We know and love Anne Hathaway for a lot of reasons, however, one of the big ones comes from the fact that she’s starred in some of the best rom-coms, like The Princess Diaries. However, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen her in a big splashy romance like that or the 2010 film Love and Other Drugs. With that in mind, the actress opened up about why her project on the 2024 movie schedule, The Idea of You, felt like the right film to return to the genre with.
While Anne Hathaway has done a handful of romance movies over the last decade, the last massive rom-com she starred in was Love and Other Drugs with Jake Gyllenhaal in 2010. Sure, we can throw romantic dramas like One Day and smaller comedies that involve romance like Locked Down into the mix, however, there’s no denying that the book-to-screen adaptation of The Idea of You fits into the category of big rom-coms we haven’t really seen her in for over a decade.
To this point, the actress opened up about why now was the best time for her to come back to the beloved genre during a press conference for The Idea of You that CinemaBlend attended. She said:
I didn't notice that it was happening. But I had received a lot of romantic scripts in my 20s. And then, you know, in my 30s, I was kind of so focused on my family life, and motherhood, and kind of trying to find whatever my path was going to be being an actress while having this really, really rich personal life, and so I didn't notice I hadn't been sent a romantic script in a really long time.
Hathway has been candid about making a rom-com in her 40s and the importance of making movies about women of that age. While speaking about the film adaptation of The Idea of You, she touched on this point and what attracted her to the movie, saying:
And so when this found its way to me – and I'm so honored to have been the first choice for this – it was such a beautiful character in such an amazing world. A part of me that did ask the question, but where have these stories gone? Why do they stop? And then those questions, I saw all of the paths to the answers to them in the script and in the story. And I just thought ‘Wow, what an unbelievable sort of meta exploration all of this can be.’
She’s so right. This movie about a single mom who falls in love with a guy in a boyband (played by Nicholas Galitzine) is a lovely commentary about a woman finding herself again and falling in love again when she didn’t think it was possible. It’s not often that we see women in their 40s leading a rom-com, and The Idea of You is a gorgeous portrait of finding love at that age.
Hathway explained that they filmed all of this right as she turned 40, and she couldn’t help but think about how personal the movie was to her. She emphasized that point by saying:
Without me even designing it or any of us designing it, it became so personal to me.
She went on to explain that working with director Michael Showalter and the cast of the movie made the entire experience even better. Plus, the stellar reactions The Idea of You has received likely add to her excitement.
Sadly, The Idea of You isn’t getting a theatrical release rom-coms like Love and Other Drugs did 14 years ago. However, it’s still poised to have a massive, massive impact on audiences who stream it with an Amazon Prime subscription.
So, what are you waiting for? Clearly, this film was the perfect project to get Anne Hathaway back in the rom-com game in a big way, and it’s the perfect flick for you to watch this weekend!
