\u201cAnnie is making salmon bowls for lunch. Do you like the sriracha mayo mixed in or on the side?\u201d Anne Hathaway\u2019s assistant texts as I\u2019m making my way to her office on the Upper West Side. She cooks, too? <\/em>I think as I arrive to a perfectly prepared meal\u2014salmon, rice, edamame, and avocado, topped with thinly sliced cucumber and a generous dusting of furikake. Hathaway tells me she and her husband make salmon for dinner every Monday, and she looks forward to eating the leftovers for her lunch each Tuesday. \u201cI won\u2019t be offended if you don\u2019t like it, or if you want something else,\u201d she says. But later, when I tell her how delicious it is, she\u2019s visibly relieved. \u201cEven though I said I wouldn\u2019t be offended if you don\u2019t like it,\u201d she says, \u201cI secretly hoped you would.\u201d<\/p>\n As we sit down on her couch to talk, Hathaway is makeup-free, hair in a messy ponytail, wearing a green Guest in Residence sweater for St. Patrick\u2019s Day and jeans. She\u2019s just come from a Pilates workout with her trainer Monique Eastwood. Normally, her office is a calm space where she can focus, but at the moment it\u2019s \u201ca gigantic high-ceiling closet,\u201d she says, stuffed with at least 10 racks of clothes from designers like Loewe and Valentino, approximately 100 pairs of heels, and a pile of hats, belts, and other accessories, most of which are under consideration for The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/em> and Mother Mary<\/em> press tours. She says she\u2019s had fun \u201cplaying dress-up\u201d with her stylist Erin Walsh, and shows me all the confirmed looks they\u2019ve selected so far. At one point, Hathaway puts on 10-inch Rick Owens boots that would break most ankles, but she struts around as expertly as a model on a catwalk (perhaps she\u2019s learned a thing or two from filming Prada<\/em>).<\/p>\n Dress, Mugler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n These days, Hathaway can\u2019t help but smile when she thinks about where she is in life. Her sons, ages 6 and 10, are \u201cin this really fun zone where we all love hanging out together, which I understand may change,\u201d she says. \u201cWell, we<\/em> will always love hanging out with them, but their feelings about us might change,\u201d she clarifies, laughing. \u201cSo for the moment, we\u2019re all just in it. Adam and I are soaking it up. I\u2019m having the most wonderful time with my family, living in the city of my dreams, and work seems to be going really, really well,\u201d she continues. \u201cSo rather obnoxiously, I\u2019m having a great time as everything else burns.\u201d<\/p>\n We bond over the need for joyful distractions amid the general state of the world. \u201cThere\u2019s that famous phrase: \u2018We need our bread, but we need our roses, too.\u2019 And I would be so sad without them,\u201d Hathaway says. \u201cLife asks so much of everyone to just stay in it. Why would we work so hard if not to experience joy, if not to contribute to beauty or experience beauty? I think you have to learn how to hold all these things simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite working in the industry for over half her life, the sparkle hasn\u2019t worn off. \u201cShe still has a sense of wonder,\u201d says Michael Showalter, who directed Hathaway in The Idea of You<\/em> and the Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity<\/em>, out this fall. \u201cShe\u2019s someone who is still excited that we have the opportunity to do this for our careers, and she doesn\u2019t seem to have become jaded in spite of being so famous and being in the public eye and all that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Bodysuit, Fendi. Earrings, ring, bracelet, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Hathaway maintains that sense of wonder by refusing to take her career for granted. \u201cFor example, like working with Chris [Nolan] for the third time, it doesn\u2019t get old,\u201d she says of The Odyssey<\/em> director, who previously cast her in The Dark Knight Rises<\/em> and Interstellar<\/em>. \u201cYou become even more awed by it, by how rare it is. To get that experience once is so rare. Twice\u2014what a gift. Three times\u2014I don\u2019t even have words for it. And so I\u2019m very aware of how determined I am to be harmonious with it all, because look at this,\u201d she says, gesturing to the room full of fancy clothes. \u201cIf I\u2019m not enjoying it, then really, really what\u2019s wrong with me? If I can\u2019t have a positive outlook on it when I\u2019m having such a fortunate ride, then it would be wasted on me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLife asks so much of everyone to just stay in it. Why would we work so hard if not to experience joy, if not to contribute to beauty or experience beauty?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n Perhaps no one is having a busier year than Hathaway. Due to delays, filming, and release schedules, she now has five movies premiering in six months. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to have four years of work coming out in six months,\u201d she says. Spring saw her star in Mother Mary<\/em> and The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/em>; this summer, she will lead The Odyssey<\/em>, along with Matt Damon. She\u2019s also headlining a sci-fi thriller, The End of Oak Street<\/em>, opposite Ewan McGregor, and Verity<\/em>. Oh, and she\u2019s developing Yesteryear<\/em>, an adaptation of the buzzy novel that her production company, Somewhere Pictures, grabbed the rights to; signed on for an untitled \u201cFBI wedding sting comedy\u201d from Your Friends & Neighbors<\/em> creator Jonathan Tropper; and gearing up to film The Princess Diaries 3<\/em>.<\/p>\n Dress, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Necklace, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n In A24\u2019s Mother Mary<\/em>, a psychological drama, Hathaway plays a pop star intent on a comeback who\u2019s sparring with her ex-best friend, a costume designer played by Michaela Coel. In addition to belting an album\u2019s worth of songs by Jack Antonoff, Charli xcx, and FKA twigs, she also had to dance. Early on, she saw footage of herself and thought, \u201cThis is really bad\u2026I don\u2019t know that I can ask people to come to see this.