Five films in one year, a career that reinvents itself, the third motherhood on the way and a Penelope who, in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, no longer just waits for her husband, but claims herself. Anne Hathaway tells Panorama feminine power, love, fragility and the freedom of not owing reverence to anyone.
Homer used the formula of “multiform intelligence” for Ulysses. Three thousand years later, those words belong to a woman. Hathaway’s Penelope, apparently immobile, in Nolan’s Odyssey fights to defend her identity.
It’s difficult to find another actress who has described 2026 with so many nuances. Five films in just a few months: tormented pop star in Mother Mary, back in the role of Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada 2, queen strategist in The Odyssey, mother in science fiction in The End of Oak Street and ambiguous writer in the thriller Verity.
After being a princess, diva and Oscar winner, at 43 years old Hathaway no longer feels the need to justify herself. The third pregnancy, announced in June, is part of a very intense season. Already the mother of Jonathan and Jack with her husband Adam Shulman, she proves that you can be many things without excluding any of them. In Nolan’s film, Penelope is Odysseus’ equal.
The conversation touches on maturity, art and vulnerability, until the moment when, overcome with emotion on set, Nolan sat down next to her to help her breathe.
Penelope was born three thousand years ago, but her battles speak to the present. What is the most important gift that this character left you?
I believe I have entered a new chapter in my life. The thing that struck me about Penelope is that she doesn’t need to apologize for who she is. Odysseus is the king of Ithaca, but in their relationship she is absolutely his equal, and when he is not there, she is the one who rules. Of course she has to deal with what others want from her, knowing that she risks a lot when suitors occupy the palace. But when Antinous enters her chambers, she does not try to please him or make herself agreeable. I love that I’ve reached an age where I can play a woman focused on her own path, without feeling the constant responsibility of making other people’s lives easier. Usually, characters with this freedom are the villains; Penelope is simply a woman aware of her own power.
For centuries Penelope has been defined by patience and faithfulness. Did you discover that they could be forms of power?
That’s exactly what I discovered while working on it. Penelope is as cunning as Odysseus. I thought a lot about the masks he had to wear to protect his son and a kingdom without a king. Patience and loyalty are authentic feelings, but they also become weapons, part of his armor. After twenty years, Penelope feels much more than she shows: anger, frustration, desire, fear. I didn’t want to prove anything to the world, I just wanted to be faithful to Nolan’s writing, which had already captured all these nuances.
His 2026 features five radically different films and roles. How do you move from one identity to another without getting lost?
In reality this year I haven’t had time to process the transition from one character to another. Usually you want a moment to get away, but this time I just had to be extremely organised. More than saying goodbye to a character, I always try to thank them for the time we spent together. Everyone leaves you something, even when you don’t immediately realize what it is.
It is the third film together with Nolan, after The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar. How has your relationship changed over the years?
We’ve spanned three decades: I was twenty in the first, thirty in the second, and today I’m in my forties. Chris has influenced my way of working at every stage. It’s awe-inspiring but incredibly accessible, simple. A lot of work is done on his sets, yet in the morning you can’t wait to get there. Today I also admire another aspect: I have a career and a family, and bringing great artistic ambitions and private life together is a source of enormous inspiration for me.
She has loved Greek mythology since she was a child. What was it like to immerse yourself in that universe?
Myths are among the oldest stories of humanity, they touch chords rooted in our nature. At the beginning of filming I felt overwhelmed by the distance in time, I was trying to bridge centuries of history. I went to Chris and explained that I needed to reset everything I know as a contemporary woman about morals, religion and culture. I studied for a long time, but in the end I understood that beneath that distance there was something universal: Penelope was a woman I could understand intimately.
In the Homeric story its strength is expressed by remaining still…
Yet inside there is an enormous passion. His modesty is a shield to protect himself. I continually thought about how different she must have been when she was alone with Ulysses: he was the only space where she could take off every mask and show all her colors. Even if another splendid man had arrived, it would not have been Ulysses. The gap between the free woman who was with him and the one who had to show herself to the world was the heart of my work.
Penelope and Ulysses do not seem linked by need, but by mutual choice.
Matt Damon and I talked about this for a long time. In an era of marriages of interest, they love each other madly, they have built a family, a kingdom. This makes the tear even more painful. I often used a metaphor: I imagined them as two people who love riding motorbikes. Penelope knows how to drive herself very well, she doesn’t need him to move; but she immensely enjoys riding a motorbike with Ulysses. Their love is an authentic choice.
The costumes also play a central role: Penelope wears bright colors despite her pain.
It was a great idea by costume designer Ellen Mirojnik and Chris. At the beginning I tried a pale pink dress, but Nolan wanted intense, precious shades. I understood this while shooting a banquet scene, where I wore an orchid-colored dress. I turned to Matt and said, that’s why he’s wearing all these colors. Penelope is not in mourning, because for her Ulysses is not dead. He prepares carefully every morning because that could be the day of his return. For her, beauty was a form of hope.
What was it like to perform intimate scenes with the gigantic Imax cameras?
A completely new challenge. With Imax I had only done action sequences. Chris himself had never used it for such intimate shots. We were all rookies. With similar optics every slight movement of the face is amplified, I was afraid of appearing emphatic. I trusted Chris. And when I saw the film, I found on the screen exactly the vulnerability and transparency that I had seen in Matt’s eyes during the takes.
The reunion scene is one of the most anticipated. What does it feel like to summarize twenty years of waiting?
I wanted to get everything out: there is not only happiness, but disbelief, fear, dizziness, the fear that it is a deception or a dream. Feelings accumulated for millennia in literature, which I could finally experience through Nolan’s writing. At that moment I literally exploded.
On set he also experienced a moment of emotional block.
Yes, what we actors call «the hole», (the hole, ed.). When you stay inside an extreme emotion for too long, the nervous system goes haywire, you almost dissociate: you can’t breathe, you lose access to your feelings. This is exactly what happened to me during the reunion. I had to stop and tell Chris and Matt that I couldn’t go on.
What did Nolan do?
An extraordinary thing. A man accustomed to moving fleets and setting up worlds sat next to me, as a friend. It made me laugh, helped me breathe, without making me feel guilty or unprofessional. He understood the human moment. Both he and Matt gave me the time I needed to regain my balance. Chris combines immense power with a very rare sensitivity.
He compared this atmosphere to the one he experienced with Jonathan Demme in Rachel Getting Married.
Exactly, for the profound sense of ensemble. With Demme I was in my early twenties, we worked without hierarchies and I thought I would never reach a similar summit again. With The Odyssey it happened again. Now I have two fixed points of the same size in my artistic life.
What kind of workmate was Matt Damon?
Exceptional. He was in every scene, subjected to grueling physical labor – combat, armor, weather – and I never saw him complain once. The number one best on set I’ve ever worked with: his energy made all of us better, and I feel like working with him changed me as an actress and as a person.
How did Penelope say goodbye at the end of filming?
I didn’t have time: I had to rush to the set of The Devil Wears Prada 2. But I always think back to Sicily and Los Angeles. There was a theatrical atmosphere: no one wanted to go back to the caravan for fear of missing something. It was like a wonderful party that I had to leave a little before the end, but which I will cherish the memory of forever.
