Anne Hathaway’s Audition Where She Had To Kiss 10 Men Really Is ‘Gross’

 

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Anne Hathaway has spoken of an audition she did at the beginning of her career where she was told to kiss 10 men for a ‘chemistry test.’

The Devil Wears Prada star said that these sorts of auditions were standard when she was coming up in Hollywood, but that she still – rightly – found it “gross.”

She told V Magazine: “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 actually the worst way to do it.

“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.”

She went on to say that she felt pressure to go along with the process due to her age – and fear of what it might mean for her career if she said no.

 

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“I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labelled ‘difficult’, so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it,” she said. 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 didn’t tell V what film she was auditioning for, but she didn’t have to. Chances are this sort of process was happening all across Hollywood in the early 2000s… and potentially still is today in some parts of the industry.

She compared that chemistry test to her more recent experience with British actor Nicholas Galitzine, who stars alongside Hathaway in their new romcom, The Idea Of You.

 

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Rather than being asked to kiss every actor, each man was asked to prepare a song they thought their character would love, and to improvise a scene with Anne.

“He saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing,” she said. “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!”

 

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