At 41, Anne Hathaway is a Hollywood darling, Versace muse and Oscar winner. Since bursting onto the scene as Mia Thermopolis in 2001’s The Princess Diaries, the New Yorker has starred in all manner of films, from Brokeback Mountain to Rachel Getting Married, but it’s her chick flicks that we come back to time and time again. As she celebrates her birthday today, Vogue offers a (highly subjective) take on her greatest roles to date.
It would be remiss to talk about Hathaway’s acting career without mentioning The Princess Diaries. Hathaway’s performance as Mia Thermopolis – a bushy-browed teen who discovers she is, in fact, the Princess of Genovia – somewhat mirrored her real-life transformation from girl-next-door to 19-year-old superstar adjusting to life in the public eye.
In this underrated Nancy Meyers’s flick, Hathaway plays the ultimate She-E-O, Jules Ostin, who reluctantly hires retired 70-year-old widower Ben (Robert de Niro) as an intern at her behemoth online fashion retailer. Of course, a rocky start gives way to an intergenerational friendship, with Jules teaching Ben how to use Facebook, and Ben teaching Jules to know her own worth. Perfect Sunday viewing.
One of the many incarnations of the Cinderella story, Ella Enchanted sees its titular heroine “charmed” (read: cursed) by a fairy into doing whatever her horrible stepmother bids. Naturally, Ella embarks on a quest to break the spell, encountering elves, ogres and her Prince Charming along the way. Featuring on the peak-Y2K soundtrack? Kelly Clarkson, Jesse McCartney and Raven Symone.
One Day caught me off guard; be forewarned, this David Nicholls adaptation is not your typical rom-com. Hathaway plays Emma Morley, a University of Edinburgh student turned Paris-based author, whose friendship (and romance) with fellow graduate Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess) evolves and deepens over the course of 20 years. Come prepared with tissues (and to ignore Hathaway’s shaky Yorkshire accent).
Ah, Ocean’s 8. The film’s strength comes from its magical ensemble cast (Sandra Bullock, Rihanna and Cate Blanchett, included), and Hathaway is brilliant as Daphne Kluger, the proud owner of “one of the greatest necks in the world”, whose diamond necklace gets stolen at the Met Gala.
Set in ’90s Pittsburgh, Love & Other Drugs follows Maggie Murdock (Hathaway), a free-spirited young woman with early onset Parkinson’s disease, as she meets and falls in love with a promiscuous pharmaceutical sales rep, Jamie Randall (Gyllenhaal). This film has it all: Gyllenhaal being annoying, Judy Greer as (what else?) a best friend, and a closer look at the surreal beginnings of the Viagra phenomenon.
We all knew this one would be last. Seventeen years later, The Devil Wears Prada is still the mother of all chick-flicks – lifting the lid on what it’s like to have the job “a million girls would kill for”, with a Gisele cameo thrown in for good measure.
