Anne Hathaway's Stunning Transformation From Reluctant Princess To Magazine Boss

Anne Hathaway, who was born in Brooklyn in 1982, didn't follow the traditional route to stardom. She got her breakthrough role aged 17 as reluctant princess Mia Thermopolis in 2001's "The Princess Diaries" and continued learning on the job. "Given the fact that I didn't go to drama school, and I did start as young as I did, so much of my learning happened on set in real time in the films that I was in," she told WWD. But nothing has been the same for the actor since she entered the fictional world of Genovia alongside her on-screen grandmother Julie Andrews. "['The Princess Diaries'] was the film that changed my life," she told Vanity Fair in 2024. "It just felt so big at the time and it wound up being so big and it's kind of just gotten bigger as my life has progressed," she added. And Hathaway (who had only starred in a few episodes of the TV series "Get Real" before landing the major movie role) wasn't wrong about everything changing. 

"The Princess Diaries" became beloved all over the world and opened the actor up to a slew of other huge movie roles over the next few decades, including "The Devil Wears Prada," "The Dark Knight Rises," and "Les Misérables," all while undergoing a stunning transformation. But through it all, she's stayed humble and knows the gravity of the impact she's had on so many lives. "It is such a sweet feeling to know that you're kind of woven into someone's life. I can't describe the honor of knowing that I'm involved in the moments where people need comfort," she told Net-A-Porter.

Hathaway became an instant star after "The Princess Diaries" – and the accolades and notoriety came just as quickly. She was nominated for a 2002 Teen Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy alongside big names like queen of the black dress Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Not bad for a girl who had just graduated from high school. When the BBC asked about her next project after "The Princess Diaries," Hathaway shared, "I'm going to school right now, so it'll have to be something pretty special to pull me out of that. If I find it, wonderful, if not, I'm going to graduate with my degree in English and I'll take it from there." And it seems she found it. That same year, she appeared in another Disney movie, "The Other Side of Heaven," and, in 2006, landed a role in the movie "Nicholas Nickleby" and a New York stage production of the musical "Carnival." 

In 2004, Hathaway bolstered her position as the go-to girl for family-friendly flicks via the lead role in the fantasy movie "Ella Enchanted" before reprising Mia Thermopolis in "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement." She'd later tell HuffPost she struggled to attract different roles around this time. "It was hard [to] get into rooms, to be taken seriously for roles that weren't princesses," she admitted (via People). 

Playing down-to-earth, relatable characters was mirrored by her achievable and comfortable wardrobe. She was spotted in a sporty halterneck top and trendy low-rise jeans at a 2001 Juicy Couture event. She also experimented with double denim (including the same pants!) and a bold red scarf look for a Britney Spears album release party.

After carving out a career as a rags-to-riches princess in "The Princess Diaries" and a girl with a gift in "Ella Enchanted," Hathaway was ready for something new in 2005. She landed the varied role she'd been looking for via "Brokeback Mountain," which tells the moving story of a romance between two cowboys. Hathaway auditioned for the drama during a lunch break while filming "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement." "I remember being very, very calm, which is unusual for me under any circumstances, especially at 21. I just felt so centered and focused ... I knew what I wanted," she told Out. And that confidence continued after she landed the role. "It wasn't until 'Brokeback Mountain' that I was, like, 'Okay, this is what I want,'" she told The Telegraph. "I want to tell stories that move people, and if I'm not moving people I want them to be so entertained that they forget about their lives."

We also saw a new side of her thanks to "The Devil Wears Prada." Hathaway played Andy Sachs, a journalist who isn't interested in fashion but finds herself in the cut-throat world while working at Runway magazine under the watchful eye of Meryl Streep's cold editor Miranda Priestly. There was a notable shift in Hathaway's fashion, as she learned a lot from the movie's costume designer Patricia Field. "I feel I know how clothes go together now. Before, I was so desperate to have a style and a look that I would wear things I didn't feel comfortable in, that had nothing to do with me," Hathaway told Harper's Bazaar as she embraced mature outfits that would get Andy Sachs' stamp of approval.

