ANNE Hathaway talks about changing her image for acclaimed indie wedding drama Rachel Getting Married and getting to grips with the documentary-style of Jonathan Demme’s direction.

She also discusses some of the more selfish tendencies of her character, a recovering drug addict who decides to attend her sister’s wedding, as well as a poem that really informed her research…

Q. Was the lack of rehearsals particularly nerve-wracking?
Anne Hathaway: I found the whole process, from reading the script onwards, to be liberating. It really felt like doing theatre every day but also having a documentary crew there to film it. So, the point was not to make a film, the point was to play the scene. I just ended up saying to myself, Jonathan’s going to make his movie, that’s going to happen, Declan’s going to shoot it beautifully; all we can do is play these moments as they’re supposed to be played. It didn’t become like: “This is my big scene.” It didn’t matter in that way. Frankly, it was great not to have the distraction of having to save things for close-ups and worry about only acting well when the camera is on you. There was no track for that thought train to leave the station, so it was good to act without that. I just really loved it. It took a lot of organisation for that kind of focused chaos to reign, but it was beautiful and it led to lots of creative, beautiful moments.

Q. Is it true that at times you found the music too intrusive and even snapped at one point, which was then incorporated into the film and how much improv was there.
Anne Hathaway: I’d just like to say that when I “snapped” I did ask permission to do that first before I tried it! [Laughs nervously] Far be it from me to impose anything on Jonathan Demme, or indeed any director, and I remember feeling so appalled that the musicians shouldn’t be there when you felt that they should, so I said: “How married is Jonathan to having music in this scene, could we try a take without it?” And the response that I got back from the other room was: “If you don’t like it, do something about it.” So, I did and that was the scene where I snapped at the musicians an asked if they were going to play all weekend.

As for how much of it was improvised… very little, actually. 100 per cent of the screenplay is on the screen and 95 per cent of that was dialogue that was on the page and didn’t change from the first read through. A couple of things were thrown in, but the script was written in such a way that it was easy to make it sound spontaneous and it was shot in such a way that it looked like it had been improvised, rather than there being any great improvisations on the actors’ parts.

Q. What was it like doing the scene punching Deborah Winger?
Anne Hathaway: It looked so real, and we rehearsed it quite a bit, but while I’d love to have some dramatic story about Deborah and I grabbing each other by the shoulders and making bull faces at each other and sort of breathing through our noses to rev each other up, it’s jut acting. That’s what the scene says to do, so that’s what we do. What was great about working with these actors on this whole movie was that Jonathan cast us very specifically with people whose instincts were similar, so none of us were ever in different movies – we didn’t have to talk things to death to make sure we were on the same page. If we stepped out of bounds, Jonathan would step in and reign us back in. So, what can I say [about the scene]? Leading up to it was like: “Oh my God, I get to have a scene with Deborah Winger and we’re punching each other!” But during the scene, it was very much about Abby and Kim, and afterwards it was like [snaps her fingers], I was in a scene where I got punched by Deborah Winger! So I can acknowledge as an actor how cool it was, but also as a performer how amazing it felt.

Q. How much did you know the camera was on you?
Anne Hathaway: We never knew where the camera was going to be beforehand, so you could be staring at someone’s back and suddenly Declan could turn around and you’d have a camera in your face and so you become aware in that moment. But watching the movie, there are shots that I had no idea the camera was on me… although, to be honest, most of the time I did know when it was. The thing is, though, there were usually two or three [cameras] going at the same time in group scenes, but that was also really liberating. For the second NA [Narcotics Anonymous] scene, Jonathan brought in five cameras and I didn’t know where they were, I just did the scene and we got it in one take. He had enough footage that he could cut it from that one take, so I really appreciated not having to do it more than once.

Q. Was it hard to like Kim and was it good for you to play a more selfish character?
Anne Hathaway: Yeah, Kim is narcissistic but she’s not selfish. By normal standards, yeah, she’s selfish, selfish, selfish, but when you consider that the best thing for her sobriety was to not go home for the weekend of her sister’s wedding and she’s chancing it to be there… to have that memory and to be present and in every single opportunity that she’s given to take the high road or descend, in almost every instance she chooses the high road. Obviously, it’s not the same high road as Ghandi – let’s keep it in context! But for her, she’s doing the best she can.

