TORONTO - Ever since Anne Hathaway started receiving early Oscar buzz for her performance as a previous addict in Jonathan Demme's harrowing family drama "Rachel Getting Married," she's fielded the same question from reporters.
Isn't she relieved to break aside from the wholesome roles she's become known for in movies such as "Ella Enchanted" and "The Princess Diaries"?
But the 25-year-old American actress isn't biting.
"Not to sound arrogant or cocky, simply I've ne'er defined myself the elbow room other people did," Hathaway said during a circle of interviews at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"For me, it's a recognition of my dreams, this role. However, I never made whatsoever choices or really thought about the way I was perceived, because I just don't see the point."
Hathaway has indeed landed a prisonbreak part as Kym, a recovering drug abuser wHO is given a overtake from rehab to advert her sister's nuptials.
The photographic film is at times unmanageable to take in as Kym, teeming with anger and guilt, chain-smokes and fidgets her way through the wedding weekend, obsessed by rivalries and perceived slights and haunted by a family tragedy.
The character is decidedly unappealing and selfish, and even Hathaway besides manages to elicit recherche moments of sympathy for Kym as well.
Throughout his career, Demme has continually surprised audiences, alternating 'tween dramas such as "Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia" to documentaries including "Jimmy Carter Man From Plains" as well as music projects on Neil Young, Talking Heads and Bruce Springsteen.
In "Rachel," his documentary background is clearly at play.
The film is shot in an intimate style, victimization multiple handheld digital cameras, some even operated by wedding guests. With minimal rehearsal and heavily jury-rigged dialogue, the effect is that of an lengthy home telecasting. Private moments are glimpsed and conversations eavesdropped upon as the wedding party goes on into the night.
The loose, realistic filmmaking style has clearly north Korean won over the acclaimed director.
"I have lost my desire to lick with moving picture," Demme aforesaid of his newfound enthusiasm for digital cameras.
"The only if reason I moved to digital was because you could do it cheaper and technology reached a point where it looked good. Now, I'm insanely in love with it."
Critics seem to be madly in erotic love with "Rachel," which co-stars Rosemarie DeWitt (recently seen in "Mad Men") as Rachel, Debra Winger as the brittle mother of the deuce sisters and Bill Irwin as their peace-making father.
The movie was one of the virtually talked-about titles at the recent Venice Film Festival and has captivated audiences in Toronto as well.
Hathaway, sitting beside Demme at a recent press seance, is clearly thrilled by the final product, thirstily chatting about the intricacies of her character and speculating about what happens to Kym after the final credits roll.
During one excruciating view in the film, Kym stands to make a toast to her sister, choosing the moment to discuss her recovery program and endeavour to make amends for her past tense behaviour.
Hathaway, appareled in teetering black heels, skinny jeans and a purple top, calls the scene the "most fun she's peradventure ever had" in her career.
For the dialogue, she owes a debt to screenwriter Jenny Lumet, a seventh and eighth grade drama teacher at a New York school and daughter of Academy Award-winning director Sidney Lumet.
Jenny Lumet says she didn't demonstrate the script to anyone while she was running on it, but gave it to her notable father later on, with the tongue-in-cheek warning: "If you don't show up this to Jonathan Demme, you'll ne'er see your grandchild again."
For his parting, Demme says he was attracted to Lumet's playscript because it was so "off recipe" and he was drawn to the idea of bringing a "home movie feel" to the story.
Hathaway, meanwhile, has shunned Oscar talk, saying only that playing Kym has had a profound impact on her.
"This fiber has changed my life in a way," she says.
"We all have warts ... so oftentimes we feel compelled to pretend like we don't ... I think we can give each other more credit to be ourselves, and to be more than accepting of each former."
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
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