Interview: Anne Hathaway - Alice In Wonderland

Alice In Wonderland

Anne Hathaway received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her work in Jonathan Demme's 2008 drama Rachel Getting Married. Her performance in that film also brought her Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Independent Spirit Award nominations, as well as a number of critics groups awards for Best Actress.

She was most recently seen in the Garry Marshall directed romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, and has more recently earned widespread acclaim for her work in The Princess Diaries, Get Smart, and The Devil Wears Prada.

But for Hathaway, roles don't get much bigger than that of the White Queen in Tim Burton's epic 3D blockbuster Alice In Wonderland which has made over $1 Billion at the worldwide Box Office and available on Disney Blu-ray and DVD 1 July 2010.

Why are the characters also great for a Tim Burton movie?

One of the reasons why Alice In Wonderland and Tim Burton are such a great match is because nothing is exactly as it seems in Wonderland. Nothing is entirely good or entirely bad. There is a mixture of life and texture and intention, and I think that is something with which Tim [Burton] is really comfortable. 

If you look throughout his filmography, nothing is ever what it appears to be or should be. So, I think in that sense, living in the questions, the ambiguity, but also the specificity of the world - these are things in which Tim excels as filmmaker.

I believe the filmmaker and the subject matter complement each other really beautifully in this film.

Why did you want to be in Alice In Wonderland and play this role?

I am just going to be a gushy fan for a second. I love Tim Burton - he is one of my all time favorite filmmakers. For as long as he has been making films, I have been going to them opening weekend. And I watch them again and again on DVD. I love his aesthetic. I love his ability to pace as a filmmaker, his comfort with things that are kind of odd - he also finds a way to ground them. 

I think it is very unusual to find a filmmaker who isn't trying to be different for the sake of being different, to show you something you have never seen, but is actually yearning to stretch the limits of his imagination. So everything Tim does comes from a very pure place. I think that is why his movies, in spite of the sometimes off-beat subject matter, have such heart.

"Alice" itself is such a classic, amazing story, and it has been told so many times - but when I heard the combination Tim Burton / Alice In Wonderland, I knew it was going to be a very specific, very wonderful adventure. I love my character. I love that she seems to be the voice of reason - you would think that she would be the good queen. But she didn't have to be.

I  really had a lot of fun playing around with this idea, that what's good in Wonderland is not necessarily good in the real world.

Describe what she does with her hands, and the way that she walks.

 That was absolutely derivative from the costume because, [the costume designer] Colleen Atwood, made this dress that has so much detail to it, that is so complex, doesn't look at all heavy.  It looks like if you didn't attach a weight to it, that it would float up into the air and spin around. 

I noticed the way the dress moved when I was in it. It was never my intention to create a perfect light. I just wanted her to arrive in certain places, and in my head I just thought, the way she walks, she occasionally bumps into things and doesn't know how she got there.

She's a little dopey and kind of ditzy, but at the same time, very clued in. And so, the walk just happened. I took very, very fast footsteps, and I noticed the more languid I could make my arms, the more it looked like I was gliding. And that is when the Norma Desmond thing happened.

I remember being really nervous about the first take. And I did it and Tim smiled, so it was nice. That was the feeling on set. "Show me your imagination. Show me how far you can take this".

Tell us about your enemy - the Red Queen?

Helena Bonham Carter, in addition to being one of the most brilliant women I have ever had the pleasure to talk to, is so much fun as the Red Queen. Her characterisation is so lovely and demanding, not child-like but childish, and selfish and impossible to please.

Then, at other times, she is really vulnerable and sad, because this person is going to be lonely forever, because she is just so darn selfish. She is endlessly entertaining in the role.  Her look and the dedication that it takes - three, four hours to get into that hair and makeup.

And, of course, what about The Mad Hatter?

The actor who plays the Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp - I have so much fun watching him in all of his movies as an audience member, so to actually get to watch him perform live is such a treat. He is so inventive - and he is kind, just a very kind, warm man. 

But to actually watch him in his element, in his zone, just acting, it is a thrill.  I want him to do theatre so that everyone else can get in on it.  He is very powerful.  I just felt very privileged to get to watch him.

What does Aussie gal Mia Wasikowska bring to her role?

Mia Wasikowska is an absolute delight of a young woman. She is so playful and natural and down to earth - but she also has this ethereal quality to her, she feels timeless. What she brings to Alice is very, very difficult to pull off. 

Every time I did a scene with her, I was just amazed at what she was doing with it and that a young actress could bring so much gravity to that world. It is somewhat eerie, the way she is able to communicate feeling and where Alice is at that moment. 

It was lovely to work with her, just to get to observe that. 

What are you wearing in this movie?

I am wearing a dress designed by Colleen Atwood. It is grand and the most fragile dress I have ever worn in my life. I love it so much. It is beautiful. If you ever had a dream of being any kind of fairy princess, this is the dress you would wear. 

I love the idea that it has this idealised, fairy-tale Queen, but it is in a Tim Burton movie, so there is darkness mixed up with it as well.

For the few left in the world that haven't seen the movie - what do audiences have to look forward to with this film?

Because the world of this film begins and ends in the imagination of Tim Burton, you are not seeing a movie that has been shot on locations that you've seen a million times.  Because this world has no rules, you are seeing so many different and separate brushstrokes and colours and characterisations somehow getting combined through Tim. 

What you are getting is an absolute exploration of the imagination. 

I think that is the essence of the book, and I think that is the spirit Tim has brought to the film. Everybody on the film was so clever, so creative, so imaginative - and I think that is what the film is about - how can we tell a story that honours the imagination in the most imaginative way humanly possible? 

And that is such a fantastic idea!

** Alice in Wonderland is released on Disney DVD and in a Blu-ray TM /DVD Value pack, 1 July 2010! **