Why did people hate Anne Hathaway after she won her Oscar?

Anne Hathaway has been a staple in the entertainment industry since her charming breakout as young Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries. She taught us to be true to ourselves, even when you’re a princess of a fictional country.

Since then, Hathaway has had an impressive and varied career. She has shonwn her comedic talent in films such as The Devil Wears Prada and Ocean’s 8, and been one of the few who hosted the Oscars. But her standout performance in 2012’s Les Miserables, made many take note.

She stars in the movie musical as a destitute waif, Fantine, who must embark on a career in sex work to support her young daughter. Despite her emotional performance and rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream,” the world at large was especially unkind. Even though she won an Oscar for the role, hate for the actor was prevalent on the internet.

Fans turned against Hathaway after her Oscar win

For those who don’t recall, the mid-2010s were an ugly time. It seemed as though nothing Hathaway could do would endear her to audiences. Her crime? In short: Becoming the focus of misogyny. The actor was accused of being annoying or full of herself, but there was no real basis for such aggressive vitriol.

Following the MeToo movement, outlandish hate against women like this seems much more jarring and audacious. In an interview for Vanity Fair, she remarked that she is “an intense person,” which may have added to her reputation. She explained that some productions were so wary of how the internet was reacting to her, that she would lose out on roles because of it. The one outlier who had no interest in such discourse was Christopher Nolan, who cast her as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises. But her favorite role was in her following venture with the filmmaker, Interstellar.

“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online. I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that & gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had.”

That was of course the role of Dr. Brand, a scientist who joins Matthew McConaughey’s Coop to find survivable worlds outside of Earth. She is driven by finding a way for the human race to survive, but also by the deeper pain of losing a loved one who was also an astronaut. Brand is a character not defined by her gender or as a romantic interest in the film. Instead, she exists as her own fully nuanced and developed character.

Hathaway credits Nolan for saving her career. At a time when it was unpopular to cast her, he stopped her career from being stagnant. The actor did not believe she would have the roles she would today without him. What Hathaway went through seems egregious, but it was an egregious time in Hollywood. By her own admission, her biggest fault was being sincere. Even when you do everything right, you still earn the ire of the populace.