Anne Hathaway recalls “gross” chemistry test from the 2000s
As a producer, Hathaway was able to make sure the casting process for The Idea Of You was far more comfortable
Aux News Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway is adding her own story to the growing archive of all the ways Hollywood was an even bigger minefield for women before the Me Too era. As she goes back to her rom-com roots in upcoming boy band fantasy The Idea Of You, Hathaway recalled how chemistry tests used to look a lot different than they do now—especially before she had the power to steer the ship herself.
“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,” she said in an interview with V Magazine. “I was told, ‘We have ten 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. And 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 didn’t name the movie or director who initiated this particular test, and specified that “it wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me.” While people will likely be drawn to speculate, that feels like it’s also missing Hathaway’s point entirely. This icky process was the standard back in the day, one it sounds like many young actresses were forced to endure. “It was just a very different time and now we know better,” Hathaway explained.
Luckily, more movies are helmed now by people like Hathaway, who understand that chemistry translates to the screen in a myriad of ways apart from merely the physical. It’s not a given that two actors can pretend to stand each other, much less relax and actually have fun sharing the screen. In this vein, the casting process for The Idea Of You—which Hathaway produced and stars in as a 40-year-old single mom who falls in love with the younger frontman of a One Direction-esque boy band—sounds like a genuine blast.
“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,” Hathaway said. “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.”
First of all, a dance party with the Mia Thermopolis? So fun. In Hathaway’s description, Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine quickly secured the role as she could tell he was “so ridiculously perfect” for it the minute he walked in the room to play a song he’d chosen by Alabama Shakes. “It was just easy,” Hathaway said. “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 premieres May 2 on Prime Video.
52 Comments
Two hours after this article is published and no comments. Not one.Take our hint about Anne Hathaway, AVClub.
Forget Anne Hathaway, take the hint about celebrity gossip, AVClub!
Their motto is at the top. You, and a lot of others on here, aren’t their target audiences it would seem.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed.
You haven’t been reading the AV Club for very long, have you?
I like her. I think it’s more glitchy kinja than anything
Is the hint “please introduce me to her”? That’s the vibe I’ve personally been sending out, to no avail presently…
Sometimes they don’t put stuff on the front page until later in the day. Probably no one saw it.
Strikes me more as an article about insider Hollywood practices than hot Hathaway goss. I find it interesting.
1) There isn’t much to say.2) AVClub isn’t the go-to destination it was a year ago.3) The algorithm tried to feed me regurgitations of this story from at least three different outlets yesterday, so by today, it isn’t really a new story.As for Hathaway, I have never had an issue with her performances and though I may not be the target market for the movie, based on the strength of her involvement, I’ll add it to my Prime queue and will most likely stream it sometime.
It’s an upgrade from the running gag that used to be in comments about her
Is she a natural treasure? Perhaps.Is the traffic subdued by the algorithm? Perhaps.Am I posting on it four hours later? Indeed.
She has such “over-eager-theater-kid” energy. It’s so annoying.
She’s Anne-tastic! She brings the Annergy!
See, I was hoping this was about an actual gross chemistry test — like a practical lab exam where she had to synthesize mercaptans or other unpleasant molecules.
“You have twenty minutes to dissolve this live mouse in acid.”
Jared Leto: “Professor! I accidentally ate my mouse.”
Professor: “Is that true?”Jared Leto: “Lol, no. It wasn’t an accident.”
Professor: “Uh-huh, ‘accidentally’. Sure, Leto. Sit down.”
Please refrain from tasting the mouse.
O Captan! Mercaptan?
I’m ashamed to say I clicked expecting this
Not that I disagree in principle, but most people are at work right now. Me? I’m trapped in a cycle of despair.
Anne Hathaway and Michael Showalter? Count me in
To test her chemistry as Catwoman they should have made her fight with the actors they were considering as Batman
Nah, they should have had her shit in a box.
Didn’t Sasha Baron Cohen ask Rebel Wilson to do that?
In – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – Cohen’s defence, he did shit in the box first to make sure she felt at ease with it.
You’re assuming that they didn’t and that she didn’t. You know what they say about when you assume… something, something, Anne Hathaway’s ass in black leather.
Wait, who says that? And where can I meet them?
I believe it was Nikki Sixx in his book The Dirt who said he thought things were getting a bit out of hand with the whole Motley Crue thing when he was at a party and 19-year-old girl, naked save for a cat tail and ears and everything, padded into a room he was in that had a litter box in the corner went and squatted over it, pinched a loaf, then calmly turned around and use her hand- er, front paws, to cover it over.
If she really wanted to be a cat, she would scratch at the floor when she was finished because no matter how many times she was shown how, she never learned how to cover her scat.
I heard she kept nagging craft services to make her food, even though they just made her food five minutes ago and she didn’t finish it.
She could see the bottom of the bowl!!!
I feel bad for the ten guys.
Awful what men used to have to go through in Hollywood
If I had to kiss 10 actresses in a row in a “chemistry test” I would be pretty excited about that. Just pointing out that guys are kind of gross compared to women.
Wow great story
Thanks Robo Duck!
Watch, turns out she made people super uncomfortable with the dance
She should dance with Jenna Ortega.
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive has an example of the icky nature of forcing young actresses to make out with their male co-star to check their chemistry.It may be one of the most uncomfortable to watch scenes that Lynch has ever filmed.
Well, until Betty flips it on its head. One of many classic scenes in that movie.
Dumb shit like this is the only thing that gets actresses headlines anymore.
Hey have you considered blowing your brains out?
Lol you’ll be dead in like 2 years max.
Imagine kissing 10 guys and they decide you have the most chemistry with Steve Carrell… Who were the other nine?
And they say female and male brains are the same….
So what song would you bring to Anne’s Not-So-Icky Chemistry Test?
I’d bring “The Bed” from Lou Reed’s Berlin.
Since none of the comments seem to be much about the test itself, hot take coming up:Ten guys? Yes, icky and objectionable.
The top 2 or 3 candidates after some non-liplocking chesmistry reads? Reasonable for the director/producers to ask – but also reasonable for the potential scene partner to demur.
I don’t know. Chemistry isn’t really about kisses, it’s a vibe between the actors. Usually involving witty banter. There is a reason people joke that you know if two celebrities have slept together because the chemistry goes away!
Whatever your feelings about making out with (presumably attractive) strangers, doing it with 10 people in succession in front of, essentially, your employers sounds like nothing less than a chore.
I cannot imagine that anyone could think making out with a series of strangers would be anything other than frightening and GROSS. Vom. What idiota thinks this is a good idea? Out every one of them. Fucking pervs.