Anne Hathaway Talks About Being the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton's blockbuster rendition of the fairytale Alice in Wonderland is arriving on DVD, Blu-ray and three-disc Blu-ray June 1st, 2010. In the second of a seven-part interview series, we caught up with the actors and the filmmakers behind the movie to discuss the making of this billion dollar epic. Today we chat with Anne Hathaway, who played the White Queen in the film. Here is our conversation with her:

What did you make of the platinum blonde look and shimmering white gown you have in the film?

Anne Hathaway: I think the look of my character really fits into Tim Burton's canon, when you look at a lot of his heroines. A lot of them have pale hair and shadowed eyes and dark lips. I think this is the more extreme version of it. She is the White Queen so obviously the color of her hair is informed by that. What I was struck by when I saw the film was that the hair and make-up actually matched what I was trying to do with the character - which was to play her as someone who was good but with a tiny bit of darkness in her. I thought that came out in the lips and the nails. I was so happy that I did not recognize myself.Where did the vegan/punk rocker description of the White Queen come from?

Anne Hathaway: That came from the script actually. When she says it is against her vows to harm any living creature, well I am a geek - and I had a lot of time on my hands, obviously - so I made up a whole back story about how she maybe liked meat but it made her sick and how maybe her parents saw her sister start to display violent tendencies and so they got her to make a vow that she would never harm another living creature. So she had repressed her aggression and hadn't explored it. So that is where the punk rock and vegan thing came in.

Were you a fan of the books?

Anne Hathaway: I loved the books. I didn't read them till I was at college. I was really struck by Alice's emotions and the way she felt overwhelmed by the world around her. Also I was so entertained by the world of the books. When I was doing my research for the film I read a lot of essays on the books. One of the things that someone pointed out was that Wonderland is a place of extreme emotions. People [in Wonderland] have emotional reactions to things - often angry reactions. I remember when I read the book that my hormones were raging and I felt a connection to it. I had been planning on reading the books for some time because when I was in Fifth Grade a teacher had us memorize the Jabberwocky poem. So when Johnny Depp was reciting that in the film I was saying it along with him.