Anne Hathaway has said she listened to Beyoncé’s “Ameriican Requiem” on repeat to prepare for her lead role in the new movie musical, Mother Mary.
Hathaway, 43, stars in A24’s forthcoming psychological drama as fictional pop icon Mother Mary, who reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer (Michaela Coel) on the eve of her comeback performance.
While the Princess Diaries actor has a musical theater background and even won an Oscar for her supporting role as Fantine in the 2012 screen adaptation of the hit musical Les Misérables, she described her voice as “much softer” than that of typical pop stars.
“Musical theater is many wonderful things, but it’s not the coolest sound. Not known for its swag!” Hathaway quipped Tuesday during a Q&A in New York, per Variety.
“So, I listened to ‘Ameriican Requiem’ by Beyoncé, over and over and over,” she revealed.
Lauding Beyoncé’s “mesmerizing and astonishing” vocals on the lead track of her 2024 Grammy-winning album, Cowboy Carter, the Interstellar star said that she studied the pop star’s “phraseology, her musicianship, understanding the history of her voice that had led her to be able to make that sound that is so still, so present.”
“I appreciated that Beyoncé can be a [powerful] vocalist, but she also knows how to be still,” Hathaway continued. “I thought, OK, maybe there’s something to be said about having a sweet, still voice. Maybe I can work with this.”
Still, she said that learning the phrasing of pop music “was a really big deal — that was like learning a new language.”
Speaking Monday to People at the movie’s premiere, she shared that she had additionally spoken with “360” hitmaker Charli xcx to gain greater insight into life as a pop star.
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“I wanted to talk to her about the music, she wrote such amazing music that I was going to perform,” Hathaway explained. “But I also just had a lot of questions for her about what her life was like, what the experience of being a pop star was.”
Directed by David Lowery, Mother Mary also features Hunter Schafer, Alba Baptista, FKA twigs and Kaia Gerber.
The film has already divided critics in early reviews, with The Guardian’s Owen Myers labeling it a “ludicrous pop star drama,” in a two-star review, while Vulture’s Alison Willmore declared the film is “worth your worship.” It currently holds a middling 76 percent on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
Mother Mary opens in limited theaters April 17 before expanding nationwide April 24.