\u201d She went home and told her husband she was going to leave the film. But ultimately, she says, \u201cI came to the conclusion that there would be no shame if I was fired, but there would be if I quit.\u201d<\/p>\n She ended up taking dance lessons for months and continued to work on her singing during postproduction, long after the film had wrapped. A year later, when she finally liked what she heard, she returned to the studio with Antonoff to rerecord almost everything, earning his impressed reaction: \u201cHe whipped his head at me goes, \u2018You have<\/em> been working.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Hathaway\u2019s other recent release, The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/em>, needs no introduction. When I tell Hathaway I can\u2019t quite get over the fact that her character, Andy Sachs, is working at Runway<\/em> again, and not, say, at The New York Times<\/em>, she says: \u201cWe thought about that obsessively. I was like, \u2018But I threw my phone in the fountain!\u2019 But I think Aline [Brosh McKenna, the screenwriter] nailed it.\u201d Though she can\u2019t resist adding, \u201cWe can be many things. Just because you work in a women\u2019s magazine doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re not a serious person.\u201d<\/p>\n Bodysuit, Giorgio Armani. Earrings, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n The Odyssey<\/em> was another homecoming of sorts. \u201cI hadn\u2019t been on a set with Chris in 12 years,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd because I\u2019ve worked so hard in the last dozen years, both as a person and as an actor, I was excited to show him what I\u2019ve been up to.\u201d<\/p>\n Nolan tells me he noticed. \u201cThere\u2019s a maturity to her performances now,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that something was missing before, it\u2019s just it\u2019s developed, as moving through life develops us all. Her work has a sense of quiet calm to it that\u2019s really remarkable.\u201d And despite her veteran status, he says, Hathaway is always looking to challenge herself. \u201cShe\u2019s never satisfied with what she\u2019s done in the past, or what she\u2019s doing in the moment. She\u2019s always striving for something just beyond her grasp.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Odyssey<\/em>, Hathaway plays Penelope, who spends two decades fending off over 100 suitors while she waits for her husband, Odysseus, to return from war. \u201cWe think about Penelope as a model of patience,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I was interested in the raw edge of her. I was interested in the fury, the emotion, and the passion that she would have had to ride for him for those 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n She and Damon, who plays Odysseus, spent a lot of time talking about the bond between their characters. \u201cIn a time when so many marriages were made for political convenience, the two of them chose each other, and they understood what they had and that not everybody gets that,\u201d Hathaway says. It helps that she finds herself in such a partnership offscreen. \u201cMy whole thing about marriage is\u2026it\u2019s such a big deal to share your life with someone. You know? Because it\u2019s yours. It\u2019s fully yours to do anything you want with,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd so to find someone who inspires you to say, \u2018As great as this is on my own, sharing it with you feels like it could lead to somewhere even better.\u2019 I imagine that actually is rare, and I do feel like I found that and I don\u2019t take it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n Bodysuit, C\u2019est Jeanne. Skirt, Tom Ford. Earrings, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Damon tells me he was \u201cblown away\u201d by Hathaway\u2019s performance. He remembers one day on set when they were filming a scene, but the cameras were focused on shooting the background actors 80 to 100 yards away. \u201cAnnie was giving it fully, tears rolling down her face. And I was like, \u2018Annie, they can\u2019t see you. Save yourself.\u2019 But she had this unending reserve of emotion, and she wanted to make sure every actor she was working with got that full performance,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always said when the actor you\u2019re working with is truly great, they\u2019re great enough for both of you, and everything else disappears. All you have to do is look at them, and you just get completely transported. It\u2019s like in their eyes, they\u2019ve created an entire world around you, and it\u2019s just the two of you, and she just carried me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFear made me harsh with myself. I shudder at the thought that I might have inadvertently been harsh with other people while I was being harsh with myself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n Hathaway\u2019s generosity as a performer also came up in my conversation with Josh Hartnett, who starred alongside Hathaway and Dakota Johnson in Verity<\/em>. As someone who stepped away from Hollywood himself in part due to the overwhelm of tabloids and the internet, Hartnett says he \u201cfinds her resilience remarkable. I mean, she\u2019s been through some downs in this industry that a lot of people wouldn\u2019t want to endure, and she\u2019s come out on top and in a way that I think she\u2019s fully realized herself as an artist.\u201d She was also generous off-camera: \u201cI have three daughters, and Anne is their favorite actress. They came on set and she was so gracious in giving time with them and made them feel special,\u201d Hartnett says. \u201cA year later they still talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dress, Mugler. Headpiece, Celia Kritharioti. Earrings, bracelet, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Some of Hathaway\u2019s generosity, as a performer and a person, has come as a result of the self-work she\u2019s done to move beyond the \u201cHathahate\u201d years and learn how to \u201ctrust more deeply and not give way to panic so easily.