Anne Hathaway said in a new interview with V Magazine ahead of the release of her upcoming movie “The Idea of You” that chemistry tests have come a long way since her auditioning days in the 2000s.
While the Oscar winner did not cite any movies by name, she did reveal that she was once required to kiss a handful of men for the team behind the film to find her the perfect co-star.
“Back in the 2000s — and this did happen to me — it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is the worst way to do it,” Hathaway said. “I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.”
“I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it,” Hathaway continued. “It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me. It was just a very different time and now we know better.”
Hathaway not only stars in “The Idea of You” but she is also a producer, which meant she had a direct say in how the team behind the movie went about finding her a co-star. Based on the novel by Robinne Lee, the film stars Hathaway as a 40-year-old single mom who falls in love with the 24-year-old lead singer of the world’s hottest boy band.
“We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love, that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little improv,” Hathaway said about “The Idea of You” chemistry reads. “I was sitting in a chair like we had come in from dinner or a walk or something, we pressed play, and we just started dancing together.”
Nicholas Galitzine won the part after choosing a song by Alabama Shakes to dance to with Hathaway, who remembered Galitzine being “so ridiculously perfect” for the role as soon as he walked in the room.
“And it was just easy,” Hathaway added. “I heard [lead singer] Brittany [Howard]’s voice and I just started smiling. And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing. Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”
“The Idea of You” debuted to strong reviews at the SXSW Film Festival last month. The movie streams on Amazon Prime Video starting May 2.
