Gracefully COMMITTED

Anne Hathaway has shaken off her princess crown and is showing the world that she is more than capable of being the queen of the screen through hard work, commitment and being authentically herself

- MEGAN PAULSE

Mention the name Anne Hathaway, and very few people’s minds wander to William Shakespeare’s wife. Instead, it conjures the 41-year-old actress who became a household name early on in her life. While Brooklyn-born Anne’s peers were making a name for themselves in dramas and thrillers, she did so with films suitable for all family members. Her big break was 2001’s The Princess Diaries (she reportedly beat Liv Tyler to the lead role), and Ella Enchanted followed soon after. While the mainstream media lauded her as a children’s role model for roles such as those, it was her portrayal of Andrea Sachs alongside Emily Blunt and acting royalty Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada that sealed her fate as one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars and cemented her name in pop culture history.

But it also pigeonholed her as the sweet girl next door, a perception she was desperate to shake. 'For a long time ... I was seen as this bizarre-world, good-girl cartoon that I no way identified with very vanilla, very sweet, very accessible and not interesting. I had no grit, no sex appeal,' she said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar following her 2012 role as Fantine in Les Misérables alongside Hugh Jackman. Anne also showed off her phenomenal skills as a soprano for the award-winning musical, singing every take live for the film. Not only did her rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' receive critical acclaim, but she walked away with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. While, to date, this is the only Academy Award she has won, she has gone on to tackle various memorable roles, expanding the genre of films in which she appears as she goes. These include The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar and Brokeback Mountain.