Anne Hathaway Used Her Real Name For Hollywood, But It Turns Out She Hates It
Anne Hathaway's career has reached incredible heights incredibly quickly. Among her countless iconic credits are The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, Les Misérables, and Alice in Wonderland, and she has even starred as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Her extensive resume covers all genres of films, which is truly a testament to her talent.
So, clearly, her success and ability are not the problems. No, the thing that bothers her has nothing to do with her acting. The problem is her name. She has used Anne Hathaway her whole life, not bothering to change it when she became an actress, so it was shocking to hear she doesn't like her name.
Anne Hathaway Didn't Know She Could Pick A Stage Name
People might be wondering why, if Anne Hathaway dislikes her name so much, she didn't choose a different one as a stage name. After all, many in her position have taken up the opportunity to choose a name that suits them for their public life.
The answer to that is that she would have done it if she had known it was an option. The actress was very young when her career started, so she didn't even think about changing her name until much later, when the world already knew her as Anne Hathaway.
"When I was 14 years old I filmed a commercial and I had to get my SAG card, and they asked me, 'What do you want your name to be?'" Of course, at the time the question was a little weird for the 14-year-old girl.
"I'm like, 'Well it should be my name, my name is Anne Hathaway','" the actress said.
Another thing was that she had no way of knowing she would become the superstar she is right now.
"That seemed like the right choice, but it never occurred to me that for the rest of my life people would call me Anne," she would later note.
Why Hathaway Doesn't Like Being Called Anne
The fact that Anne Hathaway hates her name was kind of confusing for fans at first. It's a pretty common, and even pretty name. Not embarrassing or clunky.
But there is actually a very simple explanation, one that probably most of the readers will understand and identify with, at least a little.
"The only person who ever calls me Anne is my mother, and she only does it when she's really mad at me, like really mad," she explained. "So every time I step out in public and someone calls my name, I think they're going to yell at me... People are like, 'Anne!' And I'm like, 'What? What did I do?'"
Given the fact that most of the world knows her in some way, she's pretty much getting yelled at by her mother all the time, everywhere, so of course, it is, at the very least, annoying for her.
Hathaway Prefers The Nickname Annie
It was on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon that the actress finally told the world how much she truly disliked her legal name. It wasn't anything dramatic, she just told Jimmy Fallon that she didn't like being called Anne.
When Jimmy asked what should he call her instead, she said to call her Annie, which is apparently what everyone (except her mom when she's mad at her) calls her on a daily basis.
After that was settled, she explained that the people she's worked with have always been very respectful about calling her by the name she preferred. That is, basically, not Anne. Everything else is in the clear.
"People are so lovely, they don't want to be presumptuous, and so they come up with workarounds on set because the truth is nobody's comfortable calling me Anne ever," she said. "It doesn't fit. I'm an Annie. People call me 'Miss H,' people call me 'Hath,' so feel free, call me anything but Anne."
So far, the actress hasn't taken any measures toward officially changing her name, legally or otherwise. Her social media handles remain with the name Anne, so while she has made it clear that doesn't like to be called by that name, it seems to be more of a peeve or personal preference than a full-on hatred for the name.
Even so, as she said, she's more comfortable with other names, so from now on fans can start to call her Annie Hathaway.
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