Anne Hathaway Living Her Dream By Staying True to Herself

Actress and Oscar winner, Anne Hathaway boldly talks about what needs to change in Hollywood and how she has learned to appreciate who she is as a person

- Viva Press

Anne Hathaway is an extraordinarily vivacious and passionate woman. It’s precisely her unabashed enthusiasm and performer’s mentality that has often incurred the wrath of critics and online trolls who have found her too anxious to be liked. In an interview with The New York Times last year, she confessed that “I have a history of being shamed and humiliated, for different reasons.”

That process began even before her cringeworthy 2011 Oscars co-hosting stint alongside an unpredictable and smug James Franco. In her teens and then into her twenties, she suffered from a chronic need to please others and took to putting on a cheery media facade to endear people to her. But that earnest sensibility and the perception that she was trying too hard to ingratiate herself with the public had the exact opposite effect and created legions of “Hathahaters.” Recalls Anne of her overly intertwined personal self and public persona: “I didn’t think I was good enough. So I pretended to be someone I wasn’t.”

But Anne has been working hard of late on not trying so hard. She grew up dreaming of success and she knew she had the talent to get it. But she was never that talented at hiding her ambition.

Says Anne: “I’m now much more secure and less confused about what I want. I spent way too much time trying to be perfect and then going through periods of anxiety and confusion that would leave me exhausted. Now I take things as they come and I don’t block myself. I guess it’s all about gaining more perspective and being able to enjoy things rather than constantly worrying all the time... I’m very happy with how my life is evolving. I’ve figured out that I don’t have to stress myself as much and can just enjoy everything more by being true to who I am.”