Anne Hathaway nearly walked away from A24’s “Mother Mary” after deciding her performance was “really bad” during production.
The Oscar winner opened up about her insecurity making the psychological thriller, in which she plays the film’s titular pop star, in a new interview with Elle. As the actress recalled to the outlet, she was unimpressed with her take on the role after watching footage early on, where she had to dance and sing to songs penned by Jack Antonoff, Charli xcx and FKA twigs.
“This is really bad,” she said she thought at the time. “I don’t know that I can ask people to come to see this.”
In fact, Hathaway shared that she even told her husband, Adam Shulman, that she planned to exit the movie. However, Hathaway explained that she eventually had a change of heart, adding, “I came to the conclusion that there would be no shame if I was fired, but there would be if I quit.”
Per the actress, she took up dance classes for months and even worked on her singing well after production wrapped. After a year of work, Hathaway joined Antonoff in the studio to re-record the singing portions of “Mother Mary.”
And it seems as though Hathaway’s hard work paid off, as she recalled: “He whipped his head at me goes, ‘You have been working.’”
Still, despite this extensive effort, “Mother Mary” failed to perform at the box office, grossing only $2.8 million worldwide after playing in 1,103 theaters this spring. The film, directed and written by David Lowery, also starred Michaela Coel, Hunter Schafer, Sian Clifford and FKA Twigs, among others.
Hathaway has still had quite a 2026, though. Her other spring film, “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” which saw her reunite with Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt on the big screen, brought in over $550 million at the box office worldwide.
