We finally love Anne Hathaway again, she only had to change everything about herself.

For decades, the faces of famous women have been morphing into one singular look.

Everything from cosmetic procedures to surgeries and even the evolution of makeup (with some Facetune and filters thrown in) means that when we now sit down to watch a movie, scroll through our social channels or even flip through one of the revitalised magazines currently sitting on the newsstands, we're met with what writer Jia Tolentino famously chronicled as 'Instagram face'. The rise of a 'single, cyborgian look' for both famous women and anyone with access to a Meta login.

Like many other women, over time I have absorbed this information with the same level of emotion that hit me when I discovered people were using broccoli to apply their make-up because they saw it on TikTok.

I'm aware it's happening, it does slightly concern me, but there's nothing I can do to change it and therefore, I accept its existence.

But now, in the same way that famous women's faces are all melting into one singular look, it appears that so too are their personalities.

At this point in time the story of how actress Anne Hathaway became 'Hollywood's most hated woman' has been retold more times than Spiderman's origin story.

In 2013 the actress, beloved for her roles in The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, along with critically acclaimed parts in movies such as Rachel Getting Married, was on the awards season circuit for her role as Fantine in Les Misérables and everything for her began to change.

Listen to The Spill team explain why Anne Hathaway had to change everything about herself. 

During that awards season, Hathaway won a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award, all in the Best Supporting Actress category, before finally nabbing the top prize: an Academy Award.

And each time she appeared at an awards show, the public and media-fuelled hatred against her began to grow.

After her Golden Globes win she was accused of putting on "The Anne Show" when it appeared to the audience that during the broadcast she had cut off a Les Mis producer in order to thank her own management team — before he got a chance to say his piece about Best Musical.

(It was later reported that Anne impulsively spoke up because her longtime manager had been diagnosed with cancer and she wanted to show respect.)

During the Oscars ceremony held just a few weeks later, she fared even worse in the spotlight. Her acceptance speech was criticised for appearing 'gushy and pretentious' and the situation was exacerbated by the searing online hatred for her pink Prada gown. Hathaway later confirmed she knew people had turned against her before she even set foot on the Oscars red carpet, saying of her look for the night "Everybody hates me and I just really needed a dress".

It was after the awards show circuit, while Googling pregnancy rumours about herself so that she could script a Funny or Die video, that Hathaway came across a viral article called Why Do People Hate Anne Hathaway?

On realising the extent of the hatred against her, Hathaway later went on to tell Harper's Bazaar that it was like being "punched in the gut", saying she felt "shocked and slapped and embarrassed. Even now I can feel the shame."

Now, in 2024, Hathaway is still responding to the years when people would hear her name or glimpse her face and shudder while uttering the words, 'I just can't stand her.'

"Everybody hates me and I just really needed a dress" Anne remembers thinking the night before her Oscar win. Image: Getty.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair entitled Anne Hathaway on Tuning Out the Haters and Embracing Her True Self, the 41-year-old mother of two said, "Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through" about that period in her life. She then thanked Christopher Nolan for casting her in Interstellar despite her reputation at the time, saying, "A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online."

The profile, the accompanying high fashion photoshoot and the supporting Vanity Fair videos where Hathaway offers commentary on her past roles have all drawn rapturous praise from the online world. Very much in line with how the reinvention of Anne Hathway has been treated in recent years, after she posed on a magazine cover and asked fans to 'kiss and make up'.

There is an eager anticipation around upcoming movies The Idea Of You and Mothers’ Instinct based largely in part to her roles in them, her public-facing red carpet and premiere moments are now circulated across Instagram and TikTok with adoring captions over disdain and her style choices are now envied instead of ridiculed. Famed designers such as Donatella Versace are now labelling her style as "dangerous, but sexy" while asking her to front campaigns, such is her newly invigorated allure.

It appears everyone has fallen back in love with Anne Hathaway, she just had to seemingly change every part of her personality and appearance first.

Gone, almost in one almighty clean-out it seems, is the earnest and emotional actress who has been on our screens for almost 20 years, the anti-cool girl who favoured princess style dresses and who never attributed her fame to an accident. The poster child for fellow try-hards everywhere who are not afraid to let the intensity of their dreams always be on show.

Of course we all change with age, and living your life in the spotlight would force more life lessons into your path than the average person.

It could just be that in her 40s, Hathaway is embracing a new style and her thoughts on career and life have shifted and she communicates these changes in a different way. Perhaps all of these changes have happened in a vacuum for her, not fuelled by the glare of online threads who would happily rip her part if she steps out of line again.

But it could also be true that in this moment in time, when the lives and personalities of famous women are being scrutinised more so than ever before, that there is only one type of famous persona we are willing to flock to.

Dakota Johnson is more beloved than ever before thanks to her deadpan interview humour and the way she cheekily shrugs off any traditional line of celebrity questioning.

Sydney Sweeney is always quick to joke about her boobs and say that she'd rather be fixing one of her vintage cars than walking a red carpet.

Margot Robbie is seen as the laid-back, beach-loving woman whose series of Barbie-inspired outfits remind us that she always champions being a 'girl's girl'.

Zendaya is known for being just as at home lying in bed bingeing hours of true crime documentaries as she is laughing her way down a red carpet.

Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine in The Idea Of You. Image: Amazon Prime.

These women all live up to their loveable online reputations, but at the same time, it has to be said that we are all currently gravitating towards a particular kind of cool girl person.

It's hard to see how someone like the former Anne Hathaway, who looked down at her Oscar and whispered to herself 'it came true', before delivering a speech filled with emotions and devoid of snappy humour, would fair in this current climate.

But I feel safe in saying that history would surely repeat itself.

In the opening moments of the Vanity Fair profile, Hathway is quick to make a joke about herself. Quipping that although she is not one, she says "I think everybody can agree I have the personality of a vegan."

It's a small moment, but in a series of interviews where she is either increasingly self-deprecating or rushes to clarify what she has said, one thing has become increasingly clear about the actress. She wants us to know that she's not only in on the joke, she's willing to take the whole thing one step further.

We'll never know for sure if the change in Hathaway is orchestrated or not, but one thing is clear.

If we continue to favour famous women for only having one specific type of personality, then the next earnest young woman who takes to the stage will fare no better than the Anne Hathaway of 2013.

Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here.

Feature Image: Getty.