Brutal fallout of Anne Hathaway’s ‘toxic’ career backlash

Anne Hathaway suffered a “toxic” public backlash after she flopped on the world stage - but one man helped get her career back on track.

Anne Hathaway. Picture: AFP

Following what many deemed a disastrous job co-hosting the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011, Anne Hathaway was subjected to online vitriol and constant mockery.

Two years later, she was back at the Academy Awards, accepting her first Oscar for her performance in Les Misérables. But even with that accreditation, Hathaway says a negative online presence loomed.

“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” she told Vanity Fair in a new interview.

Anne Hathaway’s 2011 Oscars hosting gig with James Franco was the start of a fierce backlash for the star. Picture: EPA

“I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of,” she said, referencing their 2014 blockbuster, Interstellar.

“I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect,” she admitted. “And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”

“Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through,” she added of the period. “The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold, and it can be hard because you’re like, ‘If I stay safe, if I hug the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.’ But if you want to do that, don’t be an actor,” she declared.

Hathaway called director Christopher Nolan (pictured) her “angel.” Picture: VCG/VCG via Getty

“You’re a tightrope walker. You’re a daredevil. You’re asking people to invest their time and their money and their attention and their care into you. So you have to give them something worth all of those things. And if it’s not costing you anything, what are you really offering?”

When The Princess Diaries actress first broke into the business, she says outsiders tried to curate her identity.

“All the advice that you’re given is to protect yourself. ‘Everybody’s dangerous and everybody’s trying to get something from you.’ … People were advising me that I armour myself and keep that distance, and that I have two selves.”

Interstellar was a massive global hit, getting Hathaway’s career back on track in the process.

“I found that terribly confusing,” she shared. “So I don’t do it that way. I’m not armoured.”

Now a mother to two young sons, Hathaway is cognisant of how negativity online plagues younger generations, and what she’d tell kids enduring similar scrutiny that she’s faced.

“I want to hug them, make them tea and tell them to live as long and as well as they can,” she told the outlet. “That there is an excellent chance that the longer they live, the smaller this moment will feel. That I wish them a life a million times more fascinating than this terrible moment.”

This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Brutal fallout of Anne Hathaway’s ‘toxic’ career backlash