And it’s not what you’d expect.
Anne Hathaway is known for championing equality, once famously saying ‘A man told me that for a woman, I was very opinionated. I said, "for a man you’re kind of ignorant."’
In a recent interview, however, the 34-year-old actress opened up about a misogynistic experience with a film director and it turns out the misogyny came from Anne herself.
During the interview on ABC News’s Popcorn With Peter Travers, Anne was asked about which film set she had learnt the most on, to which she replied One Day, the 2011 David Nicholls screen adaption that saw her work with female Danish director, Lone Scherfig.
Looking back on the experience with regret, Anne explained, ‘I am to this day scared that the reason I didn’t trust her the way I trust some of the other directors I work with is because she’s a woman.’
‘I’m getting red talking about this,’ she said. ‘It feels like a confession, but I think it’s something we should talk about.’
She continued: ‘I’m so scared that I treated her with internalized misogyny. I’m scared that I didn’t give her everything that she needed or I was resisting her on some level. It’s something that I’ve thought a lot about in terms of when I get scripts to be directed by women.’
Explaining in the interview that she had never spoken to the Danish director about the issue, she emphasised that she would make a point of apologising. A representative for Lone Scherfig has since expressed the director’s ‘love and admiration for Anne and her work.’
Speaking about internalised misogyny, Anne explained: ‘I had actively tried to work with female directors, and I still had this mindset buried in there somewhere.’
She continued: ‘When I get a script, when I see a first film directed by a woman, I have in the past focused on what was wrong with it. And when I see a film directed by a man, I focus on what’s right with it. I can only acknowledge that I’ve done that and I don’t want to do that any more.’
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