'Les Miserables' Cast 'Eh' About Their Performances
by Shannon KeirnanDespite nod after nod for award, it seems the cast of “Les Miserables” weren’t so sure about their performances.
Anne Hathaway, who played the diseased prostitute Fantine, calls her performance “eh.”
Hathaway admits that she was forced to stop doing takes of “I Dreamed a Dream” after director Tom Hooper cut her off at 20. While he thought the actress nailed it on take 4, Hathaway wasn’t pleased with her performance.
“I was like, ‘fair enough,’” she said of being told they had to move on. “I never bettered it.”
Hathaway also notably lost 25 pounds for the role, against Hooper’s advice, by essentially starving herself.
“The only thing I can control is how hard I work at it,” she said, of her perceived lack of talent. “How much do I commit to it? How far will I take it?”
Hugh Jackman was deeply concerned about his role as Jean Valjean as well. The “X-Men” actor said of seeing himself on-screen for the first time in the character:
"I’m more nervous than I have ever been in my life. It’s tough to watch a movie (you’re in)—you put everything into it, you want everything to work, and you never know until you see it all together. In a musical, those feelings are tripled because you have a lot of elements that have to come together. Watching myself on screen for the first time is a little bit difficult, but watching myself sing on the screen is double the anxiety."
Did you see “Les Miserables” yet? What did you think of the performances?