Listen up! Because Anne Hathaway has an important message.
"Be happy for women. Period," the actress, 39, said during her speech at ELLE's Women in Hollywood event on Oct. 17, which was published by the magazine. "Especially be happy for high-achieving women. Like, it's not that hard."
People haven't always been happy for Hathaway. The Les Misérables star—who was honored alongside Michelle Yeoh, Issa Rae, Olivia Wilde, Sydney Sweeney, Sigourney Weaver and Ariana DeBose at the event—recalled being the subject of a lot hate around the time of her 2013 Oscars win. So much so that it was referred to as #HathaHate on social media.
"Ten years ago, I was given an opportunity to look at the language of hatred from a new perspective," Hathaway said. "For context—this was a language I had employed with myself since I was 7. And when your self-inflicted pain is suddenly somehow amplified back at you at, say, the full volume of the internet… It's a thing."
Despite the cruelty of the comments, she didn't let them define her.
"When it happened to me, I realized that this wasn't it. This wasn't the spot," The Devil Wears Prada alum continued. "When what happened, happened, I realized I had no desire to have anything to do with this line of energy. On any level. I would no longer create art from this place. I would no longer hold space for it, live in fear of it, nor speak its language for any reason. To anyone. Including myself."
And she has a message for any haters. "Because there is a difference between existence and behavior," she added. "You can judge behavior. You can forgive behavior or not. But you do not have the right to judge—and especially not hate—someone for existing. And if you do, you're not where it's at."
Hathaway—who shares sons Jonathan, 6, and Jack, 2, with husband Adam Shulman—then expressed her "firm belief that we are born experiencing love. And then we form, in a culture of misplaced hate, unhealed hurt, and the toxicity that is the byproduct of both."
Still, she noted she has hope that people who participate in online hate can change, sharing "the good news about hate being learned is that whoever learned it can learn." As she shared, "There is a brain there. I hope they give themselves a chance to relearn love."
The Interstellar actress opened up about her experience during a 2014 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, recalling how she came across an article titled "Why Does Everybody Hate Anne Hathaway?" While Hathaway initially tried to ignore the hate, she said she struggled to do so.
"I couldn't and then I realized why I couldn't was I hadn't learned to love myself yet. I hadn't gotten there," she told Ellen DeGeneres. "And if you don't love yourself, when someone else says horrible things to you, part of you is always going to believe them."
But as Hathaway noted, she "didn't want to believe these people" or "agree with them on any level." So she took some time to "figure out who I am" and develop self-love.
"It's been a really cool journey," she said. "And I feel like I've arrived in a place where, maybe not every minute of every day but way more than I used to, I have a tremendous amount of love and compassion for everyone else and best of all I have it for myself, which I've never endured before."