Les Misérables is considered one of the best adaptations to date. The movie had an ensemble cast including Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, and Russell Crowe. Nominated in 8 different categories, the movie won 3 Oscars. Hathaway’s performance as Fantine led her to win the Golden Lady for Best Supporting Actress.
However, it was a tough task for Anne Hathaway to pull off that role. She had to go through a rigorous diet schedule that almost killed her to lose a significant amount of weight. The diet not only took a physical toll on her but also affected her emotionally.
Anne Hathaway in Les MisérablesWhat was Anne Hathaway’s diet plan for Les Misérables?
In Les Misérables, Anne Hathaway played the role of Fantine. She played the mother to Amanda Seyfried’s character Cosette in the 2012 musical. She was a factory worker who was forced to take the path of prostitution for money eventually dying of tuberculosis. To get the look of Fantine and add authenticity to her performance, the actress lost about 25 pounds.
The diet plan was a tough and merciless one. In an interview with Vogue (via Business Insider), Anne Hathaway described how she worked hard to go slimmer. The diet included a cleanse followed by a fortnight of only eating oatmeal paste. The Interstellar actress also lost an additional 15 pounds during a 2-week filming break after she ate only two thin squares of the dried oatmeal paste per day.
According to the 41-year-old, she needed to be “obsessive about it” and she could do anything to fit into the character of Fantine flawlessly. However, in the aftermath, she had to battle with a strong physical and emotional aftereffect. She described that the rigorous diet pushed her into a“state of deprivation — physical and emotional” and left a lasting impact.
“I couldn’t react to the chaos of the world without being overwhelmed. It took me weeks till I felt like myself again.”
Anne Hathaway added later that the schedule was not a healthy one. She just forced her body and brain to accept it. She also did something similar with her diet schedule in The Dark Knight Rises. However, her husband helped her a lot in overcoming the Les Misérables trauma.
Anne Hathaway’s husband helped her in getting back to the old lifeAnne Hathaway in Alice in Wonderland (2010)
It was not at all easy for Anne Hathaway to get over the Les Misérables phase. The physical and emotional struggle took such a toll on her. But it was her newly-wed husband then who helped to get back her in life.
Speaking about her husband and actor-businessman Adam Shulman, she explained that he understood her and was a major support system. She added to Vogue that her husband loves her very much and she believes in the romantic and till-death-do-us-part type of love.
“He gets what I do and who I am and supports me in it, and that’s pretty awesome, true love — the full-on romantic, till-death-do-us-part real deal.”
Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman in 2012 and since then they haven’t been involved in any major gossip. Together they share two sons- Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman and Jack Shulman. The Princess Diaries star prefers to keep their family life quite private and there isn’t much available in social media as well.
Anne Hathaway’s iconic performance in Les Misérables can be watched by renting it on Apple TV+.