Anne Hathaway has opened up to V Magazine about one very uncomfortable way movie makers used to gauge actors’ on-screen spark.
Talking about her early days in the industry in a new interview, the Oscar winner recalled: “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.”
Although Hathaway said forcing people to get physical was “actually the worst way to do it”, she remembered being told: “We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?”
On the contrary, she found herself thinking: “Is there something wrong with me? Because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.”
While the Princess Diaries star found the whole setup questionable, she told V she went along with it out of fear she would have been deemed “difficult”.
“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,” she explained.
While a less than pleasant experience, Anne noted: “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.”
Having endured her own share of bad auditions made Anne that much more mindful while helping cast her love interest for the film The Idea Of You, a story about a single mum’s whirlwind romance with a younger pop star.
She and director Michael Showalter settled on actor Nicholas Galitzine after he charmed them with a song by The Alabama Shakes.
“It was just easy. I heard [singer Brittany Howard’s] voice and I just started smiling,” she said. “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.”