Anne Hathaway’s 10 Best Performances: ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ ‘Rachel Getting Married,’ and More

“Interstellar” (2014)

Just like “Interstellar” itself, Hathaway’s divisive 2014 performance in Christopher Nolan’s unabashedly sentimental sci-fi epic has aged well over the years. When the film first released, certain critics scoffed at the film’s seemingly awkward marriage between drippy guy cry emotion and cold, clinical sci-fi, but nowadays the project has largely been embraced as some of Nolan’s most emotionally resonant work. Hathaway’s performance as the film’s moral center, doctor Amelia Brand, is crucial to what makes it work, imbuing what could admittedly be a thin character (Nolan’s reputation for not writing women well isn’t entirely unfounded) with much-needed spunk and brightness that livens up her and Cooper’s (Matthew McConaughey) mission to save a dying Earth. Her big speech that love transcends time and space could be hokey, but Hathaway pulls it off and spins it into gold.

“Les Misérables” (2012)

Tom Hopper’s big-budget “Les Misérables” film has aged poorly in the near 15 years since its release, with its questionable casting for the musical’s ensemble, awkward staging of its group numbers, and suffocatingly cloistered intimacy for a famously grandiose story. But Hathaway, who won her Oscar for her performance as the small but crucial character of Fantine, is the main bright spot, and the film is at its most compelling before her early death about a quarter through its runtime. She’s a heartbreaking figure to watch, her bright eyes slowly dimming by the torment and hardships Fantine endures trying to support her daughter. The movie’s most famous sequence, a one-take close-up of Hathaway performing the power ballad “I Dreamed a Dream,” is a conceit that doesn’t quite gel with the song’s anthemic nature, but her riveting command of the screen and sheer commitment make it stunning all the same. Hathaway is rarely bad, but “Les Misérables” represents the strongest disparity between the quality of her performance and the film surrounding her.

“WeCrashed” (2022)

“WeCrashed” was not, overall, one of the better shows to come out of the 2022 trend of limited series exploring scammers and criminals from recent American history; it’s probably at the midpoint between them all, neither as good and exacting as “The Dropout” nor as flaccid and as muddled as “Inventing Anna.” But the Apple TV show deserves a second look for Hathaway’s wonderful central performance as Rebekah Neumann, one of the central figureheads of workspace company WeWork, in a story tracking the company’s quick rise and brutal fall from grace. Playing opposite Jared Leto as founder Adam Neumann, Hathaway gets roughly equal ownership over the show, and delivers one of her funniest comedic showcases as the delusional, self-righteous, and embittered Rebekah. The entire enterprise only clicks into place when she’s onscreen, as her performance pretty much singlehandedly elevates the show into something worth watching.

“Mother Mary” (2026)

A wonderfully strange psychological drama, David Lowrey’s “Mother Mary” is unwieldy, overly stagey, and heavily artificial — its characters are admittedly more vessels for the big ideas it gnaws at than living, breathing humans with histories and lives beyond their careers. That it’s so compelling is a testament to the elite two-hander casting, with Hathaway and Michaela Coel finding extraordinary pathos and moving chemistry as a pop star and a fashion designer reuniting years after a nasty fallout to rehash their grievances and heal the (literal!) ghosts haunting them. Hathaway could easily play big, bold, and glamorous, but that’s not what the film asks from her here. Her Mary is instead an insular, cloistered figure, a swirling mess of emotions and vulnerabilities left lost by her idol stature. Especially in a memorable silent dance sequence early on, she brings a brittle, wounded quality to the character, the perfect contrast to Coel’s sharply rendered venom. It’s a delectable showcase for the performer that demonstrates she can still do new things 25 years into her career.

“The Princess Diaries” (2001) and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” (2004)

Seemingly once every few years, people get their hopes up for that third “Princess Diaries” movie that seems increasingly less likely to ever materialize. Such is the hold that Gary Marshall’s effervescent 2001 coming-of-age teen flick has on those who grew up in the Y2K era: an eternal staple slumber party watch, it’s the type of earnest and fizzy comedy for younger audiences that barely gets made anymore, an aspirational tale of going from the lamest girl in school to the princess of a small European country that feeds directly into its audiences own daydreams. And none of it would work without Hathaway, who is a splendid, instant star as the hapless Mia Thermopolis, a warm and relatable presence who makes the very teenage foibles she experiences (mean girls at school! Getting noticed by the cute guy! Getting prepped to lead a country?) feel seismic.

She’s the perfect youthful ball of comedic energy to Julie Andrews as the steely Queen Regent, and sells the transformation Mia goes through from ugly duckling (i.e. she has curly hair and glasses) to beautiful swan with elegance and grace, partially because it’s much more of an emotional transformation: watching her go from an awkward misfit to a young woman capable of eloquently giving a speech accepting her duties as Princess proves genuinely moving. The unnecessary second film is a far weaker showcase for a young Hathaway’s capabilities, but watching both makes it clear the actor had the goods from day one.

