With the advent of intimacy coordinators and more evolved forms of safeguards, the film and acting industry has dramatically changed for the better in the last few years in the post #MeToo era. But it used to be much worse. In the not-too-distant past, there was a time when “chemistry tests” included intimacy scenes, actors forced to kiss and make out with strangers so directors could watch, leer, and gauge how they might fare on screen together. In a new interview, Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway reflected on the awkwardness of such forced tests, describing them as “gross.”
In an interview with V Magazine to promote her upcoming Prime Video romantic comedy “The Idea of You” (read our review), Hathaway recalled such experiences in unpleasant detail.
“Back in the 2000s—and this did happen to me—it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry. Which is actually the worst way to do it,” the actress shared with V Magazine about her experiences with a chemistry test for an unnamed film. “I was told, ‘We have ten guys coming today, and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.”
Hathaway said, like most actresses at the time, you didn’t feel empowered to speak out against such practices, and you just went with the flow to not be labeled “difficult” in order to get the gig.
“And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it. It wasn’t a power play; no one was trying to be awful or hurt me. It was just a very different time, and now we know better.”
While the actress didn’t outright name the project, it could be “The Princess Diaries,” where she co-starred with an equally young Chris Pine as her romantic interest in the movie released back in 2001. One can’t be entirely sure if that’s the project, but of all her 2000s-era films, it’s a definite possibility.
Hathaway’s new film, “The Idea Of You,” ironically involves a lot of making-out, and it chronicles the love affair between a single mother (Hathaway) and the lead singer of a popular boy band (Nicholas Galitzine). As a producer on the film, the actress said she was mindful not to make the same mistakes in the chemistry tests, doing something totally different: asking them to choose a song that they felt their character would love, dance to it, and improv.
The technique paid off, and Hathaway said casting Galitzine opposite her was simple. “It was just easy,” Hathaway said. “I heard [the lead singer of Alabama Shake’s] voice, and I just started smiling. And [Galitzine] saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing. Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and [saw that] Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”
“The Idea of You” is set to stream exclusively on Amazon when it debuts on May 2