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Anne Hathaway's New Image at the "Rachel Getting Married" Premiere

The good news in Anne Hathaway's life is that she is nothing like the woman she plays in her new film "Rachel Getting Married." That Jonathan Demme-directed independent flick that premiered in Beverly Hills on Monday night, Sept. 15, is all about a recovering addict (Hathaway) who returns home for her sister's wedding, with emotional results.

Hathaway, who has had plenty of bad news in her life lately, as her longtime boyfriend Raffaello Follieri recently pled guilty to numerous charges of fraud and money laundering, has had good news since "Rachel Getting Married" began screening. It was a big hit at the Toronto Film Festival, and Hathaway's performance as Kym, a woman whose addictions continue to rule her, is already generating Oscar buzz.

As Hathaway commented to reporters just before she joined her costar Rosemarie DeWitt (who plays the "Rachel" in the title) and screenwriter Jenny Lumet on the red carpet, she didn't go into the film with the intention of changing her public image.

"I know that it seems enormously shortsighted, but to be perfectly frank, I had no idea how strong this (public) idea of me connected to (always being) a good girl, of being a likable character in a movie - being an ingénue - was. So when I took this role I just thought that it was a great opportunity just as an actress and not, ‘Wow, what a great chance to shake up people's perception of me.'"

Hathaway seems thrilled to have gotten the chance to spread her acting wings a bit. But she admitted that there was one element of her characterization that bothered her a bit, and it wasn't her use of drugs and alcohol. Instead, it was her smoking that made Hathaway a bit nervous.

"Funnily enough, as a representative of my age and the fact that I still slightly believe in immortality, I wasn't concerned about the health risks," Hathaway laughed, "but I was concerned that I had never smoked before and so it wasn't going to look real onscreen. So that was my one concern."

Happily for the 25-year-old actress, she seems to have succeeded in making moviegoers believe in her portrayal, and will perhaps find herself the darling of the Oscars come March.

But even if that doesn't happen, Hathaway is proud of the film, and proud that she is following the advice of her much-lauded co-star of "The Devil Wears Prada."

"Meryl (Streep) said it best, as Meryl often does, ‘You do the best work that you can, with the material that's available to you.'"

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