Anne Hathaway wants her body to be her experience — and no one else’s.
The actress, 35, is gaining weight for an upcoming movie role, and talking more about her decision to announce the news on social media.
“It sounds kind of sad to say; I just wanted to enjoy my summer and let everyone know that I’m living in my body and I’m happy with my body, and if my body is different than what you’re used to, or what you think it should be, that’s [your experience]. My experience is mine, and I’m loving it,” Hathaway told Hoda Kotb on Today.
Kotb asked Hathaway if she typically has people giving unsolicited comments about her body, and the Ocean’s 8 star emphatically said “yes!”
“All the time, and in the ways where it’s overt and people say things to you and then there’s kind of micro ones,” she said.
But, the mom to son Johnny, 2, added, the trend towards body positivity has changed what people say to her.
“One of my favorite things that’s happening in this moment is that a lot of us are looking at the language that we choose to use and becoming more conscious about it,” she said. “So maybe someone thought that it wasn’t a big deal to say to a 16-year-old — this is what happened to me — ‘Congratulations, you got the part, you can’t gain any more weight.’ Maybe they thought they were giving me some good advice but now, 20 years later, I’m able to say, actually, that could’ve been done more consciously and lovingly, and it left me feeling confused.”
Now, Hathaway thinks people choose their words with more care.
“I think we’re all learning to communicate — well maybe not all of us — but a lot of us are taking up this opportunity to become more conscious and loving in the way we communicate with each other, more compassionate I guess,” she said.
In a Glamour interview two days earlier, Hathaway said that another reason she spoke out about gaining weight was because she “didn’t feel like dealing with the pregnancy rumors.”
“I find it bizarre that there’s a storm to get ahead of, but I have a history of being shamed and humiliated, for a lot of different reasons,” she said.
