Anne Hathaway has been a prevalent actress in Hollywood ever since she led the Princess Diaries cast as a teen. Over the years, Hathaway has accomplished a lot, between being nominated for her first Oscar back in 2009 before winning the gold statue in 2013, and having over 50 acting credits to her name. Additionally, she has been a vocal advocate for gender equality over the years, even once speaking to the UN on the topic. Recent comments from the actress highlight why she finds it important to work with female directors on her projects.
Among the 2023 new movie releases, Anne Hathaway had a movie come out in the fall called She Came To Me. The romantic comedy paired Hathaway with Peter Dinklage, and it was written and directed by Rebecca Miller. When Hathaway was asked about getting to work with the director on the project, she had this to say:
Nobody asks me what it’s like to work with a male director. And so, when I get asked about working with a female director, I think it’s really important to talk about investing in women – just from a purely economic point of view. Because female directors… they’re invested in less. And I always think it’s very important to remind people that women have only been allowed to have credit cards in America since 1974. And when you’re talking about films, you’re talking about an industry in which you’re asking people to give you money in order to realize your vision. And so, it’s going to be different, because of gender, the way that bias makes everything different.
When Hathaway shared these thoughts in an interview on The View, she pointed out the importance of investing in women when it comes to female directors. The latest massive example of a female director’s work paying off in a huge way happened this summer with Greta Gerwig’s well-reviewed Barbie movie, which became the biggest release of the year with its $1.4 billion gross at the box office. As the female-driven audience oftentimes going to the theaters dressed in pink showed, there’s a real appetite for investing in women in big-budget movies.
Hathaway was one of the actresses originally connected to the Barbie movie prior to Margot Robbie deciding to produce the project and asking Greta Gerwig to write and direct. While Hathaway hasn’t particularly worked with a lot of female directors across her career, she did get honest back in 2017 about the “internalized misogyny” she realized while working with Lone Scherfig on 2011’s One Day. As she shared with Peter Travers (via GMA at the time), she had regrets years later for “not trusting” the female director “more easily.”
In the prior confession, the actress got honest about “getting red” when talking about the realization, but despite the uncomfortableness, she felt it was “something we should talk about.” As she also shared years back, she’s noticed herself looking for “what was wrong” with a female-directed project while focusing on “what’s right” with male-directed projects.
Coming up, Anne Hathaway’s next movie is a noir thriller called Eileen, which hits theaters on December 1. Another upcoming movie of hers, The Idea Of You, is inspired by a Harry Styles fanfiction and will arrive amidst a host of exciting projects from the Oscar winner. Michael Showalter is directing.