American actress Anne Hathaway got her start as a teenager in films like The Princess Diaries. She went on to become a major star with roles across many genres; throughout, she’s occasionally done historical films, winning an Academy Award for her role as Fantine in the filmed musical Les Misérables (2012). Let’s look at her frock flicks work!
Jean Sabin in The Other Side of Heaven (2001)
“John Groberg, a farm kid from Idaho Falls, crosses an ocean to become a missionary in the remote and exotic Tongan islands during the 1950s,” per IMDB.
Madeline Bray in Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
She’s the sweet love interest for the title character in this adaptation of the Dickens novel.
Lureen Newsome in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
In this Western set between 1963 and 1983, two cowboys fall in love — but marry women. Hathaway plays one of the wives.
Jane Austen in Becoming Jane (2007)
She plays the now-famous English author in a fictionalized story about a possible early romance, with tinges of Pride and Prejudice.
Fantine in Les Misérables (2012)
Hathaway received an Oscar for her performance as Fantine, the factory girl and young mother who loses everything in this musical set in 1820s-30s France.
Rebecca in Eileen (2023)
A psychological thriller set in the 1960s, in which two women work at a juvenile detention facility where things get creepy.
Céline in Mothers’ Instinct (2024)
Set in the 1960s, two mothers who are good friends are torn apart by tragedy.
What’s your favorite of Anne Hathaway’s historical roles?
I’m surprised that Ella Enchanted didn’t make the list. It’s kind of historicalish.
I hate to say that the only one of these films that I’ve seen is Les Misérables, and quite frankly I hated it due to the bad singing of a number of movie stars who aren’t regular musical theatre performers. I really can’t judge the others fairly. I’m old, so I have a hard time with fashions from my early childhood now being considered historic/hysterical… New Look inspired silhouette – ok, I get it (post-war) but disco????!!! Trying to figure out what went wrong in the photos of the Nicholas Nickleby wedding dress, and I think it’s because she’s not wearing stays or the more voluminous petticoats of the era. Without the proper underpinnings, she’s not got the right silhouette and the (presumably) machine made net lace on the sleeves look very modern too – well – the bright white of what might be synthetics in the dress don’t help either. One thing that bothers me, and it’s not just in this selection – the brows. Those are always a giveaway of when the film was made, and not necessarily the period in which the story takes place. I’m way over the microblade trend. It’s almost as unnatural as the movie star brows of the 40s/50s. I wish more actresses would allow their grooming to look more natural so that they could easily slot into any role. With high def cameras, I don’t see how makeup artists could soap the offending high arch and make 2024 brows look more 1834 or what not…
100% agree on the eyebrows! When people talk about actresses in period movies having “iPhone face” (looking distractingly modern), I think it’s the eyebrows that are the culprit most of the time.
Surprised you didn’t include her stint as the Grand High Witch in THE WITCHES, which is set in 1967. Then again, I understand if you would judge that too fantasy instead of period.
Also, in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, her character performs in rodeos early on, hence that western costume. You’re right in your suspicion.