Anne Hathaway is no stranger to giving her all for a role. But even by her standards, Mother Mary took things to a new level. In her new Vogue interview, Anne opened up about how this movie changed the way she sees herself — and even how she breathes.
Mother Mary is a melodrama directed by David Lowery. In it, Anne plays a superstar so big she’s seen more as a goddess than a person. But all that fame comes with a cost. Her character spirals and ends up finding comfort with an old friend, played by Michaela Coel.
It’s the kind of role that could easily turn into just another dramatic performance. But Anne didn’t want that. She knew she had to completely break herself open for it to feel real.
Why Was Mother Mary So Hard For Anne Hathaway?
Anne called the experience “transformational.” She said she had to “submit to being a beginner.” That’s not something you usually hear from an actress with an Oscar on her shelf. But Anne’s point was clear — this wasn’t about showing up and acting. She needed to become something new. Every day she showed up knowing she might “suck” at what she was doing. And she had to be okay with that.
She trained her body for nearly two years to get ready. Daily dance classes, sometimes 10 hours long. Voice lessons so she could actually sing the songs written by Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX. No shortcuts. She wanted the performance to come from her bones.
Her choreographer, Dani Vitale, told Vogue she knew right away that working with Anne wouldn’t be easy. She called Anne “like a doll” — pretty and poised, but not raw enough at first. Vitale’s job was to break her out of that. She pushed Anne to stop thinking and start feeling every step, every note, every breath.
How Did Anne Hathaway Finally Learn To Breathe?
Anne’s biggest breakthrough didn’t come from singing or dancing — it came from learning how to breathe. She told Vogue that her body was so locked up she couldn’t take a deep breath for years. She’d tried everything before but never cracked it. Through the intense dance work, she finally opened that space.
“I finally learned how to breathe,” she said. That might sound simple, but for Anne it was huge. It changed the way she moved. The way she performed. And probably the way she lives day to day.
Fans already know Anne will give up a lot for a role. She went vegan for WeCrashed to play Rebekah Neumann. She lost a scary amount of weight for Les Misérables. But Mother Mary was about something deeper. It wasn’t about changing how she looked — it was about changing how she felt in her own body.
Anne even admitted that this intense prep work is how she keeps her nerves under control. She’s talked before about anxiety getting in her head on set. So for Mother Mary, she prepared so much that if that voice crept in, she could shut it down. She knew she’d done everything possible.
There’s still no release date for Mother Mary. But with the way Anne talks about it, fans know it’s not just another movie for her. It’s the project that taught her how to let go — and finally take a real, deep breath.