Anne Hathaway Says She Wants to Be Called “Anything” But Her Own Name

Twenty years after her breakout role in The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway revealed we've been calling by her the wrong name all this time. See what she actually wants to be called.

By Lindsay Weinberg Jan 14, 2021 3:42 AMTags
Watch: Anne Hathaway's "The Witches" Faces Disability Backlash

You know that actress from The Devil Wears Prada and Les Mis? Well, she has a very strange request: Don't call her by her name.

You see, Anne Hathaway decided to "spill the tea," as she said, to Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 12. She revealed that throughout her career, fans have harmlessly called her "Anne," not realizing there's only one person in real life that actually calls her that. 

"The only person who ever calls me Anne is my mother, and she only does it when she's really mad at me, like really mad," Hathaway, 38, shared. "So every time I step out in public and someone calls my name, I think they're going to yell at me."

So, why isn't she just known as Annie? Well, the Oscar winner explained when she was filming a commercial at age 14, she had to get her official SAG card for the Screen Actors Guild.

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Anne Hathaway's Heartwarming Quotes on Motherhood

"They asked me, ‘What do you want your name to be?'" she recalled on The Tonight Show. "And I was like, ‘Well, it should be my name. My name's Anne Hathaway.'"

The Witches star continued, "So that seemed like the right choice, but it never occurred to me that for the rest of my life, people will call me Anne." Talk about regret.  

Eric Charbonneau/Shutterstock

Now, she says everyone should "feel free" to call her by her endearing nickname, instead of the more proper Anne. 

"People are so lovely, they don't want to be presumptuous, and so I think they come up with workarounds on set because the truth is nobody's comfortable calling me Anne ever. It doesn't fit. I'm an Annie," she went on. "People call me Miss H, people call me Hath, so feel free, call me anything but Anne."

Or if you're like us, you can just call her Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, Princess of Genovia.

Watch Her Royal Highness' late night clip above, as she opens up about her "magic" experience with motherhood to her 4-year-old son Jonathan and 1-year-old son Jack.

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