“I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it,” Hathaway explained.
Ever wonder how actor’s test their on-screen spark?
In a new interview with V Magazine, Anne Hathaway recalled the “gross” way casting directors would test for chemistry. While this isn’t a common practice today, Hathaway star said that back in the 2000s, “it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry.”
“We have ten guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?” Hathaway remembers being told, adding that forcing people to get physical was “actually the worst way to do it.”
The Devil Wears Prada star was anything but excited, in fact, she was a little grossed out.
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“Is there something wrong with me?” Hathaway recalled thinking. “Because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.”
While she found the process to be all together uncomfortable, Hathaway told the mag that she went along with it out of fear that she would be labeled “difficult.”
“I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it,” she explained.
“It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me,” the Princess Diaries star continued. “It was just a very different time and now we know better.”
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That very experience, and a handful of bad auditions she endured over the years, made her all the more mindful when casting her love interest in The Idea of You, which sees Hathaway — who also serves as an executive producer on the project — play a single mom who gets swept up in a whirlwind romance with a younger pop star.
She and director Michael Showalter ended up casting Mary & George star Nicholas Galitzine for the part after he wowed them with a song by The Alabama Shakes.
“It was just easy. I heard [singer Brittany Howard’s] voice and I just started smiling,” Hathaway recounted. “And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing. Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing.”
The Idea of You hits Prime Video on May 2.
