2010 and based in New York City, WeWork is an
American commercial real estate company that provides flexible shared workspaces for tech startups and services for other enterprises. But the inspired and controversial concept, which quickly accrued its creators vast wealth, proved problematic for the Neumanns’ ever-expanding staff, who appeared to practically worship Adam with the ardour they would a rock star or cult leader.
Although the rise-and-fall scenario has been wellpublicised, also spawning 2021 doco WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, Hathaway admits she was no expert on the subject. “I was unfamiliar with the story when it came to me. I became very interested in this idea of the mentality that people have that doesn’t let them see the world that other people see. It was really interesting for me to explore how these two people work, and then as we got deeper into it, realising the depth of the love story. That’s when it went to a new place for me.”
Based on Wondery podcast WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork, WeCrashed is an eight-episode drama that chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the former Silicon Valley success story. The company quickly acquired a US$47 billion dollar valuation, only to lose it almost as fast on going public, and the series reveals the devastating truth about its corporate governance practices and dubious financial ethics. But as Hathaway states, at its core, it’s about the relationship between Adam and Rebekah.
The writing isn’t as polarising as one might expect. Hathaway approached the character with a measured view of playing Rebekah, the person, rather than a scoundrel out to fleece others of their hard-earned money.
“So much of what we aspired to do was present a story as fairly as possible, and not assume the worst of people,” she notes. “I thought it was very important to get the full picture of who she is, because at the end of the day, I’m just playing a human being.” She shrugs.
“I’m just a human being playing a human being. It’s a complex story of someone who, like all of us, is really complicated. Certainly, in the first episodes, you see these people had very sincere intentions. I think they wanted to make a better place, but how they executed that is a lot more complicated. Certainly, in my character’s case, she really looked at the world and was trying to leave it better than she found it.”
“ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU ARE LOOKING INTO OTHER PEOPLE’S HOMES [ON ZOOM] AND IT WAS VERY HUMANISING IN A LOT OF WAYS.”
Hathaway also brings some uncomfortable personal experiences as background, being no stranger to financial controversies, though in her case, she was very much the victim of a deceptive person. Her ex-fiancé, real estate developer Raffaello Follieri, duped everyone from priests to Bill Clinton, misappropriating millions of dollars in investments and serving four years in prison, from 2008 until 2012.
The scandal was yet another harrowing, and all-toopublic chapter of Hathaway’s life – but she picked herself up and no doubt collected some valuable life lessons along the way. Perhaps subconsciously, it even sparked her interest in not only starring in WeCrashed but serving as executive producer, too.
FROM PRINCESS TO POWER PLAYER
Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, a labour attorney, and her mother, a former actress, relocated the family, comprising Anne and her two brothers (one older and one younger), to New Jersey. A fiercely supportive family in every sense of the word, they collectively renounced the Catholic religion when Hathaway’s older brother came out as gay. She went to Vassar and New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualised Study.
Now 39, Hathaway is married to actor/producer Adam Shulman, 41, and mother to their sons: Jonathan, five and Jack, three. Speaking to her last year about her movie Locked Down, I asked about COVID-19 and how impacted her life.
“I feel like I became a gentler person and I feel like I became gentler on myself,” she said, over Zoom. “I thought I had been a gentler person before, but when it came to others I think it went to a new level this past year. You don’t really know what other people are dealing with, but all of a sudden you are looking into other people’s homes [on Zoom] and it was very humanising in a lot of ways.”
With restrictions forcing many of us to spend unprecedented amounts of time with our significant others, COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for both divorce and marriage. Happily, Hathaway and Shulman, who will celebrate 10 years of marriage this year, were not negatively impacted. In fact, on the contrary, she relates, “I appreciate my husband in a new way. I really see him usually multiple times a day but at least once a day I look up and I think, ‘I’m so glad I’m here with you. There’s no one else I’d rather be going through this with.’ I really started leaning into my gratitude,” she smiles, “[especially for] my husband, and being able to make each other laugh. Any time we can find humour in a situation we are usually better off for it.”
A former Swiss chalet inspired her home in California, recently seen in Architectural Digest, and hers is a household of laughter and dancing.
“I dance just about every day. My kids love to dance, and my husband does, too, and he’s got fantastic taste in music. During lockdown [last year], we wound up having a dance-time after dinner most nights.”
Cognisant that life can bring unexpected changes – not all of them joyful – she says contemplatively, “I think I would be very conceited if I said that I were completely happy with everything. I think I have a lot to work on but I think I’m doing a good job. I hope I’m aligned with what matters, I hope that I treat people respectfully, and I hope that I live and love. My goal is to continue on this really remarkable path that I find myself on – one that is very unusual, that not very many people get to experience – and it feels very vague sometimes.”
Hathaway will turn the milestone of 40 this year. As for life lessons she has learned along the way, she says, “I’d like to try to walk as simply as possible, if you know what I mean, and just keep things uncomplicated. All of my life lessons are really focused around that and how to be that, while still getting to do this thing that I love.
“And then, what I do hope past [her birthday] November 12? As many days as I can get away with,” she laughs. “How about that?”