The roles continued flooding in for Hathaway in 2008 and 2009. She starred in the likes of the comedy movie "Get Smart" (for which she learned martial arts), the drama "Rachel Getting Married," and the rom-com "Bride Wars." Taking on roles that differed from her last was a choice for this now A-Lister, as she told The Daily Telegraph Australia in 2008, "Now one of my prerequisites for doing a movie is that it has to be on the opposite side of the coin from the last film I did." And she took that seriously, as she appeared in some vastly different projects over the coming years, including the fantasy movie "Alice In Wonderland," the dark superhero flick "The Dark Night Rises," and the celeb-cameo-packed rom-com "Valentine's Day." She also branched into animated projects and voiced characters in the TV shows "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons," while lending her voice to the children's animated movie "Rio."

Despite being one of the most famous actors in the world, she made it clear she wasn't a big fan of the spotlight and gossip columns. "I think that when actors, whether or not they've chosen it or it has been thrust upon them, are living very public lives, it affects your ability to get lost in their performances," she told Interview about why she preferred to keep her private life just that.

Intent on not being typecast, Hathaway took on a big-screen project like nothing she'd done before in 2012; the movie adaptation of "Les Misérables" alongside Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Amanda Seyfried. It saw the actors sing live, while Hathaway also lost a lot of weight to play Fantine (who has tuberculosis). "I just had to stop eating, all for a total of 13 days' shooting," she told The Hollywood Reporter of her dramatic transformation. Hathaway lost 10 pounds in three weeks before filming began and 15 more while shooting.

But that wasn't the only drastic move she made for the project. The native New Yorker cut her long hair short, opting to chop off her signature long, brunette locks into a pixie cut as the cameras rolled. "I went to Tom Hooper, the director, and I said, 'Listen, we're actors singing live in a movie. And, I think, you know, audiences aren't used to that. And I think we need to make it real for them. We need to show them that we all left that pound of flesh on the floor, basically,'" she said on "The Drew Barrymore Show." She also spoke about her reaction to the very dramatic haircut on "Live with Kelly!," sharing, "I've now done back-flips out of windows, I've jumped off buildings. And cutting my hair reduced me to mental patient-level crying. I was inconsolable." The arts community took notice of the hard work Hathaway put into the role, though, as it earned her an Academy Award at the 2013 ceremony.

Hathaway's personal life couldn't have been going much better in 2012. The star married fellow actor Adam Shulman in a romantic California ceremony, and she looked every inch the fashionista in a custom Valentino gown that designer Valentino Garavani personally offered to make (how very Runway magazine of her!) Hathaway spoke to People about how their romance began, sharing, "I am very much in love with him, [only] Adam totally ruined my plan. I was really actually looking forward to a little alone time, and then I fell in love like a fool!"

Three years after tying the knot, the two were ready to become parents, but, sadly, the reality of her fertility journey was difficult. Hathaway opened up about experiencing a miscarriage, telling Vanity Fair (while referring to appearing in "Grounded" off-Broadway), "The first time it didn't work out for me. I was doing a play and I had to give birth onstage every night." She added, "It's really hard to want something so much and to wonder if you're doing something wrong." Fortunately, she fell pregnant again later that year, and she and Shulman welcomed a son named Jonathan in March 2016. She quietly gave birth to their second son, Jack, in 2019.

Following Hathaway's Oscar win, her career struggled due to seemingly unfounded online backlash. On "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Hathaway recalled feeling hurt after she Googled herself and came across an article titled, "Why does everyone hate Anne Hathaway?" She admitted she listened to the trolls at first, sharing, "I hadn't learned to love myself yet. I hadn't gotten there. And if you don't love yourself, when someone else says horrible things to you, part of you is always going to believe them." 

Hathaway told Vanity Fair she lost roles because of the intense online discourse. "They were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online," she explained. "Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through. The key is to not let it close you down. You have to stay bold," she added. And bold is something she incorporated into her look amid the tough time. At the 2013 Met Gala, she strutted her stuff with a choppy pixie cut in warm blond — a 'do unlike anything we'd seen from her before. She sported the same shade with sideswept bangs a few days later at the Tate Americas Foundation Artists Dinner.

The New York native still had the support of director Christopher Nolan, as he cast her in the sci-fi thriller "Interstellar" alongside Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain. "Getting 'Interstellar' at any point in your life would have been a career highlight. The moment that I got to go into that world ... it was the safest and most exhilarating place I could ever be as an actor and as a human," she told WWD. Hathaway added, "It was just a gift in that moment."

