Anne Hathaway is a talented and highly respected Hollywood actress with experience working with some of the biggest and boldest directors of her generation. One of these directors is none other than Christopher Nolan. The actress worked with him in two films and always openly said that it was always a wonderful experience. True, her careless remark in 2020 almost caused such a scandal for the director that he had to make a special PR statement about it.
Anne Hathaway on Christopher Nolan’s On-Set Approach to Filmmaking
Many actors dream of working with Christopher Nolan in one of his films. Anne Hathaway is one of the lucky few who got to work with him in not one, but two incredible films. She first played the role of Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises and the second time was when she played the female lead in Nolan’s space adventure film Interstellar.
Speaking with Hugh Jackman in 2020 for Variety’s Actors on Actors, the Oscar-winning actress opened up about the extraordinary environment she witnessed on Christopher Nolan’s set.
“He doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning is that if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they sit, they don’t work,” the Serenity actor said. “I mean, he has incredible films in terms of scale, ambition, technical skill and emotion. They are always completed on schedule and on budget. I think there’s something wrong with his chair.”
Although what she clearly meant as praise for the director’s dedication as a director was quickly taken out of context, with Nolan being criticized for being difficult to work with and having a poor work environment on set.
Christopher Nolan’s clarification on Anne Hathaway’s comments
Seeing how the media hounded him for his work environment, Oppenheimer The director hastened to refute claims that he is difficult to work with with the help of a PR statement.
“For the record, the only things prohibited in (Christopher Nolan’s) sets are cell phones (not always successfully) and smoking (very successfully),” Nolan’s rep said in a statement to E! News. “The chairs Anne was talking about are director’s chairs grouped around a video monitor, distributed based on hierarchy rather than physical necessity. Chris prefers not to use his own, but has never banned chairs on set. The cast and crew can sit anywhere and however they want. whenever they need to and they do it often.”
This clarification must have brought some relief to the director’s rabid fans who had started questioning the working environment on the sets of their favorite directors.