Why Anne Hathaway Wasn’t That Excited When She Won The Oscar

After her performance as Fantine in Tom Hooper's big screen adaptation of Les Miserables, Anne Hathaway was hotly tipped for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for quite some time. Sure enough, the big night delivered for Hathaway, as she collected the trophy and made a rather heartfelt awards speech. But, as it turns out, her big moment was not as big of a deal as she'd hoped, as winning her golden moment of glory turned out to be an experience that she was less than comfortable with.

The Guardian caught up with Anne Hathaway as part of the press tour for her role in Nacho Vigalando's science fiction film Colossal, which tells the story of a woman in disarray and the secret connection she has with some random disasters. It was during this interview that she divulged the fact that her Oscar win actually was a source of incredible discomfort, as she explained in the following quote:

I felt very uncomfortable. I kind of lost my mind doing that movie and it hadn't come back yet. Then I had to stand up in front of people and feel something I don't feel which is uncomplicated happiness. It's an obvious thing, you win an Oscar and you're supposed to be happy. I didn't feel that way. I felt wrong that I was standing there in a gown that cost more than some people are going to see in their lifetime, and winning an award for portraying pain that still felt very much a part of our collective experience as human beings. I tried to pretend that I was happy and I got called out on it, big time. That's the truth and that's what happened. It sucks. But what you learn from it is that you only feel like you can die from embarrassment, you don't actually die.

Considering that Anne Hathaway turned in an incredibly method performance so intense that she actually cut her hair and lost a normally unhealthy amount of weight to embody, one can't blame her for still feeling the aftershocks of playing Fantine's pain for all to see. Of course, knowing how socially conscious Hathaway is in her personal life, you can begin to see how winning a huge honor, no matter how wonderful, would still weigh on her conscience. You can kind of see it in her response to winning her award back in 2013, as shown in the video included below.

Though she may not have felt comfortable with the idea, Anne Hathaway's performance in Les Miserables was still pretty awards worthy. In one moment, she sold the pain and sadness of a lonely woman at the end of her rope, and she did so with an impressive vocal range. While it wasn't the happiest night of her career, we can only hope that she's since come to terms with her victory, so that she can truly be proud of the work she put in to get there.