Actress Anne Hathaway revealed on Saturday why she took a break from romantic comedies, blaming the ageism women face in Hollywood.
The 41-year-old Oscar winner starred in several rom-coms in the early 2000s, such as One Day, Ella Enchanted, Valentines Day and Love & Other Drugs.
However, during a press conference for her upcoming flick The Idea of You—in which she plays a 40-year-old single mom in an age-gap romance with a pop star—Hathaway said she stopped receiving scripts for romantic leads in her 30s.
“I didn’t notice that it was happening,” Hathaway said Saturday when asked what brought her back to the genre. “I received a lot of romantic scripts in my 20s, and then in my 30s, I was so focused on my family life and motherhood and trying to find whatever my path was going to be. I didn’t notice I hadn’t been sent a script in a long time.”
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She continued: “A part of me was asking the question, ‘Where have these stories gone? Why did they stop?’ These questions, I saw all of these fantastic answers to them in the script and the story, and I just thought ‘Wow, what an unbelievable sort of meta exploration.'”
In The Idea of You, Hathaway’s Solène is thrust into the public eye after she begins dating 24-year-old boyband star, Hayes Campbell (played by Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine), following a meet-cute at Coachella.
Based on the best-selling novel by author Robinne Lee, The Idea of You is said to be inspired by singer Harry Styles and his ex-girlfriend Olivia Wilde, who is 10 years his senior.
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Producer Cathy Schulman said Hathaway was her first choice for the role, with the actress describing the character of Solène as “beautiful.”
“I am so honored to have been the first choice for this, it’s a beautiful character and such an amazing world,” she said.
Hathaway has previously discussed ageism that actresses endure in Hollywood, with the Princess Diaries star once told her career would end in her mid-30s.
“When I started out as a child, I was warned that my career would fall off a cliff at the age of 35, which is something I know a lot of women face,” she said in an interview in November with Net-a-Porter. “The thing that has evolved during [that time] is that more women are having careers deeper into their lives, which I think is fantastic.”
She added: “Obviously, it doesn’t mean we should have a ticker tape parade. There’s so much to be proud of and there’s so much to fix.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.