Anne Hathaway says the online backlash she faced years ago made the psychological thriller Verity feel frighteningly believable. The actress, 43, plays the title character and also produces the film, which adapts the Colleen Hoover bestseller. Her Oscar win for Les Misérables in 2013 arrived alongside a wave of internet scorn dubbed #Hathahate. Now, at the end of a packed year, that old chapter has resurfaced in an unexpected way.

While the internet once cast Hathaway as a villain in her own story, that same experience gave her a strange kind of insight into Verity Crawford.

The #Hathahate years gave Anne Hathaway a rare qualification for playing Verity, because she has lived the story's central idea. When Bronte Coy from news.com.au asked about "#Hathahate," the actress was visibly moved.

"I just saw that all over the script when I read it," Hathaway said ahead of the release of Verity.

She then added, "All of it weirdly felt very relatable to me," which shows how close the story landed.

The news.com.au interview also revealed that Hathaway thanked the reporter for calling her treatment unfair. She pointed to social media as the engine, since the companies behind it feed people what they want to see rather than what is real. People now form lasting opinions and commit to certainty instead of building grace, curiosity, and empathy. Hathaway hopes life never copies the film, yet she noted that everyone already judges each other this way daily.

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As the court of public opinion keeps sitting, Hathaway has decided to leave the courtroom entirely for a while.

Anne Hathaway has a plan for the day after Verity opens in theaters on October 2. She told Entertainment Tonight that on October 3 she will vanish in a puff of smoke and resurface only when absolutely necessary. The break is definitely happening, and it follows a year packed with Mother Mary, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, The End of Oak Street, and Verity itself.

The break does have an end date. Hathaway is expected back in March 2027 to join Tom Cruise in the Days of Thunder sequel, playing a NASCAR team owner and engineer, with Jonathan Levine directing. Her family is also about to grow, with a third child on the way with husband Adam Shulman, so the break will not be all spa days. Hathahate may be history, but it left fingerprints all over Verity.

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What are your thoughts on Anne Hathaway turning her hardest chapter into Verity? Let us know in the comments.