If you were following the press tour for The Dark Knight Rises back in 2012, you probably remember how much of the conversation around Anne Hathaway centered on her transformation into Catwoman. Unfortunately, the questions tended to drift in one very specific direction: her weight. In one now-infamous moment, an interviewer flat-out asked, “How much weight did you lose?” It clearly caught her off guard, even if she handled it like a pro. Now, years later, she’s opening up about why that question bothered her, and why she’d approach it differently today.
In a clip shared by People, Hathaway revisited that moment, explaining that her preparation for the role had far more to do with getting physically ready for the demands of the part than with losing weight. She said:
I felt really protective about it because Chris [Nolan] sat me down and said, ‘I don’t care about you losing weight, I think you look great in the suit as it is, but I want you to be able to do all your own stunts.’ So, I just didn’t like that the way into the question was, ‘How much weight did you have to lose?’ and not, ‘How strong did you have to get in order to play that part?’ That was all. And when I was younger, I used to get really swept up and really like, all those things. Now I would know how to navigate that much more easily.
At the time, Hathaway was stepping into one of the most high-profile roles of her career, working under director Christopher Nolan and joining a franchise that was already under a microscope. Following the release of The Dark Knight, a film many fans considered the best superhero movie of all time, expectations were high for the conclusion of the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy. Every detail was being picked apart, from the costume to the performance to, apparently, her body.
From her perspective, though, the focus was off. Instead of highlighting the training and strength it took to pull off Catwoman’s stunts, the conversation kept circling back to weight loss. That’s the disconnect she’s pointing to years later. It wasn’t just the question, but what the question assumed going in.
The viral press moment also speaks to how much things have shifted over the past decade. There’s a lot more awareness now around how often actors, especially women, are asked about their bodies, and how those types of questions are handled.
Hathaway’s comment about knowing how to “navigate that much more easily” today really says it all. In that now-infamous moment, the Ella Enchanted star tried to laugh it off, joking, “You did not just ask me that question! What a forward young man you are. My goodness… ‘How much weight?’ … I worked very hard to become Selina Kyle.”
Catwoman wasn’t a role that worked because the actress was thinner; instead, it was built on agility, control, and strength. It was built on her ability to move, fight, and hold her own in a physically demanding environment. That’s what Christopher Nolan asked Anne Hathaway for, and that’s what the Princess Diaries actress was actually doing as she got more svelte for the role.
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Now, with some distance and a different perspective, she can look back on that moment with more clarity. It’s also something she seems to be actively addressing in the projects she has more control over. Case in point, recent reports that she pushed for more size diversity among models on the set of The Devil Wears Prada 2 after noticing the lineup skewed toward more traditional body types.
Anne Hathaway has a packed 2026 movie schedule, with roles in A24’s new horror movie Mother Mary and a return to the fashion world in The Devil Wears Prada 2, hitting theaters on May 1. She also collaborated with the Dark Knight Rises director for the third time on Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey, hitting theaters on July 17.