‘Verity’ Star Anne Hathaway Admits the Role She Still Can’t Forgive Herself For

Every actor has a performance they wish they could take back. For Anne Hathaway, an Oscar winner with a résumé full of crowd-pleasers, that film is surprisingly one of her most prestigious early projects. Her regret over ‘Becoming Jane’ has resurfaced, and it says a lot about how hard it is to play a literary icon.

Hathaway’s career took off in the early 2000s, largely thanks to her film debut in ‘The Princess Diaries’. Her turn as Mia Thermopolis, a teenager who discovers she belongs to a royal family, made her a global name. She returned to the role in the 2004 sequel and also appeared in ‘Ella Enchanted’ that same year.

After a run of films aimed at younger audiences, she wanted a change, and the strategy worked. Her roles in the Oscar-winning drama ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and the hit comedy ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ showed she could handle more mature material. The next step was an even bigger test: playing Jane Austen herself.

In the 2007 film ‘Becoming Jane’, Hathaway took on one of the most beloved and closely studied authors in literary history. Years later, she has described it as a film she finds difficult to discuss. In an interview with The Independent, she said she felt she hadn’t quite nailed the performance and that there was something else she could have done with the character.

She also admitted that she felt she was acting too much in a couple of scenes. It’s a rare, candid admission from a star whose work is usually praised, and it has fans talking again. The comment stands out because it’s about a film that was never a disaster, just an uneven one.

The pressure was enormous from the start. Austen has a devoted fan base that knows every detail of her life and work, and Hathaway was an American playing an Englishwoman born in 1775. She has said she was obsessed with Austen from the age of 14, which only raised the stakes.

Reports from the time say the fear of failure nearly led her to step away from the project. After filming wrapped, she reportedly suffered panic attacks and nightmares. She has also said that the British public was initially upset about her casting before they begrudgingly accepted her.

Directed by Julian Jarrold and based on Jon Spence’s biography ‘Becoming Jane Austen’, the film follows a young Austen and her romance with Thomas Lefroy, played by James McAvoy. The supporting cast included Julie Walters, James Cromwell and Maggie Smith. The film reached UK cinemas on March 9, 2007.

Lefroy and Austen reportedly shared a brief flirtation in 1796, but it didn’t last. About three years later, Lefroy married Mary Paul and went on to have seven children, naming one daughter Jane, while Austen never married or had children. The movie, however, plays the romance as a defining love story.

That choice divided Austen devotees. Many felt the film presented her as a version of Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, with Lefroy cast as a Mr. Darcy-like figure. Some reviewers also focused on Hathaway’s nationality and accent, though others praised her warmth and charm.

Critics were split. The film received mixed reviews and earned roughly $37 million worldwide, a modest result for a project with such a strong cast. Hathaway did earn a nomination for Best Actress at the British Independent Film Awards.

It also arrived just two years after Joe Wright’s well-regarded adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, which set a high bar for Austen-related films. Against that backdrop, ‘Becoming Jane’ was always going to be judged harshly. Even its admirers often described it as pleasant but fanciful.

What makes Hathaway’s reflection so relatable is its honesty. She isn’t blaming the script, the critics or the Austen purists. Instead, she’s taking responsibility, which is a refreshing change in a business where actors usually defend every choice.

It also shows how much the role mattered to her. A performance she still thinks about almost two decades later was clearly more than just another job. For a performer who has since won an Oscar and carried major franchises, it’s a humbling reminder that growth often comes from the roles that didn’t go perfectly.

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