'This is really bad': Why Anne Hathaway nearly quit Mother Mary

Anne Hathaway wanted to quit Mother Mary after seeing the first footage of herself singing and dancing.

The 43-year-old actress plays the titular popstar in the upcoming film, which required her to perform original tracks by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX and FKA Twigs, but she was left horrified when she saw just how "bad" she looked on camera.

She told Britain's Elle magazine she thought: “This is really bad…I don’t know that I can ask people to come to see this."

Anne went home that night and told husband Adam Schulman she was going to leave the project, but ultimately had a change of heart.

She said: “I came to the conclusion that there would be no shame if I was fired, but there would be if I quit.”

The Oscar-winning star spent months undertaking dance lessons and continued working on her vocals during postproduction, long after the film had wrapped.

And when she returned to the studio with Jack the following year to rerecord almost all of her songs, he gave her the seal of approval.

She recalled: “He whipped his head at me goes, ‘You have been working.’”

This year is huge for Anne as she has five movies hitting cinemas, but she doesn't take her career for granted.

She said: “For example, like working with Chris [Nolan] for the third time, it doesn’t get old.

“You become even more awed by it, by how rare it is. To get that experience once is so rare. Twice—what a gift. Three times—I don’t even have words for it. And so I’m very aware of how determined I am to be harmonious with it all, because look at this.

“If I’m not enjoying it, then really, really what’s wrong with me? If I can’t have a positive outlook on it when I’m having such a fortunate ride, then it would be wasted on me.”

Anne was "excited" to show The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan how much she had changed since they worked together on The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar.

She said: “I hadn’t been on a set with Chris in 12 years. And because I’ve worked so hard in the last dozen years, both as a person and as an actor, I was excited to show him what I’ve been up to.”

And the filmmaker noticed a change.

He said: “There’s a maturity to her performances now. It’s not that something was missing before, it’s just it’s developed, as moving through life develops us all. Her work has a sense of quiet calm to it that’s really remarkable.

“She’s never satisfied with what she’s done in the past, or what she’s doing in the moment. She’s always striving for something just beyond her grasp.”

Anne's co-star Matt Damon was "blown away" by her performance in The Odyssey and claimed she "carried" him.

He said: “I’ve always said when the actor you’re working with is truly great, they’re great enough for both of you, and everything else disappears. All you have to do is look at them, and you just get completely transported. It’s like in their eyes, they’ve created an entire world around you, and it’s just the two of you, and she just carried me.”

The July/August issue of ELLE UK is on sale from 18 June.

Read the full interview with Anne Hathaway at https://www.elle.com/uk/the-odyssey