How big of a Knicks fan is Anne Hathaway? When Jimmy Fallon presented her with a hypothetical choice between a second Oscar or another Knicks championship during a Wednesday late night appearance, Hathaway picked the latter. She hesitated — “The way my nervous system is reacting to that choice is really intense,” Hathaway said in the moment — but she picked the championship.
So, naturally, the actress, who is expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman, went through a range of emotions when she was presented with a congratulatory Knicks-themed gift in the middle of her Fallon interview.
First, the NBC host presented her with a signed jersey, which she threw on over her glamorous black dress without hesitation, modeling it for the crowd and keeping it on when she returned to her seat.
“You are unbelievable,” Fallon said, cracking up. “You put it on immediately!”
And the host wasn’t finished; he also presented her with an entire Knicks baby basket, along with a congratulations card from New York Knicks guard and power forward OG Anunoby.
That one got the lifelong Knicks fan visibly emotional for a moment. “I’m so spoiled,” she said after she accepted her gifts, and, seemingly overwhelmed, asked, “I’m supposed to be a person now?”
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After Hathaway said her “thank yous,” the late night host tried to bring it back to business. “We have to talk about your movie. That’s really why we’re here,” Fallon said, and Hathaway seemed game to switch back to movie talk.
“The movie’s chilling, scary. Is this what you thought you were getting into when you signed up?” Fallon asked his guest, who became distracted while taking her shiny new Knicks jersey off.
“I’m sorry, I’m so excited about my jersey, I’m messing this transition up so bad,” Hathaway said with a giddy smile, getting a big laugh out of the studio audience. “You’re talking about my scary movie, and I’m just like ‘eeeee.’”
Eventually, Fallon got things back on track and got Hathaway “locked in” to “movie mode.” The actress was on the show to promote “Verity,” her new film co-starring Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson. Because the film was based on a book by best-selling romance novelist Colleen Hoover, Hathaway said she first expected it to be a rom-com.
“I got excited because I’m not the person that you think of for this type of a part,” Hathaway said of realizing it was a steamy psychological thriller instead. “I just love that [director Michael Showalter] thought of me for it, and then the cast came together.”
Hathaway stars as the title character in the adaptation, which follows Johnson’s Lowen, a struggling writer hired to ghostwrite for Hathaway’s paralyzed character — but once she moves to the author’s remote estate, Lowen uncovers twisted secrets in Verity’s notes, while sparking up an affair with her husband.
“Verity” arrives in theaters nationwide on Friday, Oct. 2.
