UPDATE: JANUARY 25, 2019, AT 12:17 P.M ET — There’s been an exciting development in the saga of The Princess Diaries 3. For those of you who have been following along, we know that Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews are both down to reprise their regal roles in the beloved movie franchise and that a script for a third chapter exists. Even still, though, the project hasn’t officially been green-lit.
Hathaway doubled-down on all of this when she stopped by Watch What Happens Live Thursday night (January 24), telling host Andy Cohen, “There is a script for the third movie. I want to do it. Julie [Andrews] wants to do it. Debra Martin Chase, our producer, wants to do it. We all really want it to happen. It’s just we don’t want to do it unless it’s perfect, because we love it just as much as you guys love it. It’s as important to us as it is to you. And we don’t want to deliver anything until it’s ready, but we’re working on it.”
I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. From this quote—and what’s been said in the past—it seems like The Princess Diaries 3 still has some hurdles to jump through before it hits theaters. But regardless, it’s comforting to know Hathaway is just as amped on the idea as we are.
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ORIGINAL STORY:
The Princess Diaries is one of pop culture’s crown jewels. The film series gave us so much: Julie Andrews eating a corndog, Mandy Moore’s greatest song of all time (“Stupid Cupid,” of course), a newfound appreciation for M&Ms—the list goes on. It also launched the career of Anne Hathaway, one of Hollywood’s most decorated actresses. The first two movies are cherished by millennials across the world, and we’ve been waiting on pins and needles for any news about a third installment.
Andrews herself started this chatter when she told BuzzFeed that she and Hathaway are down to make a third movie as a tribute to the late Gary Marshall, who directed the first two chapters.
“I think we might do it in honor of [Marshall],” Andrews said. “Annie had an idea that she wanted to pursue about it, and I’m all for it, so if she’d like to.”
Things escalated when Robert Schwartzman, who played Mia’s first boyfriend, Michael, told Glamour he’s also down to return. “It’d be cool to at least have the conversation about it if they want to do it,” he said.
This is all conjecture, though. Truthfully, it’s just actors humoring the press with vague but optimistic statements about a possible sequel. Stars do this all the time—cough, Big Little Lies, cough—and it tends to get fans’ hopes up prematurely. No one on Team Princess Diaries has said anything concrete about movie three.
Well, until now. Meg Cabot, who wrote the Princess Diaries book series, told Entertainment Weekly that a script for the third movie exists; it’s just a matter of when—and if—everyone wants to do it.
The author also confirmed Andrews’ statement about people wanting to make a third film “as a tribute” to Marshall. “So who knows? [It] could happen, as we say,” she said.
Unfortunately, Cabot didn’t reveal what the third script is about. “I am not allowed to say,” she said. “I would love to sit and talk about [it], but I can’t. I’m not allowed. But it’s really more following the movie than the books.”
She continued, “I think of [the books and movies] as two different universes. Like there’s The Princess Diaries universe that I created, which is, you know, amazing, and the Disney universe, that they created, which is equally amazing. And, you know, there’s fans of both, and fans who actually kind of like both of them at the same time.”
Anne Hathaway has never had a public reputation as a big partier or drinker. Even so, she didn’t love the role alcohol was playing in her life—so she quit last October.
The actress opened up about her decision in a recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, though she says the change isn’t necessarily permanent. It does, however, have a lot to do with Jonathan, her two-year-old son with husband Adam Shulman. “I’m going to stop drinking while my son is living in my house,” she told DeGeneres, “just because I don’t totally love the way I do it, and he’s getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the morning.”
“I did one school run one day where I dropped him off at school; I wasn’t driving, but I was hung over and that was enough for me,” Hathaway continued. “I didn’t love that one.”
Hathaway shared a story about another time drinking impacted her work: a hungover business meeting after a night out with Matthew McConaughey, her costar in the upcoming film Serenity, and his wife, Camila Alves. “We drank the night away, and then I had to go to a meeting with Steven Knight, our director, the next day, and I was just kind of…have you guys ever had to go to a meeting hungover?” Hathaway asked the audience. “I was just kinda stumbling in with one eye open, and I was trying to convince him about certain things about my character.”
“And at the end of it I said, ‘Listen, I have a confession. I was hungover the entire time.’ And he just goes, “Oh, really? I couldn’t tell,'” Hathaway said. “Then two days later we had another meeting and I showed up and he said, ‘Oh, now I can tell.'”
