Anne Hathaway Owes Her New Oscar All to Her Haircut (Kinda, Sorta)

Les Misérables' Oscar-winning hair-and-makeup duo talk about the power of Hathaway's on-camera shorning

At the Oscars as on a movie set, the hair and makeup people always know best.

Just minutes before Anne Hathaway claimed the Best Supporting Actress statuette, Les Misérables' Oscar-winning hair-and-makeup team talked about the power of Hathaway's on-camera shorning.

"We could have easily done it with wigs," Lisa Westcott told press-room reporters backstage at the 85th Annual Academy Awards. "[But Hathaway] really wanted to do it."

Added Julie Dartnell, "It was very effective, very emotional as well."

The shorning scene is the high point, as it were, of the downward arc of Hathaway's Les Mis character, the doomed Fantine.

Noted Westcott: "It helped her performance." And that, in the end, really paid off.