Anna Hathaway said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that she spent a full week channeling Harley Quinn before meeting Christopher Nolan for “The Dark Knight Rises” because she was convinced he was courting her to play the Batman villain. It wasn’t until two hours into their meeting that Hathaway discovered it was a meeting for Catwoman.
“Here’s the thing that worked in my favor: she’s a chameleon,” Hathaway said. “So, I knew I was auditioning for… I was meeting with Chris [Nolan] for the female role in the Batman trilogy, the next installment. I thought that I’d gamed it out, because I was just like, ‘It can’t be Catwoman because Michelle Pfeiffer was so iconic… [gasp] It’s going to be Harley Quinn!'”
“So, I spent a week developing demonic Harley Quinn energy. I was wearing weird jester flats and a striped top,” she continued. “And then, about two hours into our conversation, Chris is like, ‘So, the part’s Catwoman,’ and I was like, ‘Transform!’ So, I just then decided that I was like, ‘Well, this top is very sensual.’ And I was going to be very… like a psychopath. I changed personalities like a psychopath.”
Hathaway won the part and went on to earn acclaim for playing Selina Kyle/Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” which marked her first collaboration with Nolan. The duo have since worked together on “Interstellar” and the upcoming “The Odyssey.” Hathaway has long credited Nolan with saving her career amid backlash around her Oscar win for “Les Miserables.” Public opinion soured on Hathaway at the time, and she infamously googled herself and discovered the top search question was: “Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?”
“A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” Hathaway now told Vanity Fair in 2024. “I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.”
Hathaway was referring to the role of NASA scientist Dr. Amelia Brand in Nolan’s 2014 space epic “Interstellar.” Now they are back together for “The Odyssey,” in theaters July 17 from Universal Pictures.