Anne Hathaway has apologised to a journalist who has shared a clip of the actor being “rude” and “dismissive” in a resurfaced interview.
The original footage had shown Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa interviewing Hathaway at a filmed press junket to promote Les Misérables in 2012, with the actor giving blunt responses to Flaa’s questions.
Flaa, who designed her questions around themes of the musical, had asked the actors to sing their responses to the questions, but said Hathaway “was not very positive to that idea,” noting that her co-stars including Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman were more enthusiastic.
The resurfaced footage was shared by Flaa this week on YouTube, in a video titled “This might be my worst interview idea ever”.
In one moment, Hathaway told the journalist she “won’t be doing that” when asked to sing, and the actor simply responded “No” to several questions about themes of romance in the film.
Flaa claimed Hathaway was “not very nice” and claimed she felt as though the actor “hated” her.
In another moment, Flaa asked Hathaway whether she thought people had to sacrifice more for love during the film’s time period in the 19th century compared to now, to which Hathaway curtly responded: “No”.
The journalist has now revealed she recently received an apology from Hathaway, which had been emailed via her publicist.
“I have to say, I was pretty shocked,” Flaa said in a follow-up YouTube video. “I had not expected her to reach out to me at all. I thought she was never gonna even see that video. But she did. And she did something pretty amazing.”
The journalist said Hathaway had sent her “a long email explaining to me what she was going through right then when she did this interview, and she apologised for being…giving me an awful interview basically,” she said.
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“It was so touching to me. Just talking about it makes me almost teary eyed, ‘cause I was just so grateful that she did that. And it was a very personal note. And we decided that I wouldn’t share exactly what was in the email, but I just wanted to share with you guys what she did.”
Flaa, who also noted Hathaway had invited her to interview her for her next project to rectify the situation, is the same journalist who called out It Ends With Us actor Blake Lively for a resurfaced “nightmare” interview.
The journalist had posted a clip of a 2016 interview with Lively, which seemed to get off to a bad start when Flaa congratulated the actor on her pregnancy and “little bump”.
Lively sarcastically responded: “Congrats on your little bump.”
Prior to the interview, which presumably would have taken place around the film’s release date in July, the actor, who was then 28, had announced that she was pregnant with her second baby with her husband Ryan Reynolds in May.
Speaking to TMZ, Flaa said she still does not understand why Lively took offence at her remark.
“I find it offensive that she said it back to me to be honest,” she said. “I was like, do I have a bump? It was strange behaviour to me.”