ANNE HATHAWAY BECOMES JANE AUSTEN

Anne Hathaway learned special manners like curtsying to become Jane Austen in Becoming Jane.

Anne Hathaway becomes the beloved British novelist Jane Austen in Becoming Jane, a dramatic look at the romance that got away with Irish lawyer Tom LeFroy played by James McAvoy who many believe became the inspiration for Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

Anne spent a month in London studying everything Austen from piano playing to sign language, and worked with an etiquette coach to master the manners of the time. She even took curtsy lessons from her Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee, who was already well versed in Austen from Sense and Sensibility.

“We made quite a show of the bowing between Jane and Tom and that was kind of a conscious decision because especially when they’re in the woods. It’s kind of very funny that she’s trying to impress upon him that she’s not this little country bumpkin that she can match him and he’s kind of playing along with her. So I think we used old decorum, I hope we used a bit erotically that while they were definitely hindered by these rules and lived by them there was also an opportunity to make fun of them.”

Anne discovered the writings of Austen on long car trips from New Jersey visiting her brother at the University of Vermont reading Pride and Prejudice on the way there and Sense and Sensibility on the way back.

“The way she wrote about women’s emotions and mental health especially in Sense and Sensibility and the depth that women could have and the way she made it kind of accessible and non-confrontational and how clever she was. It was almost kind of subversive. It was lovely and that for me was one of the appeals, one of the ways she’s had a huge affect on people. Also she’s just wonderful. You just love reading her. She’s like a friend.”

Next Anne plays Agent 99 in the film version of the popular television series Get Smart starring Steve Carell as the bumbling agent Maxwell Smart. Becoming Jane opens Friday in theaters.