After the rocky time in Hathaway's career, she found her footing following "Interstellar." Major roles came her way again in 2015 (when she returned to her signature hair color and embraced a brunette bob) and she appeared in "The Intern" alongside Robert De Niro, the "Alice In Wonderland" sequel "Alice Through The Looking Glass," and "Ocean's Eight," which proved she was still married to the idea of keeping her portfolio diverse. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she revealed why she signed on the dotted line for "Ocean's Eight." "To actually let it go and to lean into all the ridiculous fame nonsense that I've been trying to side-step for all of these years just felt really, really fun," she said. "It just felt great and to play someone who had such an enormous ego and someone who takes herself so seriously, and is so insufferable, came very naturally to me."

By the time 2021 rolled around, though, Hathaway (who's an ageless beauty going makeup-free) seemed increasingly interested in the small screen. She appeared in Prime Video's "Solos" and the limited series "WeCrashed" with Jared Leto. But that didn't mean she'd turned her back on movies completely. Over the next few years, she'd continue her incredible decades-long streak of landing big movie roles with "Armageddon Time," "Eileen," and "The Idea of You."

In 2023, the world noticed Hathaway had leaned into more daring, chic looks, and she told Net-A-Porter she'd adopted a new fashion mantra. "I feel like I lived in a space for a really long time where I was so afraid of doing it wrong and so tightly connected to the idea of doing it right," she said. "It makes not a damn bit of difference if you do it right or wrong," she added. Hathaway, who'd started working with stylist Erin Walsh, ensured all eyes were on her at the 2023 CFDA Awards when she took a risk in a strapless, denim top and long skirt in tie-dye denim and a long, red number with poppy appliques that helped her ace the sheer dress trend. Her status as a fashionista was further solidified when she appeared in Versace's Icon campaign – and Hathaway made a point of flying the flag for older women. "I am very excited to work for a company that wants to have 40-year-old woman as their face. And by the way, 40 years old does not have to be the ceiling," she told WWD. 

The actor also opened up about how much she'd transformed over the two decades that followed "The Princess Diaries." "I just didn't have any confidence [in my 20s]. And I think that there's been so much growth. There's been so much character development that's happened since then for me in all aspects of my life," she said. So, it made sense why she'd want to return to Genovia as a confident, grown woman. In 2024, she confirmed she'd be part of "The Princess Diaries 3" and wrote on Instagram, "Miracles Happen."

Not only had Hathaway recently upgraded her wardrobe, but her fans also noticed the star was seemingly looking a little different in 2025. Her youthful appearance at the Ralph Lauren Collection Fall 2025 event and the 2025 Met Gala sparked a lot of chatter online, as her skin looked incredibly smooth, her lips were plump, and she wasn't showing obvious signs of aging. In fact, Hathaway looked so good that people couldn't help but kickstart plastic surgery rumors. "That's all Botox and filler her face never moves even when she smiles," one X user speculated (via Newsbreak). However, another wrote, "If she's had work done it's very very good. But let's not discount the power of the slick back ponytail face lift."

The star didn't publicly confirm if she'd undergone plastic surgery or less invasive cosmetic procedures such as Botox, which has health benefits beyond vanity. However, she told Vogue France in 2024, "As for my opinion on the matter, I would say that asking people about surgery is a bit like asking them if they have sex: it's an extremely intimate question."

Hathaway's life had come full circle when "The Devil Wears Prada 2" was announced in 2025, reuniting her with Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep. Hathaway spoke to WWD about why it was the right time to bring magazine boss Andy Sachs back, sharing, "I was a very, very young woman when I made 'Devil Wears Prada.' I was so guided and looked after and cared for ... I'm so excited that now I can do that for other people, that now I have the knowledge and the experience and the confidence to take care of other people on sets in which I'm looked at as a leader." The news of a sequel came as a surprise, considering that she admitted on "The View" in 2022 that she didn't think a follow-up would work. "It's tempting, but I don't think it's going to happen. They could relaunch it, get some new people and do it," she said (via EW). Oh, how wrong she was.

Peak Andy Sachs fashion was back amid the hype for the 2026 sequel, on screen and in real life. A trailer showed the character looking chic in a flattering belted number, while Hathaway shared an Instagram upload from an early 2026 Ralph Lauren event looking uber-glam. She wore dark shades, a black, semi-sheer halterneck dress with a fur-look wrap draped around her elbows that made it clear she was more confident than ever and wanted to make a statement.

But while this star was happy to bring some nostalgia into our lives, there was still one big project she wanted to tick off her bucket list. "I haven't made a great Christmas movie ... I'm desperate to make a Christmas movie," she told WWD. So watch this (festive) space.