'Princess' star surprised by success

By Anthony Breznican
Associated Press

A misstep helped Anne Hathaway land the starring role in "The Princess Diaries." She's appearing now in "The Other Side of Heaven."

Only 19 years old, beautiful, talented and smart, the previously unknown actress has taken the semester off from Vassar College to enjoy life as a movie star.

"It's going to sound so cheesy, but I just love acting," she said. "I love learning about new parts of myself through characters, and getting lost in people and learning how to breathe differently because all of a sudden you're this different person."

In the meantime, she vows not to let being a celebrity go to her head.

"If you're on the cover of a magazine, that does not influence how organic your acting is."

During a stay in Los Angeles, where she appeared on a late-night talk show, the Millburn, N.J., native abandons glamour and makeup for a sweater and faded jeans. She answers her hotel door barefoot, with candy-apple red toenails.

Still basking in the blockbuster success of "The Princess Diaries," Hathaway became a critical darling in the recent Broadway musical "Carnival," in which she played an orphan who falls under the spell of a nefarious traveling circus. The show ended in mid-February.

Her latest appearance is in the family-oriented drama "The Other Side of Heaven," in which she plays the devoted love of a Mormon missionary, awaiting his return from a two-year excursion in Tonga in the 1950s.

"Everyone thinks this is supposed to be my huge follow-up role but in actuality this is my 'first-ever feature film,' " she says, annunciating those last words in a weighty announcer's voice.

She credits the low-budget 2001 drama, which is now opening in more theaters, with indirectly getting her the lead in "The Princess Diaries." While traveling to New Zealand for the production, she had a daylong layover in Los Angeles and decided to audition for the "Diaries" part.

"I was shaking during the entire audition, but apparently nobody noticed," she said.

Well, director Garry Marshall noticed. The filmmaker, best known for "Pretty Woman," has said Hathaway slipped off her chair at one point, which made him choose her to play the awkward teenager who learns she is heir to a kingdom.

"But it was such a small part of the interview!" Hathaway insists. "It was not this enormous pratfall that everyone has in their minds."

Then what was it?

"It was just one of those things where you get up and your foot kind of hits the leg of the chair as you're doing it," she said. "And you sort of trip a little, and sit back down and get up very gracefully. Then you pretend like nothing ever happened while you're trying to ignore other people laughing at you."

Hathaway slowly hides her face in her hands.

"I'm such a dork," she says. "I can't believe I fell off my chair."

Such girlish missteps seem only to add to her charm. The actress's wholesome image sets her apart from some other young stars who make overt sexuality part of their stage persona. The New York Times said Hathaway's "Carnival" performance, "somehow makes unspotted purity look like the latest fashion."

It makes Hathaway roll her eyes and throw her hands in the air.

"Everyone is saying, 'Wait a minute, you're the wholesome girl next door.' And I keep saying, 'No, there's more to me, I promise."'

She realizes that a continued focus on lighthearted roles could end up typecasting her, but although she'd like to begin taking edgier roles, she's reluctant to play off her sexuality.

Hathaway says she gets guidance from her large family, especially her lawyer father and aspiring actress mother. She has an older brother and a younger brother who both watch out for her, and a menagerie of cousins, aunts, uncles and godparents.

"I'm really, really lucky that my family is the way it is, which is completely imperfect, but we're comfortable with who we are and whatever mistakes we make."

Hathaway then falls back against the couch with a groan and covers her face. "That sounds so much like an 'After-School Special.' I'm sorry."

The success and sudden attention from "The Princess Diaries," which earned $108 million in U.S. theaters and is now a top-seller on home video, caught Hathaway by surprise. "We were just out to make a film that 8-year-olds and their grandmothers would like," she said.

Now she finds herself simultaneously navigating an acting career, juggling her academic future and trying to adjust to life as a grown-up.

In the meantime, she has made some bold decisions that conflict with much of the unsolicited advice she receives. She insists on making musical theater a part of her life, for instance, even though some tell her "it's only for washed-up actors."

"What you notice first about Annie is that she has a great intellect and strength. She's not just a pretty ingenue," said Mitch Davis, writer-director of "The Other Side of Heaven." "She has some force behind her personality."