Anne Hathaway Was Nearly Cancelled In Hollywood Before Christopher Nolan 'Backed Her'

Summary

• Christopher Nolan rescued Anne Hathaway's career when online backlash threatened to derail it.
• Nolan hired Hathaway for Interstellar when others avoided her due to online toxicity.
• Despite public disagreement, Hathaway admires Nolan and praised his innovative no-chair rule on set.

Throughout Anne Hathaway's career, the celebrated actor has accomplished a lot, including starring in several blockbuster films. Hathaway has also been successful enough to accumulate an impressive real estate empire. However, Hathaway once faced a pretty severe backlash.

Unfortunately for Hathaway, she admitted there was a time when the public was sick of her. On the bright side, Hathaway has said that powerhouse director Christopher Nolan had her back when she reached that career lowlight.

This article will reveal how Christopher Nolan helped Anne Hathaway in her moment of need. Then, the article will look at when Nolan and Hathaway had a public disagreement.

Anne Hathaway Says Christopher Nolan Saved Her Career After She Faced A Fierce Backlash

In 2009, Anne Hathway was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Rachel Getting Married. Four years later, Hathaway won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her Les Misérables performance. What should have been a career highlight turned out to be a negative turning point in her still relatively young career.

After Hathaway won the Little Gold Man statue, there was a palpable feeling online that people were sick of her. In fact, the backlash was so fierce that someone coined the term Hathahate.

In March 2024, Hathaway spoke to Variety about this time in her career. As Hathaway explained, the Hollywood powerbroker Christopher Nolan helped save her career when things were at the worst.

According to Hathaway, Christopher Nolan hired her to work on Interstellar at a time when nobody in Hollywood wanted to work with her.

“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online. I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.”

While Hathaway was very thankful for what Nolan did for her, she didn't make it seem like he was trying to be her savior. In fact, Hathaway questioned if Nolan had any idea that he helped her make a comeback.

“I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect. And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”

Hathaway then went on to talk about what she learned from this dark time in her career while talking to Variety. As the talented actor explained, having the public turn on her taught Hathaway to stay true to her artistic instincts. However, Hathaway was open about how hard it was to go through that era in her life and career.

“Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through. The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold, and it can be hard because you’re like, ‘If I stay safe, if I hug the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.’ But if you want to do that, don’t be an actor."

Hathaway continued, "You’re a tightrope walker. You’re a daredevil. You’re asking people to invest their time and their money and their attention and their care into you. So you have to give them something worth all of those things. And if it’s not costing you anything, what are you really offering?”

Hathaway also explained to the outlet how she became aware of how bad her reputation once became. Unfortunately for Hathaway, she once googled herself and discovered one of the top results was, “Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?”

Before Christopher Nolan hired Anne Hathaway to star in Interstellar, the pair previously worked together on The Dark Knight Rises. According to The Richest, Nolan has directed two of Hathaway's most successful films. The website lists The Dark Knight Rises, Alice in Wonderland, and Interstellar as Hathaway's highest-grossing movies from most to least successful.

While that search result implies that some people were confused that people had turned on Hathaway, it also states something that would have been hard for the actor to cope with. The search term literally contains the words, "everyone hates Anne Hathaway".

Looking back at Anne Hathaway's filmography, according to Rotten Tomatoes, completely shows how right she was. After Les Misérables came out in 2012, Hathaway didn't appear onscreen in a major movie until Interstellar was released in November 2014.

What actors have suffered from the Oscars curse, according to Screen Rant?

While it seems wild that winning an Oscar almost ruined Hathaway's career, it turns out she isn't the only actor who has experienced that. In fact, the concept of the Oscars curse exists simply because other actors have suffered similarly.

Christopher Nolan's Team Once Publicly Disagreed With Anne Hathaway

In June 2020, Anne Hathaway and her former Les Misérables co-star Hugh Jackman had a discussion as a part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series. During the resulting conversation, Hathaway made a fascinating claim about what it is like to work for Christopher Nolan.

While talking to Jackman, Hathaway stated that Nolan doesn't allow chairs on his movie sets. "He doesn't allow chairs, and his reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they're sitting, they're not working."

Hathaway went on to explain to Jackman that she grew to believe that Nolan's no-chair rule might be smart. "I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he's onto something with the chair thing."

Clearly, Hathaway made it clear she wasn't calling the Nolan out for his no-chairs rule. Hathaway has also routinely and sincerely praised Nolan during interviews. However, a member of Nolan's team came out to publicly disagree with Hathaway's claim about the director.

In a statement that was released to E! News, Nolan's spokesperson claimed that the director actually allows chairs in most areas of his sets. Furthermore, the spokesperson stated that Nolan doesn't allow chairs in one area because he feels they are a symbol of hierarchy.

"For the record, the only things banned from [Christopher Nolan's] sets are cell phones (not always successfully) and smoking (very successfully). The chairs Anne was referring to are the directors chairs clustered around the video monitor, allocated on the basis of hierarchy not physical need. Chris chooses not to use his but has never banned chairs from the set. Cast and crew can sit wherever and whenever they need and frequently do."