Anna Hathaway said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that she spent a full week channeling Harley Quinn before meeting Christopher Nolan for “The Dark Knight Rises” because she was convinced he was courting her to play the Batman villain. It wasn’t until two hours into their meeting that Hathaway discovered it was a meeting
Anna Hathaway said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that she spent a full week channeling Harley Quinn before meeting Christopher Nolan for “The Dark Knight Rises” because she was convinced he was courting her to play the Batman villain. It wasn’t until two hours into their meeting that Hathaway discovered it was a meeting for Catwoman.
“Here’s what worked in my favor: She’s a chameleon,” Hathaway said. “So, I knew I was auditioning to… I was meeting Chris [Nolan] for the female role in the Batman trilogy, the next installment. I thought I imagined it, because I thought, ‘It can’t be Catwoman because Michelle Pfeiffer was so iconic… [gasp] It’s going to be Harley Quinn!’”
“So I spent a week developing Harley Quinn’s demonic energy. She was wearing these weird jester flats and a striped top,” he continued. “And then about two hours into our conversation, Chris said, ‘So the role is Catwoman,’ and I said, ‘Transform!’ So at that moment I decided I was like, ‘Well, this top is really sexy.’ And I was going to be very…like a psychopath. I changed my personality like a psychopath.”
Hathaway won the role and earned praise for playing Selina Kyle/Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” which marked her first collaboration with Nolan. Since then, the duo has worked together on “Interstellar” and the upcoming “The Odyssey.” Hathaway has always credited Nolan for saving her career amid backlash over her Oscar win for “Les Misérables.” Public opinion soured on Hathaway at the time, and she Googled it and discovered that the top search question was, “Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?”
“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so worried about how toxic my online identity had become,” Hathaway told Vanity Fair in 2024. “I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who didn’t care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve ever had in one of the best movies I’ve ever been in.”
Hathaway was referring to the role of NASA scientist Dr. Amelia Brand in Nolan’s 2014 space epic, “Interstellar.” Now they are back together for “The Odyssey,” which will hit theaters on July 17 from Universal Pictures.
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