Anne Hathaway Recounts ‘Gross’ Audition Process Involving Make Outs With 10 Men

Anne Hathaway just shared a horror story from early in her career in a new interview with V Magazine. The actress said that she was once asked to “make out” with 10 different men in a row during a film audition, just to test for on-screen chemistry. She said that she is glad to see how much the process has changed over the years.

“Back in the 2000s – and this did happen to me – it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is actually the worst way to do it,” Hathaway said. “I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ Because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross. I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it.”

Hathaway did not name the movie she was working on when this happened, nor any of the other people she was working with. She said that wasn’t the point, explaining: “It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me. It was just a very different time and now we know better.”

Hathaway, now 41 years old, made her screen debut in 1999 on the Fox dramedy Get Real, followed closely by the 2001 coming-of-age comedy The Princess Diaries, which remains one of her most iconic roles to this day. She was prolific in the early 2000s, appearing in rom-coms, dramas and action movies at a breakneck pace. Some of her best-known works of the decade included Ella Enchanted, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, to name a few.

Right now, Hathaway is promoting her new movie The Idea of You, where she is both a star and a producer. Working behind the camera, she explained, she had more control over how she auditioned her male co-star for a romantic part. She said: “We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love, that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little improv. I was sitting in a chair like we had come in from dinner or a walk or something, we pressed play, and we just started dancing together.”

The Idea of You is based on a novel by Robinne Lee. It is about a single mom in her 40s falling in love with the 24-year-old lead singer of a popular boy band. Hathaway’s co-star is Nicholas Galitzine, and Hathaway revealed that in his audition, he chose a song by Alabama Shakes. She said Galitzine was “so ridiculously perfect” for the role, and she knew it as soon as he entered the room.

“And it was just so easy,” she went on. “I heard [lead singer] Brittany [Howard]’s voice and I just started smiling. And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing. Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”

The Idea of You was lauded at the SXSW Film Festival last month, and soon fans will be able to see it for themselves. The movie will be streaming on Prime Video starting on Thursday, May 2.