“The Idea of You” star Anne Hathaway recalled having to make out with 10 different guys during “gross” chemistry tests in the early 2000s.
In a new interview with V Magazine, the Oscar winner reflected on her early days in the business and how she felt the need to go along with questionable practices if she wanted to work.
“Back in the 2000s — and this did happen to me — it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is actually the worst way to do it,” Hathaway, 41, said.
“I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’” she recalled. “And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.”
Hathaway told V Magazine that she didn’t want to kiss all her potential co-stars but felt she had to.
“I wasn’t excited,” she explained. “I thought it sounded gross.”
Hathway said she was “terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult’” despite being “so young.”
“So I just pretended I was excited and got on with it,” she continued.
The “Princess Diaries” star, who didn’t cite any movies by name, noted that that was just how things worked back then.
“It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me,” she said. “It was just a very different time and now we know better.”
The “Princess Diaries” star did not reveal which film she was referring to.Getty Images for FIJI Water
Hathaway explained that no one was trying to “hurt” her — it was just how the industry worked.Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios
Fast forward a few decades and now Hathaway is starring and producing her new film, “The Idea of You” — meaning she had a say in how the casting process worked.
In the film, Hathaway plays a single mother in her 40s who falls in love with a much younger male singer. However, the “Devil Wears Prada” star said she didn’t need to kiss a bunch of 20-something-year-old men to find her perfect co-star.
Instead of swapping spit, the actress asked each auditioning actor to sing a song they felt the characters “would love.”
“[A song] that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little improv,” she explained. “I was sitting in a chair like we had come in from dinner or a walk or something, we pressed play, and we just started dancing together.”
