Anne Hathaway Feels 'Punched In The Gut' By Internet Haters

Being exposed to ‘Hathahaters’ on the internet has left Anne Hathaway feeling like she’s been ‘punched in the gut’, she has revealed.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, the ‘Les Miserables’ star said that she came across an article titled ‘Why Does Everyone Hate Anne Hathaway’ after searching her name on the internet.

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Hathaway had friends over at the time, and was brainstorming ideas for a video on the ‘Funny Or Die’ website.

Discovering the negativity surrounding her has had a prolonged effect, she says.

Asked how she felt when she read the headline, she said: “Punched in the gut. Shocked and slapped and embarrassed. Even now I can feel the shame.”

The 31-year-old actress added that even directors were reticent about working with her over this perceived public image, which seemed to follow her awards trawl playing Fantine in director Tom Hooper’s lavish version of ‘Les Mis’.

“I had directors say to me, ‘I think you’re great. You’re perfect for this role, but I don’t know how audiences will accept you because of all this stuff, this baggage’,” she said.

“What are we supposed to do - pretend like it didn’t happen?

“People treated me a certain way. But I’ve grown from it. This whole thing has made me a way more compassionate and loving person. And I don’t feel sorry for myself.”

She said that the issue has made her more ‘daring’, and she’s also eschewed the notion that she does not have sex appeal.

“A lot of people have told me, ‘You’re not this and so can’t play that,’ and I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been told I’m not sexy.

“I just go: ‘I’m a lot of things. Just because I don’t wear my sexiness overtly doesn’t mean that I can’t become that girl for a role. That’s what I do; I become things. Use your imagination, buddy’.”

The Brooklyn-born star is next up in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi mind-bender ‘Interstellar’, opposite Matthew McConaughey.

It’s due out in the UK on November 7.

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Image credits: Getty/AP/Harper’s Bazaar