Anne Hathaway Opens Up About Her Past Insecurities — and Has Great Advice for Her Critics

Anne Hathaway, the new cover star of PEOPLE, says she used to be insecure and anxious, but is an entirely different person now

Anne Hathaway, 36, has been starring in movies for almost 20 years, but she admits her time in the spotlight haven’t always been easy.

“I did everything so wrong for so long,” she says in the latest PEOPLE cover story, excerpted from the latest installment of the The Jess Cagle Interview (streaming now on PeopleTV), hosted by Editor-in-Chief Jess Cagle. Hathaway adds that though her career was flourishing, she suffered from “feelings of inadequacy, insecurity and nervousness and anxiety.”

To read the full Anne Hathaway interview, pick up the latest issue of People on stands Friday.

“I’m not big on looking back,” says the star of the sexy new thriller Serenity, which is out now. “But I remember 10 years ago being so scared going into the whole awards season and doing what I thought I was supposed to do, so I barely ate anything at Christmas…I thought movie stars had to have a certain body. I was just smoking, just smoking my nerves away and wasn’t nourishing myself.”

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Times have certainly changed since she first broke out in The Princess Diaries in 2001. Now married to producer Adam Shulman, 37, and a mom to toddler son Jonathan, 2, Hathaway says she’s finally come to peace with her fame, and is entirely different from who she once was.

  • Watch the full episode of The Jess Cagle Interview: Anne Hathaway, streaming now on PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.

“I just figured out how to say thank you to life by taking care of myself,” she says. “By not apologizing for taking up space, which is not something I knew how to do 10 years ago.”

She adds, “It’s been a journey. I don’t look that different, but I just feel like the inside has transformed so much.

As for her critics? She doesn’t really care anymore if they like her or not, but she does have one thing to say to them.

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. What I appreciate is when the negativity has some intelligence behind it. What I don’t like is lazy negativity. If you’re going to take someone down, have a point of view! Be witty, maybe pun a little!”

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