Anne Hathaway may have last worked with Julie Andrews 14 years ago, on the set of The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten the many life lessons she learned from the actress. On Monday (October 1), Dame Julie Andrews turned 83, and Hathaway celebrated the happy occasion with a heartfelt Instagram post, complete with an adorable Princess Diaries reference. Uploading a still from the ball scene where Queen Clarisse formally introduces Mia as the Princess of Genovia, Hathaway listed all the important things Andrews taught her throughout their friendship.
“The importance of grace,” Hathaway began. “The knowledge that power is nothing without respect; Why one must have patience, positivity, perspective, manners, kindness, and humility. Always, To everyone, (No exceptions); The joy in treating people as a gift rather than a burden; How far choosing gratitude can get you… If I know anything about any of this, It’s because I was lucky enough to have learned from the very best at the very beginning. Happy Birthday Julie, Queen Eternal. All my love, Annie”
By the way, Hathaway isn’t just signing off like that to be cute. Andrews does actually call her former co-star “Annie”—in fact, she even referred to her as such while teasing fans with the possibility of a third Princess Diaries movie. “I think we might do it in honor of [late director Gary Marshall],” Andrews told BuzzFeed back in March 2017. “Annie had an idea that she wanted to pursue about it, and I’m all for it, so if she’d like to.”
It’s not just wishful thinking; in August, author Meg Cabot revealed to Entertainment Weekly that a script for Princess Diaries 3 does exist. “So who knows?” she said then. “[It] could happen, as we say.” Fingers crossed!
Confession: When it felt like the world turned on Anne Hathaway in 2013, around the time of her awards season run for Les Miserables, I fell victim to the narrative. I complained about her incessantly as I watched that year’s Golden Globes and Oscars with my friends, not-so-secretly hoping Amy Adams would pull off the upset for The Master.
I was swayed by the countless think pieces written about what’s colloquially dubbed the “Hathahate.” A New York Times piece, titled “Do We Really Hate Anne Hathaway?”, cited her earnest awards show speeches and a feeling of inauthenticity as reasons for the disdain. “It’s not really Anne Hathaway I ‘hate,’” said Sarah Nicole Prickett in the story. “It’s all the lesser, real-life Anne Hathaways I have known—princessy, theater-schooled girls who have no game and no sex appeal and eat raisins for dessert.”
When writer Ann Friedman polled friends for New York magazine, responses ranged from, “She is that theater kid with good intentions but secretly annoys the shit out of you” to “You want to be excited for her and you are but deep down you are kind of rolling your eyes.”
Others, myself included, might have responded to such a backlash by getting defensive or even outright changing their public persona. Not Hathaway. Instead, she sensed people “needed a break” and took some time for herself. When she resurfaced a year later, it was for Song One—a low-budget independent film, yes, but an earnest romantic drama in which she sings nonetheless.
The lesson? Hathaway’s not going to change just because a few headlines tell her to. “I’m interested in living a very honest life. I don’t know if that makes me a boring person. I don’t really care if it does,” she told Glamour in her recent cover story. “It would be easier if I was better at being misleading or sneaky. I know how all that stuff works. I’m not a naive idiot. I know if I was a little bit mean to everybody, people would be like, ‘Oh, she’s fun. I like her. Come have a drink.’ And I’m just like, ‘Can we have a drink and not try to tear each other apart?’”
And now, the pendulum of public reception seems to have swung back in her favor. That’s in large part thanks to Hathaway being the best thing (among many, many good things) in Ocean’s 8. As Hollywood It Girl Daphne Kluger, Hathaway plays to her strengths: She’s charming, she’s cunning, and, best of all, she’s self-aware. The press tour has been just as positive, giving Hathaway opportunities to share stories like the time Rihanna praised her butt or when the cast stopped filming so she could breast feed.
“For a few years there, Hathaway’s presence in Hollywood was attached to the narrative that she was trying too hard to be likable, that she was embarrassing herself by showing her work,” writes Jia Tolentino in the New Yorker. “This performance is a statement—Hathaway understands the game she’s playing—and a heist in itself. She runs away with the show.”
This switch made me realize something about myself: Sometimes it’s just easier to be snarky. It’s certainly my default position more than I’d like to admit. Really, what’s so wrong with being earnest or trying too hard? I remember once joking that Hathaway seemed like a not-so-great hang—but once I removed my snark-colored glasses, she was, dare I say, delightful. Others agree:
The thing is: Hathaway has always been great; I was just reading her all wrong. The Intern and Devil Wears Prada are two movies I will watch to completion every single time they’re on TV, which has as much to do with Hathaway’s charm as it does her iconic co-stars Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep. The Princess Diaries (and its sequel) is still endearing—and relatable all over again in the Age of Markle. Hathaway’s fantastic in Brokeback Mountain upon further reflection—that telephone call with Jake Gyllenhaal is more powerful than you may remember—and Rachel Getting Married might be her best work. Oh, and that Oscar-winning turn as Fantine in Les Mis, the one that started all of this “Hathahate,” is actually moving. Seriously, what were we doing criticizing this incredibly talented woman so harshly for so long?
