Anne Hathaway, the Oscar-winning actress best known for her roles in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, ‘Les Misérables’, and ‘The Princess Diaries’, is set to take on one of her most unconventional roles yet. Her upcoming film ‘Mother Mary’ sees her step into the shoes of a pop star, a far cry from the characters that first made her a household name. The 43-year-old plays a character navigating a psychosexual affair with a fashion designer, played by Michaela Coel.As director David Lowery revealed in an interview, one very specific artist shaped the vision for the character more than anyone else: Taylor Swift. The ‘Love Story’ singer’s influence on the film was not subtle. It was structural, visual, and deeply intentional.
How Taylor Swift shaped Anne Hathaway’s ‘Mother Mary’
David Lowery told Empire magazine, “Her Reputation concert film is one of the best concert films ever. It’s truly phenomenal. And for our concert sequences, we looked at that repeatedly. You would not believe the amount of time we were talking about Taylor.”
He added, “We took three songs from Reputation and broke it down, shot by shot, and looked at them like: ‘Okay, if we were doing these, how much would these shots cost to do in visual effects?’ We used that as a budgeting tool, because we didn’t know how to wrap our heads around actually pulling off a stadium concert-show on a minimal budget. We were literally using Reputation as a guide. I can go on about Reputation all day.“Lowery also revealed that he attended one of Swift’s concerts with Hathaway, and the actress gifted him a friendship bracelet inspired by the singer when filming wrapped. He said, “When we wrapped, Annie gave me a Taylor Swift style beaded bracelet with ‘Anti-Hero’ on it. I definitely brought a lot of Taylor Swift to the table in terms of who Mother Mary was. I would often be like: ‘Imagine Taylor Swift in 10 or 15 years,’ that’s sort of who this character could be.“
Anne Hathaway on the challenges of playing ‘Mother Mary’
The role was not just creatively demanding. It was logistically challenging, too. Hathaway told Vogue magazine that most of the music for the film was not completed by the time filming began, meaning she had to perform without knowing the songs at all.She said, “I had to submit to being a beginner. The humility of that, showing up every day knowing you’re going to suck. And it has to be okay. You’re not ‘bad’. You’re just a beginner. Getting to that mindset, I had to shed some things that were hard to shed. It was welcome. But it was hard, the way transformational experiences can be hard.”She added, “It was so confusing. I had to learn, because if I’d had the music a year before we ever turned a camera. I would have tattooed every note of it on my soul, and there would have been a whole process, very specific. And that was not available to me. In the end, I am very grateful I could not take control.”‘Mother Mary’ does not yet have a confirmed release date. With Hathaway stepping into the world of pop stardom and Swift’s ‘Reputation’ era serving as the creative blueprint, the film is already shaping up to be one of the more intriguing projects on the horizon.
