Actress Anne Hathaway has been stuffing her pants with socks to better understand how to portray a man for an upcoming New York theatre production of Twelfth Night. The Hollywood star is due to take to the stage as part of the Big Apple’s Shakespeare in the Park series, which kicks off next month. And she admits she’s been preparing for her role as Viola, a girl who disguises herself as a man called Cesario, by strutting around her Manhattan apartment with an extra prop in her trousers. She says, “I’m having a fun little time with Cesario right now. My character is a girl who’s shipwrecked and she arrives on a strange shore where she doesn’t know anyone, and it occurs to her that the best way to take care of herself is to pretend that she’s a boy. “I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t walked around my apartment with a sock shoved down the front! All of a sudden, you just understand. You stand differently and it’s just like, yeah!” But playing a man convincingly isn’t the only aspect of the role Hathaway is nervous about – the Oscar nominee fears her Shakespearean speech won’t go down well with theatre-goers after realising that mastering the 16th century dialogue isn’t as easy as it seems. She adds, “It’s really tough actually. I used to go to musical theatre camps and at one of them we had a wonderful Shakespearean coach, and when I was 16, I thought I knew everything. So when this opportunity (to do Shakespeare in the Park) came up, I was like, ‘I was great’, it came so naturally. “And it turns out that I was just lying to myself! It’s not easy! At first I was like, wouldn’t it be so cool if I was some like, Shakespearean prodigy and now my expectations are like, wouldn’t it be great if no one threw fruit at me! And now I’m just like, if they do, let the fruit be fresh!”
By admin • May 27, 2009 • News & Gossip • Comments: 0
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