Not only has Ocean’s 8 hit number one at the box office, but the behind-the-scenes stories that have come to light during the film’s press tour have made it number one in our hearts, especially the ones about the all-star cast having each other’s backs. The most recent tale of women supporting women on the set of the film comes from Anne Hathaway, who revealed that the cast demanded that they stop filming so that she could pump her breast milk.
In an interview on Today with Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, new mom Hathaway, who appeared with fellow actresses Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, and Cate Blanchett, discussed the solid her costars did her when it came time to pump. “I was so happy because I was breastfeeding and I had that moment where I was like, ‘Oh, is this going to be a positive environment to be able to do that in?’ Everybody was fantastic and they understood,” she said. “I remember there was one moment where we were shooting a little long, and I just kind of went, ‘Uhhh,’ and the girls were like ‘What’s wrong?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry, I should have pumped an hour ago.’ And the girls just, like, formed around me, and they were like, ‘We need a break. We need a break. Annie needs to go do this.’ And it was just, like, I mean, who gets that?”
Hathaway was quick to point out that everyone should get that kind of support, no matter where they work or who their coworkers are.
The women also said in the interview that they became each other’s resources for parenting and general life tips, like where to get Halloween costumes for their children (just don’t ask for Blanchett’s help—she hand-makes hers). And previously, Hathaway has said that Bullock, Blanchett, and Rihanna all made her feel more comfortable in her post-baby body when she showed up on set in a new pair of jeans and all three complimented her look. “Damn, girl! You got an ass!” Rihanna said, according to Hathaway.
Let’s hope there’s a sequel to Ocean’s 8 just so this group of women can hang out more. Watch the full interview, below.
There aren’t many spots like Cafe Luxembourg in New York City. It’s the kind of place where well-worn barstools and hang-your-own coat racks add to its sophistication. The kind of place where you can have too many glasses of wine at lunch. Where you can tell the hostess you are meeting Anne Hathaway and she’ll shrug and say, “Oh, she’s been here a million times.” The whole vibe is high-end casual, Left Bank meets Upper West Side. And indeed, when Hathaway walks in, there is no noticeable change in the room. No one cranes their neck or pulls out an iPhone. Maybe the other patrons have seen the Oscar winner here a million times. Or maybe everyone is French.
In the five years since #HathaHate—the 2013 media storm that erupted after Hathaway won the best supporting actress Oscar for her turn as Fantine in Les Misérables and was deemed too earnest, too jazz-hands, too something—the 35-year-old has emerged with a simple realization: It doesn’t matter whether people like her, because she really likes herself. “I’m interested in living a very honest life. I don’t know if that makes me a boring person. I don’t really care if it does,” she says after we debate the merits of the Côtes de Provence versus organic rosé. “It would be easier if I was better at being misleading or sneaky. I know how all that stuff works. I’m not a naive idiot. I know if I was a little bit mean to everybody, people would be like, ‘Oh, she’s fun. I like her. Come have a drink.’ And I’m just like, ‘Can we have a drink and not try to tear each other apart?’”
Brave New Heights “I’m not interested in getting to the top of the mountain. I hope that, at the top of the mountain, there’s another mountain.” Louis Vuitton sleeveless jacket, dress, shoes. Juicy by Juicy Couture pants, $50. Ben-Amun by Isaac Manevitz earring, $220 for pair. Aurélie Bidermann ring, $480.
Anne—or Annie, as she tells me to call her—was born in Brooklyn. When she was six, her parents, Gerald, a labor attorney, and Kate, a former actress, moved the family to Millburn, New Jersey. She has two brothers, one of whom is gay, which is why the once devout Roman Catholic Hathaways converted to Episcopalianism. Though Hathaway doesn’t identify with any religion now, owning your truth became something of a family motto. “When I was a teenager and life was starting to happen, my dad said to me: ‘Three promises. Don’t get a tattoo until you’re 23. Don’t get into motorcycles’—we have a family history of motorcycle accidents—‘and don’t lie,’” she says. “I took that in really, really deep.” (She did get a tattoo, a small cursive M on the inside of her left wrist, when she was 28.)
