Anne Unbound Anne Hathaway's fairytale career began with The Princess Diaries, but her work in Brokeback Mountain showed there's more underneath the tiara. Here she chats about costarring with Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. By Andre Chautard ANDRE CHAUTARD: Do many Brokeback Mountain fans approach you? ANNE HATHAWAY: I'm getting a lot of people. So many different types of people went to see that movie. When they come up to me they all have this look in their eyes. They kinda want to grab you and be like, "It was real, right?" It's touching. Sometimes they cry. Q: Were you surprised that Brokeback lost the Best Picture Oscar to Crash? A: Uh, yeah. To be honest with you, I haven't seen Crash. But I believe in Brokeback so much as a film. I thought it was the best picture of the past five years, let alone last year. But I think it just goes to show that a film's importance and value can transcend awards. Q: What attracted you to The Devil Wears Prada? Had you read the book? A: No. I think the whole world has heard about the book, but I didn't read it until after I got the part. I just liked Andie [my character]. I understood her story about wanting to be a good person and have integrity in a business that's not known for producing it that much, and how you can get sucked in by the seductive aspects of this, the sheer excess and wealth and the clothes and the glamour. I know how tough it is to resist all that. Q: Have you ever had a horrible boss like your Devil Wears Prada character does? A: Yes. It was a producer that I worked with who was just a nightmare-- like, I wanted to kick him in the shins every single day. He was so awful and uncommunicative and abrasive and mean and just stupid that I wanted to quit the job. Q: How intimidated were you to be working with Meryl Streep? A: There are no words for how afraid I really was to be working with her. There would be certain times that I would actually have to stop a take because I was so neurotic about what she was thinking that I just couldn't remember my lines. But she was completely cool. She was very supportive and never made me feel like she had to deign to work with me. But I got a little neurotic whenever she would mention other young actresses that she worked with that were "brilliant." I thought, "Oh no, she's saying that because she doesn't think I am, and I don't measure up!" Q: Actresses she's worked with recently, like Lindsay Lohan? A: Like Lindsay, like Claire Danes. She's obsessed with Claire Danes. With Meryl I thought I would learn a lot more just by observing than by actually asking her advice. And in fact, one time I really stepped in it. I quoted her to her. We were talking about a project and I said, "You know, I love that saying, 'You do the best work you can with the material that's available.'" And Meryl smiled and I was like, "Oh, you said that, didn't you?" Excerpted from the July/August 2006 issue of Hollywood Life.

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