In 2001, Anne Hathaway made her debut as Mia Thermopolis in "The Princess Diaries" and every thirteen-year-old girl in America went ballistic, wondering if they could also secretly be a princess. The actress’s career continued to skyrocket when she starred in "Ella Enchanted" and "The Princess Diaries 2."
Anne Hathaway became a household name. But along with that name came some interesting feelings; specifically, the feeling of hate in reference to the actress. I have to admit that I myself am under the “I hate Anne Hathaway” umbrella. No one seems to be able to pinpoint exactly why they hate Anne Hathaway, but they just know they do. Here are some reasons I think the actress repels her audience.
1. She never stopped acting like a princess.
When Anne Hathaway stepped into the role of the clumsy, quirky, girl-next-door-turned-princess role from "The Princess Diaries," she never stepped out. She always seems to play the charming, flawed but not too flawed, happy-go-lucky girl. And it's annoying.
2. Everything she does seems like acting, and therefore she never seems genuine.
I don’t know if Anne Hathaway is just very insecure, or just doesn’t know how to stop acting, but she always seems to be overcompensating, overacting. Everything she does and says is like a magical fairytale, and it’s just not believable. Even when her character Fantine in Les Miserables was getting her hair chopped off and her teeth pulled out to sell for money to support her child, and eventually became a humiliated prostitute, I didn’t believe she was poor and scared. It was just too dramatic, too much like she was just being dramatic for the camera's sake. Good actors should be able to convince you that they actually are the character they're playing.
3. If you’re quirky, you have to also be funny, and able to make fun of yourself.
There are some quirky, weird, beautiful female actors who most people love, like Zooey Deschanel or Jennifer Lawrence. But how is Anne Hathaway different from them? With the quirkiness, there has to be some humor, some ability to laugh at yourself that I just don’t see in Anne Hathaway.
Something about the way she smiles and laughs makes me think that if someone pretended to joke about her acting ability, she’d dissolve in tears immediately.
These are just opinions, of course. Not everyone hates Anne Hathaway, and not everyone who does has a good reason to. Sometimes, actors can get caught up in themselves and their work, and with this comes some resentment from the general public. All we can do is sit back, grab some popcorn, and go along for the ride.