After high school, Hathaway went to Vassar College for a bit and then New York University’s prestigious Gallatin School of Individualized Study but never graduated. She got famous instead; after the short-lived Fox series Get Real, she landed The Princess Diaries. She made the A-list via the critically loved Brokeback Mountain and the commercial hit The Devil Wears Prada.
“It would be easier if I was better at being misleading or sneaky. I know how all that stuff works. I’m not a naive idiot.”
She also got burned. In addition to the post-Oscar backlash, there was the ex who stole more than $6 million from investors during their four-and-a-half-year relationship. She rebounded and married jewelry designer and producer Adam Shulman in 2012. Four years later they had a son, Johnny. Motherhood, she says, was a healing experience. “How Johnny is going to feel about himself will have so much to do with how I feel about myself in front of him,” she says. “If I’m feeling insecure, I am very careful that I don’t show that. But I also work really hard to acknowledge that place, give room for that place, and then release myself from that place. I’m more loving now, and that includes toward myself.”
Through it all she kept working; Hathaway has appeared in more than 35 films. “I was very deliberately, in my twenties, trying to do as many different types of roles as I could with different directors, just to become a better actress,” she says. “If there was a goal, it was always to just play parts until people were like, ‘Oh, she can pull that off.’” Things didn’t always work out perfectly—and she’s witnessed the abuse of power firsthand. “I’ve had a 20-year career and I’ve had some really, really bad experiences,” she says, “but I’ve had a lot of great ones too—with members of both genders.” I can tell she’s hesitant to go there on the bad times. “While they do not begin to approach the atrocious, galling stories others have shared in recent months, I have had negative on-set experiences, some of a sexual nature,” she tells me later. “Some are from the beginning of my career, some are more recent—all are unacceptable.”
Hathaway is happier talking about the positive experiences, and what we can learn from them. “There have been many; Serenity with [director] Steven Knight [was one]. He distinguishes himself by always, in every scenario, behaving as though we were two human beings trying to tell the same story. I never felt there was a power dynamic at play; rather, it was a respectful, artistic collaboration. The same for Matthew McConaughey, Jason Clarke, and the crew.” She’s using those experiences—and the conversations they beget—to inform her work with Time’s Up. Personally knowing that a film set could be either harmful or harmonious was one reason she got involved,” she says. “But it’s not just being an actress. Being a 35-year-old cisgendered woman who has experienced the everyday, abusive imbalance of the world also made me want to be a part of a movement for change…. I know the world can be far worse for others than it has been to me, but I suppose, like most everyone who has been hurt, I want to protect others from going through the worst of what I experienced. I want to help make what I consider the best of my experiences to be the norm, as it always should have been.” She’s thought a lot about how the abuse could run so deep within the industry. “I think that there’s got to be some guys who get high off the power. But in a lot of cases, it’s an echo chamber. Most guys have never seen anything different.”
“I want to protect others from going through the worst of what I experienced. I want to help make what I consider the best of my experiences to be the norm, as it always should have been.”
Hathaway is pushing herself to see differently. “One thing that I’m confronting about myself is my own bias and the fact that I aspired to be a part of [this industry] without having to imagine what it could look like if everybody was in it. But if change is going to happen, we have to get uncomfortable,” she says. “Somebody really brilliant once told me that prophecy is not handed down by DNA. We learn by telling each other stories.” And as she segues into producing, she hopes to become a different kind of storyteller. “I’m working on something right now, and I really hope it gets made,” she says, with more than a hint of irony creeping into her voice. “It’s about multiple versions of truth, and whether or not you can be judged on a moral level by someone who’s never imagined what it’s like to be you.”
Right now, however, she’s focused on the release of Ocean’s 8. Hathaway plays Daphne Kluger, an actress who may or may not be in on a diamond robbery with Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Rihanna at Vogue’s annual Met Ball. It’s downright satisfying to watch a group of smart, badass women pull off the heist and not just be the arm candy. I ask whether it feels surreal to play Famous Person Attending Met Ball, an event she’s attended many times herself. “I was so excited to get invited onto the team,” she tells me. “It was a big, out-of-nowhere offer. I was just like, ‘Do not embarrass yourself in front of your heroes. Do not embarrass yourself.’” She stops talking here, as if to silence critics—including herself.
Politics of Cool “I know if I was a little bit mean to every- body, people would be like, ‘Oh, she’s fun. I like her. Come have a drink.’” Levi’s Limited jacket, $148. Valentino dress. Céline hoop, $790 for pair. Eye M by Ileana Makri ring, $475. Volcom socks, $12. Ash sneakers, $279.