\u201d But that\u2019s not to say she\u2019s now immune from internet chatter. The night before our interview, she shared a video on her Instagram, showing off the trick her hairstylist uses to give her face a little extra lift (two small braids near each temple that are pulled back and pinned). The trick works so well for her that rumors have swirled in recent months that Hathaway has had a facelift. I tell her it seems like posting the video was a pointed denial.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say pointed. But we\u2019re at a time when people feel very confident in assuming what they think is fact, and sometimes what they think is accurate and sometimes it\u2019s not,\u201d she says diplomatically. \u201cMy preference would be to never comment on anything and to just live in the mystery and not draw attention to myself, but the speculation has gotten so loud that you do feel the need to just get your truth out there. And I\u2019ll probably always wonder, \u2018Should I have posted that or not? Should I have just kept going and done the thing that makes me happy and makes me feel more confident on the red carpet?\u2019 But I felt like the conversation was becoming distracting.<\/p>\n Dress, Stella McCartney. Earrings, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n \u201cAlso, by the way, these are huge medical decisions that people are presuming,\u201d she adds. \u201cI wanted to show that like, no, I didn\u2019t make a huge medical decision. It\u2019s just two braids.\u201d She takes me over to the mirror to demonstrate the trick on my hair\u2014and I have to say, my eyes instantly looked a little less tired. \u201cAnd by the way, the other thing about all this is, I might still get a facelift someday,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n Had the rumors come earlier in her career, she may not have rolled with the punches so well. \u201cOne of the things about younger me is she was really scared, and I think that fear made me harsh with myself,\u201d Hathaway says. \u201cI shudder at the thought that I might have inadvertently been harsh with other people while I was being harsh with myself. I actually get nauseous thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hathaway says she was a \u201cmess\u201d on the set of The Devil Wears Prada<\/em>. But thankfully, she was surrounded by \u201cthese amazing people who just took care of me, understood I was 22, and made so many things okay,\u201d she says. Filming the sequel gave Hathaway a do-over. \u201cYou know how you\u2019ll have certain memories or times in your life that you wish you could revisit because you\u2019re like, \u2018God, I wish I could go back there and be the person that I am now and know what I know now.\u2019 That\u2019s what it was like,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt this enormous debt of gratitude to the movie and how I was protected, especially by [director] David Frankel. So it was exciting to get to go back and say thank you, and show all the work that I\u2019ve done on myself and just aim to be an absolute delight every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Dress, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Necklace, Bulgari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Learning to be more gentle with herself has made her gentler with others. \u201cTo have worked so hard in my life to have\u2026sorry, I do get emotional thinking about it,\u201d she says, her eyes welling with tears, \u201cto have become a more positive person, to have become a healthier person, to have become a safer person, I was really happy that I could share that with people who were so formative and responsible for so many of the beautiful things that I have in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n When I ask her if she still worries it will all disappear tomorrow, she admits that she does. \u201cBut what I do feel secure in is how I would hold it if it were to all disappear tomorrow. If nothing big ever happens to me ever again, I\u2019ve still had more than most. And the truth is that, of course, I want to keep pushing myself. Of course, I want to keep doing this. I want to see what I\u2019m like as an actor when I\u2019m in my 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s, which doesn\u2019t seem so far off now. But if that\u2019s not in the cards for me, I certainly can keep my head held high and be very proud and very grateful for all the generosity that\u2019s been shown to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Lead Image: Dress, Stella McCartney. Earrings, Bulgari.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/f43ab4f8-adc7-4b8a-91b8-3641a5aff883.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*\" "\\"Anne")
<\/p>\n![\"modern](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/b2cd1e02-0d14-4593-a169-e2a559ba0fa1.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=2048:*\" "\\"modern")
<\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/2bb798ee-e741-4961-83f5-dcdb2926dc93.jpg?crop=0.533xw:1xh;0.101xw,0xh&resize=980:*\" "\\"Anne")
<\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/9b243899-8c0a-4246-b4c8-2fabd5437c8e.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=2048:*\" "\\"Anne")
<\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/17274437-b77d-4ba5-bdae-1cba43ca8a7b.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=2048:*\" "\\"Anne")
<\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/44f76513-0f5c-4be3-82cb-47e59d29be03.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*\" "\\"Anne")
<\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/0969050d-ac08-4211-b444-205fc318d56b.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=2048:*\" "\\"Anne")
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