Anne Hathaway used to be all about following a vegan diet - she ditched the animal products nearly a decade ago to
lose weight for her Academy Award-winning role in Les Miserables, and kept it up to fit into her slinky Catwoman suit for
Dark Knight Rises. The actress even had a vegan spread
at her 2012 wedding to husband Adam Shulman. But a taste of fish two years later completely changed her mind.
Hathaway, 36, revealed that a little peer pressure from Matt Damon, her
Interstellar costar, is what
turned her back into a meat-eater.
Hathaway and Damon, along with Shulman, were out to dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant while shooting the movie in Reykjavik, Iceland. Damon told the waiter he would have whatever the chef wanted to serve him, while Hathaway wondered how she could maintain her veganism without causing problems.
"So then I was the only chick and I'm the vegan and everyone's just going with the flow,"
she told Tatler for their June 2019 cover. "So I asked [she puts on a small embarrassed voice]: 'Is your fish local?' And they said: 'Do you see that fjord [out the window]?' "
Hathaway said that she decided to go for it, and immediately felt a positive effect."So I had a piece of salmon and my brain felt like a computer rebooting," she said.The mom to 3-year-old son Jonathan previously explained
to Harper's Bazaar that she realized her vegan diet was holding her back, especially during
Interstellar filming, which required her to wear a 40-lb. space suit.
"I just didn't feel good or healthy," she said in November, adding that she was "not strong." And after the salmon in Iceland, she "just felt better."Hathaway also got to indulge in heavier foods last year as she
gained weight for a new movie role. She purposefully informed her followers of her new eating habits to
avoid the inevitable fat shaming and pregnancy rumors.
"I am gaining weight for a movie role and it is going well," she posted on Instagram. "To all the people who are going to fat shame me in the upcoming months, it's not me, it's you. Peace xx."
Hathaway later elaborated that she shared that post because she wanted to make it clear that
she doesn't care what others think of her body.
"It sounds kind of sad to say; I just wanted to enjoy my summer and let everyone know that I'm living in my body and I'm happy with my body, and if my body is different than what you're used to, or what you think it should be, that's [your experience]. My experience is mine, and I'm loving it," she told
Hoda Kotb on Today.
Another thing that helped Hathaway learn to appreciate her body?
Working with the all-female cast of Ocean's 8.
"I walked on the set, and my weight's a little up and I'm just aware of it...and I'm in my jeans, and I've done my best and I'm gonna love myself no matter what," she said in June. "And Sandy Bullock looks up and goes, 'You look good mama.' And then Cate Blanchett's like, 'Nice jeans, Hathaway.' And then
Rihanna looks up and goes, 'Damn girl, you got an ass.' "
"They were just so beautiful and to be surrounded by that much love and understanding, it was just great," she added.
Comment: It's good that celebs like Hathaway are sharing their experience with the vegan diet. People can be influenced by celebrities to an unreasonable degree, and to have at least some who are stating plainly that the diet didn't work for them may help to counter the vegan propaganda. Human bodies need meat, as many vegans are finding out the hard way.
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