Ready, Set, Action “I want to change the way we make movies. I want to make that process more open, inclusive, and socially responsible.” Lacoste dress, $375. Rockins scarf, $230. Céline hoop.
It’s the kind of purposeful self-reorienting you might expect from anyone who has been so scrutinized. I bring up the workout video she recently captioned on Instagram: “I am gaining weight for a movie role and it is going well,” which was her way of controlling the fake news cycle. “I didn’t feel like dealing with the pregnancy rumors,” she says. “I find it bizarre that there’s a storm to get ahead of, but I have a history of being shamed and humiliated, for a lot of different reasons.” Her colleagues have seen her grapple with barriers too. “Sometimes she’ll come out with a really good joke, and I’m like, ‘You should tweet that or put that on Instagram, Annie!’ And she’s like, ‘I can’t,’” says Rebel Wilson, her costar in the upcoming comedy The Hustle. “One Friday I said, ‘I can taste the weekend,’ and she was like, ‘Oh, and how does he taste?’ She comes up with stuff like that all the time. I guess a lot of people don’t know that side of her.”
In our afternoon together I see glimpses of that Anne Hathaway. She drinks pink wine during the daytime. She slurps a mean oyster. She gets hives on her neck when she’s nervous and is as comfortable name-checking Ryan Gosling as she is David Foster Wallace and feminist author Rebecca Solnit. She keeps a ridiculous photo on her phone of when she was “ready to go into labor” and Barbra Streisand rubbed her belly. “I don’t have strangers in my life. People don’t treat me like a stranger very often,” she says. “I’ve always been really good at diving in. And while sometimes I wish there was a little more distance, I actually really like being able to go there with people right away.”
“I find it bizarre that there’s a storm to get ahead of, but I have a history of being shamed and humiliated, for a lot of different reasons.”
And like all of us, sometimes she gets really pissed off. “I have a history with rage,” Hathaway says. “I used to do this thing where I was like, ‘I’m nice 29 days out of 30, and then I give myself complete permission to be a bitch to anyone, about anything.’ I realized that if I could actually move away from the judgment and deal with my emotions in the moment, I didn’t actually need the extra day. Rage doesn’t lead you to a place of peace. And for me the goal is not happiness. The goal is peace.”
But peace, like success, is more of a journey than a destination. “Cate Blanchett once said something like, ‘I don’t ever want to feel that I’ve arrived, because as soon as you arrive, you have to leave,’” she says. “That’s the way I’ve always felt about it. I’m not interested in getting to the top of the mountain. I hope that, at the top of the mountain, there’s just another mountain.” She knows she regresses sometimes, and recalls a moment watching the monitor after filming a scene for The Hustle. “Chris Addison, the director, saw me recoil and said, ‘What’s the matter?’ And I said, ‘Nothing. I just need a new face,’” she says. The negativity felt all too familiar. “I just had this moment where I was like, ‘Ugh. Not again. You know where this road leads. And you know it doesn’t make you a better actress. So can we please not beat the you-know-what out of ourselves today and just, like, make another choice?’ And the scene came alive.”
In the end, all this self-analyzing has just made her better—a better mom, a better actress, a better human. “Anne is pretty darn self-aware,” says Ocean’s 8 director Gary Ross. “The thing that struck me most about working with Anne is her bravery. She commits fully to the character, with bravado and no self-protection—understanding that a great performance is never a timid performance.”
We pay the check and walk the two long blocks to the uptown apartment where she and Shulman and Johnny live when they’re not in Los Angeles. Right before she heads back to her life full of fame and contradictions and screaming toddlers and self-criticism, we hug. It’s a wrap-you-up, close-friends kind of hug, not timid at all.
Justine Harman is Glamour’s features director.
Fashion credits for lead video: Versace bodysuit, $1,095. Pringle of Scotland pants, $695. Annelise Michelson hoop, $557 for pair. Dinosaur Designs ring, $235. Eye M by Ileana Makri ring, $475. For black-and-white photos: Eckhaus Latta blazer, pants, $696. Ivy Park hoodie, $50. Rockins scarf, worn as belt, $119. Kathleen Whitaker earring, ring. Sarah & Sebastian pearl earring, $295. Eye M by Ileana Makri gold ring, $475. Bracelets, worn throughout, Hathaway’s own.
This story originally appeared in the June/July 2018 issue of Glamour.
