It's not too much of a stretch to say that Anne Hathaway is a very strong contender for this year's Best Actress Oscar, and her "Love and Other Drugs" director Ed Zwick (pictured with Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne and Hank Azaria) knows it. "Wasn't she badass? Wasn't she good? She'd be in [the race] because of her performance," Ed assured me when we sat down to chat about the upcoming release.
Though audiences won't see the film until November 24, I can vouch that Anne's performance is pretty impressive. Ed agreed that her turn as tough-yet-vulnerable Maggie is akin to her previous Oscar-nominated performance in "Rachel Getting Married," adding that Anne has really hit her stride as an actress.
"She's taking these risks, and every time she takes a risk, it pays off even bigger. She's very brave. And I think you saw parts of her instrument that you've never seen before," he said. "You saw great humor, you saw a real earthiness, you saw a kind of tough thing. There are a lot of colors that I don't think she'd ever shown before."
The same goes for Anne's costar Jake, who seemed to come "fully into his manhood and adulthood" in this film, which is something we haven't necessarily seen in his other work. In order to bring out these great performances from two serious actors in what is ultimately a romantic comedy, they spent a lot of time together, learning how to trust one another. Of course, Anne and Jake worked for a few days together on "Brokeback Mountain," but Ed sent them to dinners and movies to get to know each other even better.
"They're both very serious about their craft, and it's funny when someone is very serious about their craft and what you're talking about is comedy, so you have to temper the deeper colors with lightness," Ed explained. "But they're also both very funny people and lovely, joyful people, and I think that was part of it for all of us. We had to get to know each other very well, we had to trust each other a great deal."
Are you looking forward to seeing Anne Hathaway's performance in this film?
** Hollywood Crush Twitter