Anne Hathaway's Evolution: From Princess to Oscar Front-Runner

Jan. 16, 2012— -- intro: Anne Hathaway has come a long way since playing the Princess of Genovia.

The actress is fresh off her Sunday Golden Globe win for best supporting actress for her role as Fantine in "Les Miserables," and she's considered a front-runner for an Academy Award.

Hathaway's next project might be equally prestigious. According to TheWrap, she's set to star in a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." The film will reportedly be produced by the company that produced "Les Mis."

Take a look back at the 30-year-old star's evolution from princess to full-blown movie star.

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quicklist: 1title: The Princess Diariestext: Hathaway kicked off her career starring in the Disney film "The Princess Diaries." She played a geeky teenager who gets a makeover when she discovers she's a princess. Hathaway went on to star in the film's sequel as well as in another princess movie, "Ella Enchanted," causing many to wonder if she'd be typecast in that role forever. But Hathaway knew what she was doing.

"The great thing about being in a G-movie that so epitomizes girl empowerment is that it makes anything else you do seem all subversive," she told New York Magazine in 2006.

At Sunday's Golden Globes, Hathaway thanked actress Sally Field, who Hathaway said changed her life with her work.

"Sally, I have to thank you so much for being a vanguard against typecasting because as the girl who started out as the Princes of Genovia, I can't tell you how encouraging it was to know that the flying nun grew up to be Norma Ray and grew up to be Mama Gump and grew up to be Mary Todd Lincoln, so thank you so much," Hathaway said to cheers and applause from the crowd.media: 18220529

quicklist: 2title: Brokeback Mountaintext: The actress gave the world a glimpse of her dramatic range in "Brokeback Mountain" alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams. Hathaway played Gyllenhaal's wife, and the young star went topless during a sex scene with him.

Hathaway received critical acclaim for her role. Rolling Stone said "Hathaway excels at showing Lureen's journey from cutie-pie to hard case." Moviefone said it was Hathaway's "breakout" role.

"I'm more proud of the film than anything I have ever created," Hathaway told iVillage UK. By the end of 'Princess Diaries 2,' I was ready to do something completely different. I got into this not to typecast myself. I got into it to be an actress, to scare the s**t out of myself, and force myself into a place outside my comfort zone."media: 18223463

quicklist: 3title: The Devil Wears Pradatext: In her first marquee role since the "The Princess Diaries," Hathaway starred alongside Meryl Strep in "The Devil Wears Prada." But the movie wasn't a large step up for the actress. She still played a "good girl" in the comedy, although the role was slightly more grown-up than her "Princess" roles.

Working alongside Hollywood greats Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci was daunting for the then 24-year-old.

"When you're working with actors of their caliber on a daily basis, it's an absolute delight. The hard part was playing the straight girl to all of these people," Hathaway told movieweb.com in 2006. "I'm not talking sexually, I'm talking comedically. They had characters. I was playing the every-girl. That's hard to do and make it interesting. You have to accept that's who you are and not compete."media: 18220495

quicklist: 4title: Rachel Getting Marriedtext: Hathaway scored her first Oscar nomination and her first Golden Globe nomination in 2009 for her starring role in "Rachel Getting Married." Although the actress didn't win either award, she got the chance to show how her range had grown since "Brokeback." Hathaway played a troubled woman just out of rehab who returns home for her sister's wedding. It was Hathaway's first time playing a "bad girl," but for her, it was more than that.

"I never thought of it in terms of a dichotomy -- good girl versus bad girl -- I was just trying to think of myself as a whole person," Hathaway told Glamour magazine last year. "Of course, after 'Princess Diaries,' I was labeled a good girl, and for the first eight years of my career I had to fight to get any other kind of role. But I like fighting for a job, actually. Once you get it, you feel like you've emerged victorious from the scrap and you're like, 'OK, this one's mine. Did it. Done.'"media: 18220587

quicklist: 5title: Love and Other Drugstext: Hathaway took a turn for the uber sexy in her role in "Love and Other Drugs." The actress played a carefree woman who falls in love with a Viagra salesman played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Many fans referred to the film as "soft porn" for its countless sex scenes.

Hathaway and Gyllenhaal had been in between the sheets together before in "Brokeback," but the actress wasn't exactly comfortable with it in this film.

"It's racy – very racy. I keep asking people if it is too sexy for them. However, it is just part of the job," Hathaway told Fox News. "That being said, it is intensely mortifying taking your clothes off in front of other people, but it is also intensely mortifying doing a lot of things in front of people, and I've learned how to deal with that. Who knows if I will ever do it again. It depends on the material."media: 18223452

quicklist: 6title: Hosting the Oscarstext: This role didn't get the rave reviews that Hathaway had gotten used to. Not many people loved her hosting experience at the 2011 Academy Awards -- the actress herself didn't even like her over-the-top personality on stage next to her comparitively dull co-host, James Franco.

"I've never seen [the whole thing]," she told Entertainment Weekly last year. "But I felt like I made a rookie mistake. ... Everybody was just being very positive around me, so nobody was giving me any notes. I watched a clip [afterward] and as soon as I saw it, I realized my mistake. It made me really angry with myself that I didn't watch any tapes of rehearsal before I went on, because it was such an easy fix."

The awards show did, however, receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Class Programs.

One highlight from the night was when Hathaway showed her singing chops with a rendition of "On My Own" from "Les Miserables." But she used her own lyrics: "On my own/ 'Cause someone's a huge jacka**/ I won't say who/ Thought Australians were our allies/ It turns out Down Under's kind of shady/ Not you, Nicole, or not any other Aussie but just one/ Who shall not be named."media: 18223421

quicklist: 7title: The Dark Knight Risestext: Hathaway brought out her inner, well honed bad girl as Catwoman in "The Dark Knight Rises," and the critics couldn't get enough. Vanity Fair said Hathaway was the "best Catwoman ever." The Washington Post said, "Hathaway is the sensational secret weapon of this production, a tart, leggy operator who can turn on a dime from damsel-in-distress to canny kitten-with-a-whip."

To fit into Catwoman's skintight suit, Hathaway had to drop some serious pounds. She exercised five days a week followed by stunt training and an hour and a half of dance.

"I've always thought that skinny was the goal, but with this job I also have to be strong," she told Harper's Bazaar. media: 18220452

quicklist: 8title: Les Misérablestext: Hathaway proved she had pipes when she hosted the Oscars in 2011, but her singing took center stage for the role of factory worker Fantine in "Les Misérables." The actress sang live instead of lip-synching over a prerecorded track,which landed her a second Oscar nomination. She's already taken home this year's Golden Globe award for the role, so there's a good chance she could snatch up the Academy Award too.

Critics raved about the actress's singing ability in the movie even though Hathaway herself referred to her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" as "Eh."

"Her 'I Dreamed a Dream' is just jaw-dropping. It is so raw and heartfelt," Tom Hooper, the Oscar-winning director behind the "King's Speech," gushed to USA Today.

Hathaway told the Los Angeles Times that after playing Fantine, she feels liberated for the first time in her career.

"I just feel that now I'm being viewed very differently," she said. "I'd think [after other roles] — 'Oh, this is the moment' — I'm playing a recovering drug addict. But there was always a kind of push back, like, 'Oh, she's not that sexy.' People were trying to put me in the good girl category or the bad girl category, and this is the first time I've ever been seen as a whole."media: 18220417