Pregnant Anne Hathaway Can’t Take on ‘Hot Ones’ Like Verity
For Anne Hathaway, reality doesn’t always reflect fiction.
“Alex Cooper and ‘Call Her Daddy’ was scripted, and then I just mentioned in a production meeting, ‘Is that enough to solidify Verity as an iconic cultural figure?’” Hathaway, 43, shared during her appearance on the “Talk Of The Townsends” podcast on Friday, September 25, as she discussed her role in the upcoming movie Verity. “[I thought] if we could do something like that, such as securing a Gayle King interview and Hot Ones, that would be the ultimate trifecta.”
Verity, inspired by Colleen Hoover’s bestselling thriller, centers around a struggling writer named Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), who takes on the task of completing the unpublished work of renowned author Verity Crawford (Hathaway) after she suffers paralysis in a car crash.
In the film, Hathaway’s character faces questions from podcast host Cooper, 32, and undergoes an intense interview with Sean Evans while consuming spicy chicken wings, respectively.
“I’ve never done that before. I’ve never faced the 10-piece gauntlet,” Hathaway remarked about the real-life interview series where celebrities munch on wings coated in increasingly hotter sauces. “You certainly don’t want your first ever kiss to be an onscreen kiss; you want that to happen in real life without the pretense of portraying a character.”
The Academy Award winner aimed to adopt a similar mindset during her fictional Hot Ones appearance.
“I tackled the first three wings genuinely, but then I transitioned to dummy wings,” she joked on Friday. “I thought I could handle the Hot Ones challenge to promote this film since it felt fitting. But then, I found out I was pregnant.”
In June, Hathaway and her husband, Adam Shulman, shared the news that they are expecting their third child. (The couple already has two sons, Jonathan, 10, and Jack, 6.)
Due to her pregnancy, Hathaway’s doctors advised her against attempting Evans’ notorious hot wings challenge.
“My doctor warned me against it because it could potentially lead to early labor,” she laughed. “So, I still haven’t faced the gauntlet yet. I have no idea when that will occur. Perhaps next year.”
Even though her pregnancy has delayed her Hot Ones aspirations, Hathaway has embraced her journey with immense gratitude, considering her age and previous fertility hurdles.
“There’s always hope until it isn’t, but as you reach a certain age, that hope begins to dwindle to about 1 percent to 2 percent,” she told Access Hollywood in July. “We just made a choice to let life unfold while maintaining a very healthy, realistic expectation that was quite low.”
She added, “We’re overjoyed because we are aware from our own experiences that not everyone gets this opportunity, and certainly not when they want it — sometimes not at all. It’s a blessing we truly appreciate.”
Verity premieres in theaters on Friday, October 2.
