The way the actress handled the hate movement that developed around her face is inspiring and proves in practice that “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”
It was February 2013 when, at the 85th Academy Awards ceremony, the Anne Hathaway he had just won it Oscar best female role. The win, admittedly, came as no surprise: Throughout the run up to it, the actress had collected coveted statuettes at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and Baftas for her riveting portrayal of the doomed “Fantine” in the big screen adaptation of the film “Les Misérables”. Standing on the stage of the world’s most prestigious film awards, Hathaway was about to experience a moment most actors only dream of. Hollywood’s biggest night was hers.
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Just as she took the microphone to deliver her acceptance speech, things took an unexpected turn. As he embraced the golden statuette and whispered: “Became reality!”, the internet unleashed a tidal wave of attack on her. People mocked her pink Prada dress, her eyes and her too-perfect mouth, her frightened, too-eager voice. The speech itself made a bad impression, as it was considered pre-loaded, calculated and insincere. There was no doubt: The darling of Oscar night turned into a “public enemy” in an instant.
After the award, hatred for the actress became a big topic of discussion. Alongside the daily cyberbullying, a host of users tried to gather evidence of Hathaway’s most annoying qualities, from her serious demeanor to her gleeful exuberance. “He goes overboard every time,” wrote critic Richard Lawson. “She always seems to be faking it, and her favorite trick is this exaggerated humility and gentleness.” The zeal of public detestation was so great that a new word was coined, the “Hathahate”just to describe the movement.
But as the public backlash against the actress raged, it also became clear that few could pinpoint how and why the Hathahate had arisen. Besides, it wasn’t always like that. When Hathaway burst onto the scene in 2001 with her film debut in ‘The Princess Diaries’, fans adored her. This was followed by ‘Brokeback Mountain’ in 2005 and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ the following year, which gave her her first starring roles. A few years later, “Rachel Getting Married” was hailed by critics as the most important moment of her talent, which even earned her her first Oscar nomination. Beloved by both audiences and the box office, nothing seemed like it could go wrong in Hathaway’s case.
Interestingly, her first public blunder was not about her acting ability, but her unfortunate appearance as a host at the 2011 Oscars alongside James Franco. Despite the fact that Hathaway sang, danced and changed clothes 8 times that night in an effort to entertain the audience, the critics were particularly scathing. “In one of the worst Oscars in history, a bad and risqué idea turned into a spectacularly inappropriate way to present the biggest night for the movie world,” wrote Tim Goodman in The Hollywood Reporter, while LA Weekly called the event “the most embarrassing award ever.”
Franco added fuel to the fire, later commenting to David Letterman that “Hathaway is so energetic, I think the Tasmanian devil would look masturbated standing next to her.” In turn, the actress admitted that her presence on the screen was somewhat “manic and hyper-happy”.
The taunting continued. The spark that lit the fuse was again her acceptance speech, this time at the 2013 Golden Globes for “Les Misérables,” where she said: “Thank you for this wonderful blunt object, which I will forever use as a weapon against self-doubt”. She was accused of appearing too emotional, salty, pretentious. During the evening, the actress asked for the microphone to thank those she had forgotten to mention in her speech, leading to accusations of setting up ‘The Anne Show’.
Her win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards later that month further fueled the theory that her speeches were unforgivably embarrassing. While accepting her award, Hathaway was called weird and inauthentic. “People hate Anne Hathaway gets a professional to write her speech. She’s too dramatic. He’s faking it even when he wins an award,” radio host Howard Stern commented after the award.
After the events, in a 2014 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actress confessed: “I’ve had directors say to me, ‘You’re perfect for the part, but I don’t know how the audience will take you because of all this.’ Of course, all this had an emotional impact on her, who later confessed that she received all this hate like a “punch in the stomach”.
In the aftermath of the Oscars uproar, Hathaway disappeared from the spotlight. It would be easiest to assume that she could not stand the hostile climate against her. It seems, however, that it was actually a strategic choice. He allowed the hostility to express itself, until it finally lost its momentum. When asked about her absence in 2013 by the Huffington Post at the Sundance Film Festival, she joked, “I think people needed a break from me.” In other words, he was playing the game and patiently waiting for “the storm to stop”.
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Her return to things was genius. After a year of silence, she re-emerged in 2014 with a breakout film, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, followed immediately by Song One, two roles that successfully showcased her talent. The appearances that followed could only be described as successful: She spoke on talk shows with humor and honesty, joked about her pink dress, rapped for the Hathahaters and proved that she is finally stronger than the cyberbullies. “All of this has made me a more compassionate and loving person,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in a triumphant interview. “And I don’t feel sorry for myself.”
By 2017, the barrage of comments about Hathaway continued unabated, albeit with a clear shift leaning in her direction. Her role in ‘Ocean’s 8’ helped in this as it was hailed as a big hit. “For a few years, Hathaway’s presence in Hollywood was tied to the narrative that she was trying too hard to be likable,” wrote Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker. “This performance is a statement – ​​Hathaway understands the game she’s playing. She’s a real thief – and what she steals is the show.”
More than a decade after Hathahate peaked, hatred for Hathaway now seems like a distant memory. What is certain is that the actress managed to come out of it unscathed and stronger. The haters not only failed to “disappear” her from the map, but rather achieved the exact opposite: To shine even more, through her indisputable abilities and acting talent.
But there is something chilling about this whole story: A woman who is smart, dynamic, capable, who counts one success after another. And yet, instead of being recognized as she deserves, she ends up “down” in the hands of voracious netizens for all the wrong reasons: For her clothes, her smile, her mild reactions. Sounds kind of familiar, right? It is because, in fact, almost every woman is familiar with the narrative.
After all, Hathahate itself was never really about Anne Hathaway. Considering how the rampant misogyny of the 2000s wronged so many of pop culture’s female icons, it’s clear that Hathaway was simply the victim of a long-standing tradition of using a talented, beautiful, famous woman as a punching bag.
The lesson in all of this is Hathaway’s own reaction. Her attitude and the way she dealt with this wave of hate suggests that, deep down, he always knew that the day would come again when he would be on the good side of history. “You have to remember in life that there is a positive in every negative and a negative in every positive. In a magical way, however, things are tipping towards the positives”it is her words that we want to keep.
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Source :Skai
I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
