Entertainment

Did We All Bully Anne Hathaway?

by Caitlyn Callegari

We loved her when she was the frizzy-haired, bushy-eyebrowed Mia Thermopolis, Princess of Genovia. We felt for her when she was Andi the assistant, getting tortured by a fabulously terrifying Meryl Streep. Hell, we even enjoyed her as that weirdo creep White Queen in Alice in Wonderland. It may be hard to believe, but people didn't always harbor such disdainful feelings towards poor Anne Hathaway. She's always appeared to have a sweet-disposition, she's got a pretty decent singing voice, and the girl paid her dues as she climbed her way up the Hollywood ladder from Ella Enchanted to Les Miserables. In fact, it was ironically at the peak of her career when things kind of went rapidly downhill for her in every other facet. Suddenly, she stopped being endearing. She was like a kid who had outgrown that cutesy stage but was apparently the last to know it.

I feel bad for her. I can't help it. As I stumbled upon pictures of her on the red carpet for Rio 2 I thought, "Where has she been?!" And then I remembered-- we banished her into obscurity (exactly where we had wanted her). The poor thing knew she needed to literally hide herself away just so people wouldn't go after her with torches and pitchforks and mean blog posts. Listen, I'm just as guilty as anyone else. I remember rolling my eyes as she gave her Oscars acceptance speech, proclaiming, "It Came True!" "Too much, Hathaway," I grumbled to myself as I oppositely ROARED with thunderous applause and appreciation for Jennifer Lawrence when she stumbled up to the podium and through her charmingly dysfunctional acceptance speech. But I've come to realize something-- we can't all be Jennifer Lawrence. That's kinda the draw of her in the first place.

If you think back on it, the kind of shade thrown in Hathaway's direction was completely unequal to anything she ever did. You'd think she went on a puppy murdering massacre or spoiled the ending to Breaking Bad the way we treated her. Guys, we even coined a term for the specific kind of special disdain we felt for her-- Hathahate. Witty? Sure. Mean? Definitely. I'm getting middle school-type flashbacks thinking of this kind of stupid teasing. It's one thing to make fun of someone by manipulating their name, but it's another thing entirely to make a person feel so unwelcome that they begin to withdraw and ridicule themselves. As much as we say we hate bullies and are so quick to call out children for doing it to other children, we don't realize that as adults we can be just as bad, if not even worse.

Was the big-eyed brunette a little overzealous? Sometimes. Could she be annoying? Perhaps. Was she grating on my nerves just a little bit? Okay, yeah. But then again, who the hell hasn't been guilty of flaws at some point in their lives. She's a good actress. She's a good person. She's even a good sport, taking all of this backlash in stride. Perhaps, we were a little too harsh on her. Maybe, she's just a human like the rest of us.

I think it's time we welcome her back and offer her an overdue, heartfelt apology.

I'm sorry, Anne.