The movie premiered on October 22 on HBO Max and it was directed by Robert Zemeckis. The filmmaker also penned the script, together with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.
Anne Hathaway Picked Old Norse To Give Her Character On ‘The Witches’ A Spooky Accent
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Hathaway told Kimmel she were researching possible accents for her character, finally deciding to pull an Old Norse because it sounded especially spooky.
“My dialect coach gave me the idea of maybe exploring Old Norse,” the Oscar-winning actress explained.
“So I found a guy who was reciting Old Norse poetry on the Internet in front of a mountain and it was just so mystical and sinister-sounding,” she added.
Hathaway was surprised to find out that the content of the poems was actually pretty mild and didn’t relate to anything scary at all. She tried it for herself with “the most straightforward thing you could say,” which was “I would like a Big Mac with fries,” and was happy with the result.
“Everything sounds kind of weird and spooky and sinister in an Old Norse accent,” she continued.
Anne Hathaway’s Worst Experience With A Costume
Accent aside, The Devil Wears Prada star also underwent pretty heavy, lengthy makeup sessions for her character on The Witches. Her Grand High Witch sports a bald head and a terrifying, ear-to-ear Glasgow smile.
“We tried to make [the rest of the performance] as funny as possible to kind of balance out that horror,” she said.
The Grand High Witch’s wasn’t, however, the actress’ worst experience with a costume.
“The worst costume I’ve ever had was for Interstellar,” she revealed.
“Those spacesuits… they were hard. And, you know, we were in pretty rugged conditions. We were in Iceland, we were running through water, we were climbing glaciers… and maybe I put too much pressure on myself, but I was the only girl on the crew who was wearing one, so I just thought ‘I can’t complain about this,’” Hathaway continued.
“And then your buddy, Matt Damon, started his first day and, about two hours into, he just pitched forward and just went ‘This is the worst f***ing costume I’ve ever worn,’” she told Kimmel.
“It was okay because once Matt Damon said it, then the rest of us could complain,” she joked.
The Witches is streaming on HBO Max