Anne Hathaway Explains Why She Doesn’t Like Being Called ‘Anne’

2 May 2024, 15:46

Anne Hathaway urges people to call her anything but 'Anne'. Picture: Cindy Ord/Getty Images, The Tonight Show via YouTube

By Katie Louise Smith

"It never occurred to me that for the rest of my life, people will call me Anne."

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We all know and love Anne Hathaway, right? From her iconic roles in The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada to your soon-to-be-new-fave-rom-com The Idea of You, Anne has cemented herself – and her name – as an icon in the world of cinema.

But it turns out, she lowkey hates her name and would actually prefer if people called her “anything but Anne”.

Back in 2021, Anne explained the whole situation about her name to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. While Anne is in fact her real name, and the one she was born with, she does not like it.

"Call me Annie, everybody, everybody, call me Annie, please," she said, before diving into the full lore behind her feelings about her own name.

Read more: Anne Hathaway Defends Age Gap Between Solène And Hayes In The Idea of You

Anna Hathaway does not like being called Anne. Picture: Getty

“When I was 14 years old, I did a commercial, and I had to get my SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card and they asked me, 'What do you want your name to be?' And I was like, 'Well, it should be my name. My name's Anne Hathaway’,” she told Jimmy. "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."

She continued: “The only person who calls me Anne is my mother and she only does it when she's really mad at me, like really mad. So, every time I step out in public and someone calls my name, I think they're going to yell at me.”

She went on to joke: "People are like, "Anne!" And I'm like, 'What? What did I do?'

Anne then went on to explain that even people on set try and come up with “workarounds” because they don’t want to be “presumptuous” with calling her “Anne”.

"It doesn't fit. I'm an Annie,” she added.

Anne Hathaway says a Devil Wears Prada sequel will never happen

Anne – sorry, Annie – is not the only Hollywood star who has recently opened up about not wanting to be called by the name the world knows them as.

Emma Stone confessed that she had a bit of a panic over her name recently. Emma’s real name is actually Emily, which she had to change because there was already an actor in the guild named Emily Stone. "For some reason, I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore. Just call me Emily’,” she explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Chris Pratt has also expressed how much he doesn’t like it when people call him Chris. Discussing what his friends called him, he previously said: "Pratt. CP. You know, CP. ‘Hey, CP.’ But no one calls me Chris. My friend, Chad. I went golfing with my friend, Chad, my pastor the other day and he was like, ‘No one calls you Chris? I’m gonna call you Chris. Alright, Chris. You’re up.’ And I was like, ‘No, it feels weird. It’s not my name. Don’t call me Chris.'"

Annie, Emily, CP… Got it.