and be right.” As anyone in a healthy
relationship knows, an insistence on
being right won’t last long in matters of
love. Hathaway resisted. “You have
those moments where you just want to
grab them, like, Noooooo! I just want to
be petty for a little bit longer.”
After we finished learning to make
sushi with rice outside, sushi with rice
inside, and hand-rolled sushi, we moved
toward a table set for two beside a mas-
sive window overlooking a sparkling
East River. Hathaway was very pleased
with her handmade sushi, and I admit-
ted I was also pleased with mine. She
said we should take pictures, and I
agreed, but I was using my phone to
record our conversation. “But we need
proof!” She leaned over the bench at our
side and rifled through her bag to find
her camera. Once she had it in her hand,
she lifted it above her head triumphantly
and said, “I’m going to prove this!”
Hathaway quickly takes photo-
graphic evidence of our shared supe-
rior sushi-making skills, and I move on
to the film that brought us here
together. If costarring with Rebel
Wilson in The Hustle was an opportu-
nity to show her comedy chops, Dee
Rees’s The Last Thing He Wanted was
an opportunity to do something similar
in the way of political thriller and sus-pense. Elena McMahon, the character
Hathaway plays, is an investigative jour-
nalist with that signature tenacity,
though the drive had become warped
over time. In some ways, she is exactly
what Hathaway wants to avoid becom-
ing. “I feel like something about work-
ing on The Last Thing He Wanted made
my character so angry and so righ-
teous. She’s not wrong for the reason
she’s angry, but [it’s] taken over her life.
Now she’s more angry than alive.”
Elena McMahon is a woman both
obviously in pain and increasingly numb.
How did playing her affect Hathaway in
her real, everyday life? “It had a big
impact on me because anger is some-
thing that’s been a big part of my jour-
ney. Not necessarily neutralizing it,
because anger is useful, but learning the
whys of it. Learning how to ask, How
does this serve me?”
As we finished the meal and were
treated to a gorgeous dessert of sweet
berries and creamy mochi, Hathaway
and I continued to chat about life on the
set of The Last Thing He Wanted. One of
the ways Rees requested she prepare to
play Elena was by gaining 20 pounds.
Though Hathaway happily agreed, her
early experiences with conversations
around roles and weight lingered. “At 16
years old, it was ‘Congratulations, you
have the part. I’m not saying you need to
lose weight. I’m just saying don’t gain
weight.’ Which of course means you
need to lose weight.” She continued, “So
I had that, then 20 years later I have Ane
Crabtree [costume designer for The Last
Thing He Wanted] asking me what my
body does on my moon—which I real-
ized meant my period—so she can make
adjustments for me. It was just this beau-
tiful thing. I am cautious in my praise of
how Hollywood is shifting. There is so
much more body inclusivity—which is
great!—but the thin thing is definitely still
the centralized ‘normal’ expectation.”
Hathaway told me that at no point
had she really considered giving up on
performance. In fact, she sees brighter
days ahead for women in the industry.
“It’s more nuanced, and it’s more inter-
esting. It’s allowed for more interesting
characters and stories. Now the big
question is are audiences appreciating
it? If it’s not supported, it won’t continue.
It will go back to the way it was, and
people will say, ‘Okay, that didn’t work.’”
While we all wait to see what happens
in the long run, Hathaway is preparing
for a role in the new Sesame Street movie
and working on producing projects she
can’t share just yet. She’ll also give birth
to a baby in the fall, something I sus-
pected from the first hug but wanted her
to confirm. It’s an announcement meant
for her to control. And of course, that’s
the only way she would have it.Greatest beauty regret:
Brown Wet n Wild lip
pencil with white lipstick
because it’s what the
seniors were doing.
Three words y o u ’d use to
describe your current
beauty look: Hopefully
well rested.
Beauty look you’re dying
to try next: Glam rock.
Movie look you wish you
could adopt (or have
adopted) in off-camera
life: Maggie’s hair in Love
and Other Drugs.
Last product you bought:
Beeswax pellets, cocoa
butter, and mica powder. I
make my own products
whenever possible (I try to
buy the initial ingredients
in nonplastic containers,
which is harder than it
should be) and store them
in glass or biodegradable
materials. Right now I’m
planning to make my own
body shimmer.
To p skin concern:Dryness, redness,
crow’s-feet. (Fuckers. I
mean, aging is a gift. )
Favorite way to consume
800 calories: There are
so many...but my
favorite-favorite way is
with friends and some
kind of melted cheese.
First thing you do when
you wake up: I resent that
it’s morning.
Last thing you do before
falling sleep: Say thank
you for the day.
Most unlikely item in
your makeup bag: A
seashell.
Your happiest hair
moment: Getting Andy
Sachs’s bangs.
What are the least and
most expensive items in
your beauty bag/
medicine cabinet: Least:
coconut oil (that jar lasts a
while). Most: I got a
Japanese infrared-light
face wand on Gucci
Westman’srecommendation.
______ is the best
medicine: It’s different for
everyone, but it should all
be covered by insurance
without regard for
preexisting conditions.
Favorite nonperfume
smell: My son, of course.
Pre-motherhood:
lightning.
Last Amazon beauty
purchase: Chantecaille
gold eye masks. (So
expensive but truly,
deeply brilliant.)
Favorite beauty product
to pick up at a foreign
drugstore: CBD pills in
Amsterdam. I thought
they made me very
beautiful.
Last beauty product you
borrowed from a set:
Bumble and Bumble sea
salt spray.
Weirdest beauty ritual: If
it works, it ain’t weird.
What sunscreen do you
wear? Actinica.MY BEAUTY TRUTHS...
With Anne Hathawayvulnerability.” Then she adds, “I don’t
think anyone is expecting me to win a
Grammy or anything, so I just kept my
expectations realistic and did my best.”
I asked if she grew up in a home
where if she wanted to do something
she could reasonably expect to be free
to make it happen. “No. And yet [my par-
ents] 100 percent believed in me. They
just wanted me to be happy.” Hathaway’s
parents made room for her interest in
performance and were supportive of her
budding career, “but I had to take the
lead.” While spreading sticky rice on the
rough side of good seaweed and learn-
ing to roll (not too fast, not too hard), she
explained that she’d looked for her own
auditions and her own opportunities,
and her parents mostly gave her love,
encouragement, and a lot of car rides
from New Jersey to New York.
I can’t imagine anyone would be sur-
prised to know Anne Hathaway has
been in the driver’s seat of her own
career. She consistently chooses roles
with strong, smart, and unusually tena-
cious women who are looking for some-
thing, proving something, learning
something, or simply refusing to give
up. Neither she nor they seem to want
to run from a fight, but Hathaway has
learned a better way. “I used to love to
fight!” she said. “It felt so good to fight