Anne Hathaway is still leaving the door open for Julie Andrews to change her mind and come back for “The Princess Diaries 3,” but also wants to be “respectful” of the 90-year-old legend’s wishes.
“First of all, I just want to say, if she has a change of heart, we’re down,” Hathaway told Entertainment Tonight at D23 Expo this week.
“But we also want to be respectful. Like, she’s — for goodness sakes, if anybody’s contributed to the world of entertainment and to our collective joy, it’s her,” Hathaway gushed. “Whatever she wants, we completely understand.”
The actress, now 43 and recognized at the Disney fan experience in Anaheim on Sunday as an official Disney Legend, is coming back for “The Princess Diaries 3” as star and producer with director Adele Lim, the filmmaker behind the comedy “Joy Ride.” She admitted that the team “did push really hard to see if she would want to do it,” but ultimately it wasn’t in the cards.
Andrews confirmed her decision in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month.
“I think the absolute truth is that I think I’m really past all that now,” Andrews said. “I’m not completely retired, but it’s a different kind of work that I do these days — [writing] books, and I do a lot of recording of podcasts and voiceovers. But truly, I don’t think I should be a part of it.”
Separately, “The Princess Diaries 3” got a promising update as Hathaway made the press rounds for “The Odyssey.” Speaking with Andy Cohen, she said that the long-awaited sequel is “moving in the right direction.”
“I’m busy making baby number three, and that has sort of taken the place of knowing exactly when I can make ‘Princess Diaries 3,’” Hathaway joked, while holding her baby bump, before revealing, “I can say I think we had a story breakthrough.”
“I think that we’re moving in the right direction. The script that we were working on had, you know, we kind of had to start over with this new direction, which is not the update I think anybody wants,” Hathaway added, noting, “But we all feel really good that this is going to be the one.”
Back on the D23 carpet with Entertainment Tonight on Sunday, the actress emphasized that at the end of the day, she just wants “it to be fun” for longtime fans of the Disney franchise.
“I want the women who were six when the first one came out — a lot of whom are now mothers themselves maybe even with six-year-olds — I want them to feel like they’re bringing their children to something that mattered to them, a core memory for them, something that was a part of their heart and their lives,” Hathaway shared. “And that means doing it justice and that means taking the time that it takes to build it right. That’s a lot of pressure, but I feel like this is a great team.”
