‘The Dark Knight Rises:’ Anne Hathaway Once Called Her Catwoman Costume a ‘Psychological Terrorist’
In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, actor Anne Hathaway entered the superhero genre for the first time with her role as Catwoman. Upon getting the part, Hathaway worked hard to prepare for the role. But for the actor, perhaps one of the hardest parts about being Catwoman was wearing the suit.
Anne Hathaway originally auditioned for Harley Quinn
When Hathaway was gearing up for her Rises audition, she didn’t prepare for Catwoman at first. Instead, The Princess Diaries star thought Nolan was going to have her play another DC villain. And so she dressed accordingly.
“That was the initial meet with Chris,” Hathaway told BBC Radio 1. “I came in and I had this lovely Vivian Westwood kind of beautiful but mad tailoring top with stripes going everywhere, and I wore these flat kind of Jokery looking shoes. And I was just trying to give Chris these crazy little smiles.”
Eventually, Nolan informed Hathaway that she was actually auditioning for Catwoman.
“And then about an hour into it, he goes, ‘I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you this, but it’s Catwoman.’ I was like, ‘Shifting into a different gear right now.’”
Still, even after rehearsing for the right character, it turned out to be a long auditioning process for Hathaway.
“I kind of thought the auditions would be a few weeks later, but it was months,” Hathaway said. “And I knew I was gonna be brought in to do the final audition, so then it was nice because then I was like, ‘Ok, now I know who this is.’”
Anne Hathaway called her Catwoman costume a ‘psychological terror’
Hathaway not only had to be able to do the part, but look it as well when she acquired the role. This meant she had to obtain the right physique to be able to fill in the Catwoman costume.
“The Catwoman suit, it was a psychological terrorist,” Hathaway told Allure (via Comicbook Movie.) “The suit, thoughts of my suit, changing my life so I would fit into that suit…it dominated my year.”
To achieve the necessary physique for Rises and Les Miserables, Hathaway went on a diet that had unexpected side effects.
“I’m on day six of detox … this diet makes me break out, so I love that,” she added. “Nothing like living on hummus and radishes and then be all, ‘And I got a pimple. Yeah!’”
Anne Hathaway shared what was the best and worst parts about wearing the Catwoman costume
For the Oscar winner, wearing the superhero outfit came with a few pros and cons. She detailed what she both loved and hated about being Catwoman in an interview with MTV News.
“The best? I’m in Batman,” Hathaway said. “That was the best. The worst, it doesn’t matter; I’m in Batman. Like, this is not the sort of job where you nitpick or find things to complain about. I was as happy as I’ve been on anything on this one, it was ‘Count your lucky stars every single day.,’” she confided.
The Oscar-winner also gave some advice to any future actors that might’ve found themselves in Hathaway’s position of adapting a comic book character.
“Work with people you trust and they’ll take care of you, don’t try to please anyone with it,” she said. “Because I think if I had been forced to fit a certain ideal I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But everyone’s attitude was, ‘Become the character physically,’ and then that’s the way the suit is meant to look.”
