Filming ‘Mother Mary,’ Taylor Swift was an ‘angel that was over our heads all the time,’ says Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway’s new film Mother Mary casts the Oscar-winning actress as a huge pop star who’s sort of a combination of Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. While the movie’s director has said that Swift’s Reputation Tour concert film inspired the movie’s live sequences, Hathaway says it was another one of Swift’s films that really influenced her character: the Miss Americana documentary.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Hathaway said she was inspired by “how vulnerable [Swift] let herself be in that, kinda showing that pop stars, who we’re so used to seeing in their power and so polished, y’know, what happens when they’re kinda in-between moments, when they’re having a moment of metamorphosis, which can be so painful.”

“I was already a fan, but after that, I just had so much empathy for her humanity and, of course, her talent.”

Hathaway also revealed she and Swift “know each other,” and noted she was convinced the singer was waving to her from the stage when she went to see the Eras Tour.

“And then somebody tapped me on the shoulder and they said, ‘Taylor wants you to have this,'” she continued. “And I opened it. It was a note where Taylor said, ‘I’m so happy you’re here, I’m gonna be enthusiastically waving at you.’” 

“I was like, ‘Oh my God! She’s so magical!'” Hathaway laughed. “She did! She did the thing! And I was right! I am special!'”