Anne Hathaway Recounts Experience of Being Asked to “Make Out” With 10 Different Men for a Chemistry Test

It’s been more than two decades since actress Anne Hathaway made her debut in the film industry, and we’re delighted that she chose acting as a career, allowing us to enjoy her captivating presence on screen. Indeed, the actress has a glorious career and will certainly continue with it in the future as well. In fact, she has expanded her career already, as in her upcoming film The Idea of You, the actress has also served as a producer and starred as the protagonist. In these two decades, plenty of things have changed in the film industry. While reflecting on Anne Hathaway’s initial days in Hollywood, a weird approach by the casting directors back then was to gauge the chemistry between the two actors.

Although Hathaway didn’t specify which film she was referring to, during an interview with V Magazine, she revealed that in the 2000s, producers on a film she was starring in required her to kiss a succession of potential co-stars. The Oscar-winning actress said,

“I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ Because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross. I thought it sounded gross,” she continued. “And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it.”

The actress further clarified, “It wasn’t a power play. No one was trying to be awful or hurt me. It was just a very different time, and now we know better.”

She is right when she says, “Now we know better,” as the approach has indeed changed, keeping consent and safety in mind. However, the chemistry test taken during the auditioning is to gauge the spark between potential co-stars when casting a film, but it can take place in less formal settings without an intimacy coordinator, even though it requires strangers to act intimate.

Now, when Hathaway was auditioning for her upcoming film The Idea of You, the audition was done entirely in a different way. Hathaway said,

“We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little improv. I was sitting in a chair like we had come in from dinner or a walk or something, we pressed play, and we just started dancing together.”

Actor Nicholas Galitzine, who stars alongside Hathaway in the film, chose a song by rock band Alabama Shakes, fronted by Brittany Howard. Hathaway shared,

“I heard Brittany’s voice and I just started smiling. And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing. Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”

Galitzine has also spoken about his experience of their joint audition, saying that although he found it “incredibly intimidating … there was something almost spiritual that kind of happened there where I felt this immediate connection to Annie, and we had a simpatico and a shared sense of humor and it was just very easy.”

What’s Anne Hathaway’s upcoming film all about?

Anne Hathaway’s upcoming project is a romantic comedy film, The Idea of You, based on Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name. The film follows the tale of a 40-year-old single mother (Hathaway) who falls for a 24-year-old international pop star, played by Nicholas Galitzine. It is helmed by Michael Showalter, who also co-wrote the film with Jennifer Westfeldt.

The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 16, 2024, and is scheduled to be released by Amazon MGM Studios via Prime Video on May 2, 2024.