Hathaway, Nolan Talk Catwoman

The Los Angeles Times chatted with actress Anne Hathaway last summer on the London set of The Dark Knight Rises, where she gave the paper some insights into her character Catwoman and what's happening in the third and final installment of director Christopher Nolan's Batman series.

"Gotham City is full of grace," said Hathaway, using a term not often associated with Batman's corrupt and crime-ridden hometown. "You look at Heath's performance as the Joker, there was a lot of madness there but there was also a grace and he had a code there. There's a lot of belief and codes of behavior in Gotham and my character has one, too. A lot of the way she moves and interacts with people is informed by her worldview. Chris has given us all such complex, defined, sophisticated worldviews that it's just a matter of doing your homework and getting underneath the character's skin."

The paper describes a SPOILERISH scene they saw being filmed, where Catwoman confronts guards dragging hooded prisoner Bruce Wayne past scared Gothamites behind barb wire who have been reduced to refugees in their own city. In addition to her goggles that when pushed up resemble the character's trademark cat ears, Hathaway's Catwoman wears stiletto heels with serrated edges. Needless to say, they leave a little more than a cat scratch on their victims.

To prepare for her role, Hathaway dove into the comics, and also studied one of creator Bob Kane's inspirations for Catwoman, sultry brunette actress Hedy Lemarr. Hathaway was struck by Lamarr's breathing so she started to work on her own for playing Selina Kyle.

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In a later interview with the Times, Nolan hailed Hathaway as a great "naturalistic" actress who "also has terrific theatrical skill so she can project a persona and there's a big aspect of the character that is a persona. She's a multi-layered character and we needed a great actress that could rise to that challenge."

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