Why the world turned on Anne Hathaway and lost her millions in film roles with ‘toxic and humiliating’ ‘Hatha-hate’ campaign to cancel her

He is currently riding high on the success of his highly anticipated sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2.

But in the 20 years since the original film was released, Anne Hathaway’s life could not have been more tumultuous.

Because in the early 2010s, Anne was subjected to a wave of hate online so fierce that it gave rise to the name ‘Hatha-hate’, resulting in her losing film roles and struggling with her mental health.

The Hollywood star has become the target of nasty and toxic trolling, with the actress being called “fake” and “theatrical” and earning the title of Most Annoying Celebrity of 2013, according to a poll by The San Francisco Chronicle.

Even the Oscar he won that year for Les Miserables couldn’t save him; The opening line of his acceptance speech – ‘it came true’ – went viral, with viewers branding it ‘pretentious’.

So what sparked the ‘Hatha-hate’ train?

Even the Oscar he won for the 2013 movie Les Misérables couldn’t save him; The opening line of his acceptance speech – ‘it came true’ – went viral, with viewers branding it ‘pretentious’.

While no one can pinpoint the exact moment when Anne went from respected actress to national hate figure, the tide appeared to be turning around in 2011, when she hosted the highly anticipated Oscars.

The actress co-hosted the event with James Franco, and the duo drew attention for their lack of chemistry and extreme difference in energy levels.

James was quick to throw Anne under the bus, saying on the Late Show with David Letterman: ‘Anne Hathaway is so energetic, I think the Tasmanian Devil would look deadpan standing next to Anne Hathaway.’

The mother, on the other hand, described the job as a ‘no-win situation’ and stated that ‘staying the landing was a really tough job’.

He added that James did not [her] Everything to work on in back and forth performance.

That same year, Anne felt the ire of DC Comics fans when she was cast as Catwoman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises because they didn’t think she was ‘sexy’ enough.

As criticism mounted, Anne’s every role and speech came under intense scrutiny, and online attacks also began to target her physical appearance.

Oscar co-hosts James and Howard Stern reviewed the drama on SiriusXM, with Howard musing: ‘Everybody hates Anne Hathaway…’

He went on to speculate that this was because she came off as ‘very affected and playful’.

James didn’t defend his former co-host, instead saying: ‘I’m no expert on this – I think they’re called Hathahaters – but I think that’s what made him tick.’

By 2013, when she won Best Actress at the Academy Awards and her acceptance speech was ridiculed online, the hate reached fever pitch.

Anne later said she was devastated by the barrage of hate on Oscar night, explaining: ‘I had to stand in front of people and feel something I hadn’t felt, which was uncomplicated happiness.

‘This is a very obvious thing; You won an Oscar and you should be happy. I didn’t feel that way. I felt wrong for standing there in a dress that cost more than some people will see in their lifetimes, and for winning an award for depicting pain that still feels like part of our collective experience as humans.

‘I tried to act like I was happy and got a big call about it. This is the truth and this is what is happening. Wretched. But what you learn from this is that you only feel like you can die of embarrassment, you don’t actually die.’

The hatred began in 2011, when the duo was called out for their lack of chemistry during her internationally acclaimed Oscars hosting gig alongside James Franco.

She soon found a savior named Christopher Nolan, who made her the lead in Interstellar (filmed with Matthew McConaughey) when other work began to fade away.

That same year, the New York Times published Do We Really Hathaway? He published an article titled. where psychologists try to uncover the public’s level of hatred.

Pier Massimo Forni, founder of the Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, which focuses on etiquette and social behavior, suggested it was the temptation to ‘clutter up’.

He explained: ‘The feeling of belonging to a group of like-minded people activates the pleasure centers of the brain.

‘So at a certain point something like what happened to Ms. Hathaway gained momentum and people were willing and able to be a part of that momentum.

‘The psychological dynamics in the workplace are, at least in part, at play in cyberbullying.’

Jack Goncalo, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, added that mob mentality may be the culprit, explaining: ‘If the majority has decided for me, I can move on to something else. ‘People don’t want to think.’

Amid the backlash, Anne distanced herself from the public eye, later telling the Huffington Post: ‘My impression is that people need a bit of a break from me.’

But she soon found a savior in the name of director Nolan, who was willing to give her a role when other work started to fade away and cast her as the lead in the 2014 blockbuster Interstellar.

Reflecting on the Hatha hate train, Anne told Vanity Fair in 2024: ‘A lot of people didn’t cast me because they were so worried about how toxic my identity had become online.

‘I had an angel in Christopher Nolan who didn’t care and gave me one of the best roles I’ve ever had in one of the best movies I’ve ever been a part of.

‘I don’t know if he knew he was supporting me at the time but it made an impact. And if he hadn’t supported me, my career wouldn’t have lost momentum.’

Indeed, Anne went on to star in Ocean’s 8, Hustle and WeCrashed, and the self-proclaimed ‘Hatha haters’ were soon condemned by other social media users.

But the damage lasted long for Anne, who told her Women in Hollywood speech in 2022: ‘This was a language I had been using to myself since I was seven years old.

‘And when the pain you inflict on yourself suddenly escalates in some way and comes back to you, say, in the full volume of the internet… That’s something.”

He added to Vanity Fair: ‘Humiliation is a very difficult thing to experience. The important thing is not to let this turn you off. You have to stay brave, and that can be hard because you’re saying, “If I stay safe, if I embrace the middle, if I don’t draw too much attention to myself, it won’t hurt.”

‘But if you want to do this, don’t be an actor. You are a tightrope walker. You are a brave person. You are asking people to invest their time, money, attention and care in you.

‘So you’ve got to give them something that makes it all worth it. And if it doesn’t cost you anything, what are you really offering?’

Now Anne has been officially embraced by the Hollywood community and is receiving rave reviews for her role in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (with Meryl Streep).

He’s not completely untouchable, though; fans were recently calling him out for posing next to public hate figure Blake Lively while they attended the Met Gala on Monday.

Now Anne has been officially embraced by the Hollywood community and is receiving rave reviews for her role in The Devil Wears Prada 2.

He also has four more films in production, including Nolan’s highly anticipated next project, The Odyssey, and a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book, Verity.

He’s not completely untouchable, though; fans have been calling her out lately for posing next to public hate figure Blake Lively.

The duo showed up at the Met Gala on Monday night, hours after Blake settled his explosive legal battle with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over It Ends With Us.

A photo of the two posing together quickly went viral on X/Twitter, with fans commenting: ‘Stay away from Mom! He’s going to sue you’ and ‘Gross. Did you think Anne was trying to get the public to love her again?’