Anne Hathaway Shares How Online 'Criticism' Became a Source of Empowerment: 'It Turned Out to Be a Positive Force in My Personal Growth.'

Anne Hathaway reflected on the overwhelming amount of internet hate she endured after she portrayed the French prostitute Fantine in 2012’s Les Misérables.

While promoting the musical film, the 38-year-old star rubbed fans the wrong way as she discussed having to chop off her hair, shedding an ‘unhealthy’ 25 pounds for the role and ‘kind of’ losing her mind to get into the character mental space.

Despite expressing earnest surprise and appreciation at award shows for her wins that year, some couldn’t look past her comments about restricting her diet to just a tiny portion of dried oatmeal paste ‘to look near death.’

Nearly nine years later, she credited the backlash for making her a stronger person in a new interview with The Sun.

‘I really don’t want to dredge up the past but I did have my monster out there, I did have the internet turn on me and hate me and it was like a whole big thing,’ she said.

She continued: ‘And it was a really good thing for me personally.’

But, she previously confessed to Vanity Fair that earning her first and long-awaited Academy Award didn’t make her happy.

‘You’re supposed to be happy. I didn’t feel that way,’ the mother-of-two admitted. ‘I felt wrong that I was standing there in a gown that cost more than some people are going to see in their lifetime, and winning an award for portraying pain that still felt very much a part of our collective experience as human beings.’

Hathaway, who had tied the knot husband Adam Shulman right before shooting Les Misérables, noted: ‘I tried to pretend that I was happy and I got called out on it, big time.’

She also said the experience taught her ‘is that you only feel like you can die from embarrassment, you don’t actually die.’

In addition to finding support from her husband, spending time with childhood and college friends helped as she considers them her ‘extended family.’

‘My oldest friendships date back to when I was five,’ she said. ‘We all make a point to try and get together at least once or twice a year and we stay in each other’s lives.’

Earlier this month, her latest film Locked Down, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, was released.

She called it a ‘very normal’ but also ‘completely wild’ experience seeing as it was to shot amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Anne told People ‘the sheer act of making it, of doing something so collaborative and audacious made us all very focused and open – and strangely free.’

Adding: ‘Like the odds were so against us anyway that is made me want to lean into the exhilaration and take risks with my performance.’

While she felt safe at work, the star did say she felt nervous taking off her mask amid the alarming number of cases of COVID-19 around the world.

The Oscar winner said: ‘It was scary taking my mask off every day, and so I really appreciated how committed the crew was to keeping their masks on – even when we were shooting in hot rooms and they were carrying heavy camera and lighting equipment they were always, always masked. Their professionalism helped keep me safe, and I was incredibly grateful to them.’