I like Kim, so much. I like her aesthetic, her sensibility, her sense of humour. I think Kim and I would be really good friends. I actually loved her from the first line of dialogue that I read. I felt a real kinship with her. In terms of her likeability, it was just cool to know that the film didn’t hang in the balance of whether not you liked my character. Sometimes when you’re making a certain kind of film, you need to like the character in order to care about them because they’re not terribly complex, so you’re not terribly interested in them if you don’t like them. In this particular case, there’s so much going on with Kim that she was fascinating enough that you didn’t need to like her. I always felt really comfortable that her story was compelling enough and truthful enough and her depth of love was enough that people would actually understand and love her before they even liked her.

Q. Did you do much research into addiction?
Anne Hathaway: I know people who are addicts and I asked them to help me out and they were very generous with their time and they took me to meetings. At first, they were just general meetings and I didn’t think Kim would go to those, so I went to some in New York where I thought Kim would hang out. I also read memoirs and went online and did research and it was really cool to have a year to come up with every question I could possibly ask myself about addiction and have the time to find the answers. It meant that not only did I know what the facts were but I could work out how it might affect Kim and how she might have responded to it.

For example, one of my friends gave me some rehab literature, which was a book of inspirational poetry and when I read it, I was partially reacting to it as Kim. I remember the first few poems I read, they drove me crazy, they we were so simplistic. And I just thought they were something that the character in the beauty parlour would have loved: that very sentimental positivity that some people need but which would have driven Kim crazy.

But then I came across this poem that was so beautiful that I gave it to Jonathan and asked to turn it into a tattoo for Kim. You don’t actually see it in the film, but it says: “Lord, I ain’t what I ought to be and I ain’t what I want to be and I ain’t what I’m going to be, but Lord, I thank you that I ain’t what I used to be.” So, it was just good that in the research I could find little gems like that and made Kim stand out for me.

Q. You’ve said that the pain in the film has a purpose, so do you think that Kim learns to forgive herself?
Anne Hathaway: She’s infuriating but she’s not trying to be infuriating and so it becomes: “How can you judge her?” But anyway, I don’t think she has forgiven herself, but I think now she’s allowed. Where as before, the weight of responsibility she carried squarely on her shoulders for her brother’s death… no one was coming in or out for that one. The thing that’s actually different for her recovery this time is that she has actually listened when someone asked her: “Where were your parents? You were 16-years-old, why did they leave you with that?” She’s not forgiven herself or excused herself, but she’s opened the door a crack just to allow the possibility that her family share some responsibility for it.

That’s too much for Abby to bear. I don’t blame Abby. It certainly makes me sad, but the tragedy of Kim is that she’s just trying to talk to her mother, and she doesn’t see how upset she’s making them. She doesn’t understand where her mother is coming from. She’s really wise in a lot of ways and really childish in a lot of ways. But I don’t think she’s forgiven herself yet, even though she has hope that she could.

Q. Has this tempted you to try more experimental films?
Anne Hathaway: Oh yeah, I’m a big weirdo, so I’d love to do more experimental stuff. That I haven’t done it up until now is not a lack of desire, it’s just a lack of opportunity. I just think, the freakier the better, you know. And we were just talking the other day about how cool it is that our little movie is taking us around the world and we’re getting to talk about it [in London] and getting reaction from it and seeing how it’s making people feel seasick! So, I’d love to do more. I know that some of my choices are a little more mainstream and a little more commercial and I don’t judge myself for doing those either… I think there’s a creativity to those as well. But I think… how great to be 25-years-old and to be able to say: “Yeah, I want to go off and make a wedding movie with Kate Hudson [Bride Wars]…” And then turn around and say: “But I’ve also made a wedding movie with Jonathan Demme!” It’s pretty cool to have both ends of the spectrum.

Read our review of Rachel Getting Married

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