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A modern princess takes a royal fall
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: USA Today
Date: August 3, 2001
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
Who's hot? Anne Hathaway
Why now? The 18-year-old actress makes all the right wrong moves as the gawky American schoolgirl who learns she is royalty in the new Disney comedy The Princess Diaries, opening today.
The buzz: Under the tutelage of Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall and co-star Julie Andrews as her queenly grandmother, she is a can't-miss combo of Julia Roberts (that smile) and the Marx Brothers' little sister (that slapstick). It's apt that when Anne Hathaway heard she won the part of Mia, the San Francisco 15-year-old who is heir to the throne of a small European country, she ended up on the floor. "I was on my cellphone in a department store, and I was so shocked."
The willowy, 5-foot-8 actress may be a knockout in the looks department, especially after her character tames those caterpillar eyebrows. But what most impressed director Garry Marshall was her knockdown ability. The girl can take a fall.
Even TV's Laverne - Marshall's sister Penny, no slouch when it comes to physical clowning - gave her klutz act a Fonzie thumbs up. As she admiringly told her brother during an early screening: "Look at the moves! She knows the moves!"
The New Jersey-raised Hathaway's previous on-camera acting experience was Get Real, a lauded but short-lived Fox TV drama. "I was the class valedictorian who was too smart for her own good. A lot of stuff happened to her, like her brother almost died from meningitis, and she was sexually assaulted. I always assumed I would get more dramatic work, play the coked-up prostitute. Instead, I'm a princess who is goofy and falls down."
When it comes to sports, Hathaway is actually more Mia Hamm than Princess Mia, who comes dangerously close to flunking gym. "I was a total athlete while growing up. Soccer, softball, basketball, track, swimming and tennis."
Not that this now-confident freshman at a top-tier East Coast liberal-arts college didn't suffer growing pains.
"What Mia goes through is similar to my own awkward phase. But it was hard to rediscover that innocence of adolescence and naiveté."
Remember, three years is eons in teen time.
Hathaway, who briefly sings Catch a Falling Star in Diaries, also is blessed with musical talent and has performed at Carnegie Hall. "With 350 other singers," she quickly clarifies.
When she's not taking meetings in Hollywood or cracking the books, Hathaway pursues her hobbies. "I'm totally into music. I love writing. I do yoga. I drive around a lot. I love reading and analyzing really good movies. My favorite is All That Jazz. I find something new whenever I watch it."
Does she have time for a boyfriend? "I do." Does she have one? "I have."
This major in English and women's studies who made the dean's list her first semester would like to continue to perform, but she doesn't want to limit herself to comedy. "I believe I can do anything. I want to try period pieces, contemporary works. I want to do action, damn it, I want to do action."
Spoken like a true modern princess.
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