The actress tells PEOPLE’s editor-in-chief Jess Cagle in the latest episode of The Jess Cagle Interview that she "lost an unhealthy amount of weight" for the role.
Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for playing Fantine in the 2012 big screen adaptation of Les Misérables. But her path to Academy Award winner wasn’t without sacrifice.
To portray the young orphan, Hathaway lost 25 pounds, and tells PEOPLE’s editor-in-chief Jess Cagle in the latest episode of The Jess Cagle Interview that she “wasn’t in a good place” during that time.
“I’d lost an unhealthy amount of weight in two weeks,” Hathaway, 36, reveals in PEOPLE’s latest cover story. “I didn’t know anything about nutrition. I taxed my body, and my brain bore the brunt of it for a while. I just felt very anxious and very lost at that time.”
Watch the full episode of The Jess Cagle Interview: Anne Hathaway, streaming now on peopletv.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.
The actress, now starring in the dramatic thriller Serenity, recognized that her body needed to change.
“That weight loss was not a long-term good thing for my health, and it took a really long time to come back from it,” she says. “And I was still really sick because of it.”
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The toll her Les Misérables role took on her physically, combined with recent changes in her personal life, kept Hathaway from enjoying her success.
“I had just turned 30. I had just gotten married,” the mom of one recalls. “Even the most positive thing can be upheavals to your identity. So to just have this moment and not really know who I was — and the moment when you just feel like you’re on display — it wasn’t a comfortable feeling. And I didn’t do what I hoped that I would if I ever found myself in that moment.”
To read the full Anne Hathaway interview, pick up the latest issue of People on stands now.
Ultimately, Hathaway was able to move forward. “Life went on beyond it,” she says. “I feel much emptier now. It would have been nice if had happened then, but I’ll still take it.”
Serenity is out now.