Anne Hathaway delivers a performance that's generating awards buzz in Rachel Getting Married, a character-driven drama directed by Jonathan Demme. Hathaway plays Kym, younger sister of Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) of the film's title, a troubled woman who's just exiting rehab as the film begins. Kym's a wild child with an attitude sized to match her overabundance of problems.
As difficult a character as Kym was to portray, Hathaway didn't want to let her go at the end of the shoot.
"I loved her," said Hathaway. "I felt more inspired, to be honest. I felt more willingness, after I played this character, to put myself out there and not be afraid of being judged or misunderstood or disliked. I found a lot of confidence in this role to be able to approach people and say, 'Look, as long as I'm myself, you can like me or dislike me but at least it's under honorable pretenses.' I felt really comfortable and I found that that level of honesty and self-representation has really deepened my relationship with people that I love in my life and has made my life better. Even if Kym's not with me anymore, her lessons are."
On the Coolest Thing About Playing Kym:
"You mean besides the hair? For me, it was the first time that I've ever not editorialized a character. Sometimes I feel like, 'Okay, I'm going to know my character better than everyone and here's what you're supposed to like about her and here's what you're not supposed to like and here's where she's coming from and here's her journey.' In a way, I would overthink it."
"I had a realization about a month before I made this movie that it really doesn't matter if I like Kym or not. It doesn't really matter, no offense, if any of you like her or love her. Actually, the only thing what was important to her story is that you understand her. The worse thing I could do would be in any way, try to manipulate her to gain the audience's sympathy or respect. That was never my intention. I just figured, 'Okay my only job, all I have to do is to make her truthful.' If you make her truthful, she'll be understood and then people can take away from her what they want but she'll be honest. That'll be on them to react."
On Who Kym is and How She Connected with Her:
"I got a lot of questions like, 'What was it like playing a selfish character?' I said, 'Yeah, she's got flaws and sometimes you want to smack her,' but the thing I love about this movie is, underneath it, here is a girl fighting for her survival. She's fighting to stay sober. To the people who say she's selfish, I'm just like, 'Do you see what she puts up with in the movie?' The way she's perceived, the way she's treated, and she's there putting up with it because she loves her sister. Kym is fierce. Kym has the biggest heart of any character that I've ever encountered and she's frighteningly intelligent and she's really extreme. My heart goes out to her because I know people like that. They're just overwhelming people and that's Kym. Kym overwhelms your senses. She's so much fun to play."
On Freedom on the Set and Jonathan Demme's Shooting Style:
"Do you do Yoga? You know when you're trying something new and the only way to do this incredibly difficult pose is to be as relaxed as possible? That's kind of what making this movie was like. There were so many things being thrown at you but all you could kind of do was be like, 'All right, fine, let's try that.' Jonathan Demme's steering this ship and I'm happy to be aboard. I personally feel that your own personal hang-ups and feelings don't really matter when you're on set. It's all about telling the story and doing the scene and telling the truth. So, I just automatically try to feel comfortable wherever I am because, if I uncomfortable, that's only going to stilt me and make me more self-conscious, and I'm kind of both of those things anyway. So, the script, the consistency of it, the complexity of the conflict, the truth of the characters, made it very easy because there is nothing you had to bring to it. You just kind of had to show up and find the truth every day."
On Playing the Younger Sister:
"I don't have sisters, but I do have girlfriends that we're as close as sisters and I have, as a grown-up, observed my girlfriends who had sisters, observing what that was like. What I always noticed was that I always thought they hated each other but that's the thing about sisterhood, it's a person that you are free to love with your whole heart and hate with your whole heart, so I think Rosemarie and I just kind of did that in our scenes. So that was the way we attacked it, like it's the person that, maybe you don't talk to them for months at a time but, when you go back, you can't deny that your heart reaches out for that person."
On the Oscar Buzz:
"It's thrilling to have inspired people in the performance to put their passion out there on display. That's so cool and I've never done anything that warranted that before or garnered it, so I'm enjoying having my work enjoyed. That being said, ultimately the buzz doesn't matter until the nominations come out so I'm not really thinking about it too much."
Up Next – A Return to the Comedy with Bride Wars
"Honestly, it was tough to get back to the 19-hour shooting days because, on this one, if we worked 10 hours everyone was like, 'Oh, my God. It's so hard.' We were so spoiled in terms of how well we were taken care of and Bride Wars was a pretty rigorous shooting schedule. But I was still coming out of Jonathan Demme world so I felt I had a really light touch with the character and I felt really good playing her. Bride Wars is this movie 180 degrees. It's impossible not to have fun with Kate Hudson. She's like a ray of sunshine."