Anne Hathaway's Lessons from 2008

Feb. 19, 2009— -- On the cusp of the Academy Awards, 26-year-old best actress nominee Anne Hathaway is looking to the future after last year's difficult break-up with her longtime boyfriend, Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri.

Hathaway has remained mostly quiet about her personal life and her relationship with Follieri in particular, but in October she showed her ability to let go of the negativity during a performance on "Saturday Night Live." When recapping 2008 during her opening monologue, she joked that, "I broke up with my boyfriend ... and two weeks later he was sent to prison for fraud ... I mean, we've all been there, right, ladies?"

Follieri was arrested on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

"The thing that I learned the most in this year is how lucky we are as people to have villages, to have tribes; that because in -- it's wonderful to be able to celebrate with people and it's wonderful to turn around to those same people in certain moments and say, 'I need help,'" Hathaway said. "And it's even better when you don't know, you can't even say the words, I need help -- and they just know and they just take care of you.

"This was the year that I really learned that being vulnerable is not being weak and that love is not just about giving, it's about receiving as well. That is a lesson that's also changed my life. And I was on the receiving end of a lot of love this year. And I'm very grateful for that."

Hathaway plans to just "keep swimming," advice she took to heart after watching "Finding Nemo."

'Just Breathe'

An Oscar win for "Rachel Getting Married" would be "too much to hope for," Hathaway told Walters. "I had hoped to be nominated. I am not going to lie. I was really hoping to be nominated," she said, laughing. "I think that the key to all of it is just to breathe; just to breathe."

In the movie, Hathaway plays a drug addict who insists on being the center of attention at her sister's wedding. It's a role that incorporates narcissism and self-loathing, a huge departure from most of her squeaky-clean past films about princesses and wide-eyed ingénues.

In this unusual performance, Hathaway rose to the challenge, showing that she can take on the lead in a serious drama just as well as she can in a comedic movie.

Having achieved commercial success at a very young age, the actress says she is in no hurry to get married or have children.

"Some of my friends' biological clocks have gone off. Mine hasn't yet," Hathaway said. "But I do know that I very, very much want to be a mother and that that's something that's very important to me in my life."

In the meantime, she's having fun. Hathaway has been quoted as saying that she likes to do "debaucherous" things, but her idea of indulgence isn't at all scandalous.

"I have been known to drink a whole half-bottle of wine, in one sitting," she said.

Hathaway was never one to dance on tables, call attention to herself publicly or get drawn into the drug-addled haziness that results in many young starlets' misfortune.

"I'm too self-conscious. I mean, honestly, I'm not that type of person," she said. "I'd had an experience in college beforehand, where I was at a party and people were passing cocaine around. And I remember looking at it and just going, that is not a horse that I can ride." She said she decided to pass the tray along and never looked back.

At the moment, Hathaway is focusing on her career. And she says that if she were to never get married (unlike her character in "Bride Wars") she would "feel just fine."

"I have no complaints about my life," she said.