Anne Hathaway slams ‘gross’ auditions where she was asked to make out with 10 guys in one day

Anne Hathaway has slammed “gross” auditions where she was asked to “make out” with 10 guys in one day.

The 41-year-old actor is thankful times are “very different” now because she hated having to “pretend” to be “excited” at the prospect of getting close to a number of Hollywood hunks during chemistry tests because she didn’t want to get a reputation for being “difficult”.

She told V magazine: “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.

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.

“And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labelled ‘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.”

Anne is now a producer and changed the process when it came to a casting a male lead to appear opposite her in her upcoming film The Idea of You.

She explained: “We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love, that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little improv. I was sitting in a chair like we had come in from dinner or a walk or something, we pressed play, and we just started dancing together.”

And her eventual co-star Nicholas Galitzine “charmed this entire room”, including Anne and director Michael Showalter, when he came in.

The actress recalled: “We had met a number of young men already, but I remember laughing when Nick walked in because he was so ridiculously perfect for the part. I just thought, he is it.

“Is he gonna be able to read the lines? Read the lines, great. Okay, can you sing? Oh, my God, he can sing. Wait and he can play the guitar? Okay, and he’s just fun to be around. He’s just charming. Like, he’s just charmed this entire room.”

Asked what music the 29-year-old actor chose, Anne added: “The Alabama Shakes. And it was just easy. I heard Brittany’s voice and I just started smiling. And he 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 Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”