Anne Hathaway Talks Fat-Shaming After Gaining Weight For Movie Role

Anne Hathaway in Ocean's 8

Acting isn't always about memorizing lines and getting mentally prepared to effectively play a character. Occasionally, performing requires you to make physical changes so that you can look like how the character was envisioned in the writer's head. In Anne Hathaway's case, she been gaining weight for one of her upcoming movies, and taking to Instagram, she preemptively told the people she expected to fat shame her in the coming months, it's not her, it's them. Expanding on these thoughts, Hathaway has stated that she wants fans to understand that she's perfectly comfortable with how her body is, and isn't concerned with how others may want her figure to look like. In the actress' words:

I just wanted to be able to enjoy my summer and let everybody know that I'm living in my body and I'm happy with my body, and if my body is different than what you're used to or what you think it should be, that's yours, and my experience is mine, and I'm loving it.

Anne Hathaway didn't name the movie she's gaining weight for while speaking with Hoda Kotb on Today, but she already shot The Hustle late last year, and since the live action Barbie movie isn't hitting theaters until 2020, that means that Serenity as the likely candidate. Regardless, given her past experience with being fat-shamed, whether it was overt or "micro ones," she wanted to nip it in the bud this time around. The actress recalled one instance when she was 16 when someone told her she'd scored a role, but then promptly said that she couldn't gain any more weight. Hathaway acknowledged said person perhaps thought they were giving good advice, but nowadays, such a wording doesn't really fly. But Hathaway is glad that people are growing more aware of the language that they use when it comes to talking about weight. As she put it:

A lot of us are taking up this opportunity to become more conscious and more loving in the way we communicate with each other. More compassionate, yes.

Body shaming is an issue many actresses in Hollywood have dealt with (although some actors have faced it, too), but it's good to see that Anne Hathaway isn't taking those criticisms to heart. Besides, her current weight gain is for a movie, so once shooting is finished, Hathaway can drop back to her original weight or keep what she tacked if she feels comfortable with that. It's all a matter of choice.

You can see Anne Hathaway this time next week on the big screen playing Daphne Kluger in Ocean's 8. For all the latest in movies news, stay tuned to CinemaBlend, and if you're interested in learning what's arriving in theaters later this year, head to our 2018 release schedule.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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