“Colossal” (2016)

One of Hathaway’s most underappreciated films, “Colossal” sees director Nacho Vigalondo use giant kaiju as a metaphor for alcoholism and confronting and moving past personal demons. Hathaway’s Gloria is a struggling writer who, following a breakup, moves back home to reunite with her family friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), and discovers that her movements are connected to a giant kaiju in South Korea. Although she initially uses the connection for fun and games, she quickly realizes the consequences of her actions, and the experience puts her on the path of becoming a better person. The broken, misanthropic Gloria is a mess, but Hathaway’s fundamental likability and deft comedic work makes her rootable anyway, someone whose growth via kaiju is surprisingly, profoundly moving.

“Brokeback Mountain” (2005)

Hathaway was only a year removed from her “Princess Diaries” days when she starred in her first real prestige film, Ang Lee’s devastating, instantly iconic queer tragedy “Brokeback Mountain.” As Lureen, the rodeo rider wife of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist, Hathaway was something like the film’s fourth banana, receiving considerably less attention than her Oscar-nominated costars Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, and Michelle Williams. She definitely gets the least amount to work with of all three, her character largely kept in the background of the love affair between Jack and Ledger’s Ennis. But her work is subtle and strong, showing how Lureen steadily goes from a bright and independent young woman to a frostier soul after years living a lie with her husband, and she gets a killer scene in the film’s final sequences when Ennis calls Lureen and asks about Jack’s death. She keeps herself together, but Hathaway makes it clear Lureen is seconds away from falling apart, in a moment that shows how much the actor can do with very little.

“Eileen” (2023)

Not all of William Oldroyd’s “Eileen” works, but the adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel provides Hathaway with one of her most compelling characters. In a bleak, dark juvenile correction society for teen boys in the 1960s, Hathaway’s sophisticated, alluring blonde Rebecca sticks out like a sore thumb and quickly becomes the desire of Thomasin McKenzie’s clerk, pulling the women into a psychological storm that threatens to engulf them. Something of a femme fatale, Rebecca is a purring, slippery character, difficult to get a read on, and Hathaway is perfectly matched for the part, with her spotless trans-Atlantic accent and enigmatic line readings. You understand Eileen’s obsession with her perfectly; by the end of the film, you probably share it, too.

“The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (2026)

Hathaway was already a star before “The Devil Wears Prada,” between “The Princess Diaries” and “Brokeback Mountain.” And yet, “The Devil Wears Prada” somehow feels like another star-is-born moment for her — and not just because it redoes “The Princess Diaries'” makeover sequence, when Runway assistant Andy Sachs drops her dowdy skirts and oversized sweaters for a blazer and a pair of iconic Chanel boots. The film was essentially the audience’s introduction to Hathaway as a fully formed movie star, who could anchor a project as broadly entertaining but wickedly intelligent as this classic tale of a fashion magazine assistant navigating a boss from hell. On the surface, Andy — earnest, people-pleasing, significantly less funny than everyone around her — could be insufferable, but it’s Hathaway’s open, curious face and deft hand with both the film’s sharp comedy and its thoughtful human drama that centers the entire film. Going against Meryl Streep’s Oscar-nominated performance as Miranda Priestly, Hathaway more than keeps up: the blithe and inconsiderate Priestly is only truly interesting in how her harshness reflects onto and shapes Andy, a young woman on the verge of deciding who she is. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” suffers a bit from rehashing much of the original (how is Andy both an experienced journalist and exactly as bumbling as she was 20 years ago?), but watching her anchor the spotty sequel, and demonstrate just how endlessly charming she remains as a screen presence, is a treat worth two hours.

“Rachel Getting Married” (2008)

Hathaway got her start playing earnest, relatable women, but the actor is often at her strongest when she’s playing someone a bit flintier. And flinty is just one way to describe Kym, the abrasive, selfish protagonist of Jonathan Demme’s searingly vicious study of familial resentment. The part that earned Hathaway her first Oscar nomination, Kym is a former model who temporarily leaves her rehab center to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt), where she proceeds to wreak havoc on the weekend by making her sister’s big moment all about herself. Constantly poking at the insecurities and hangups of the family members, Kym is a merciless critic, and Hathaway’s blunt line deliveries are both funny and horrifying. Her biggest moment comes in a withering rehearsal dinner toast where Kym centers herself, a moment of profoundly uncomfortable awkwardness that Hathaway makes thrilling. It’s the most complex, entertaining, and fascinating role Hathaway has ever taken, and it remains the moment when her talents were on their brightest display.