Anne Hathaway was left quite embarrassed while promoting her new movie The Idea of You on The Tonight Show on Tuesday.
The 41-year-old actress appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night talk show on Tuesday to discuss her latest on-screen turn, which is based on author Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name and follows the story of a single mother who sparks an unexpected romance with an age difference with a young musician.
But while the film has garnered a lot of interest, as well as critical praise from critics, Hathaway, who stars in the film alongside Nicholas Galitzine, found herself facing a very awkward silence from The Tonight Show audience. when he posed a question about his inspiration.
When asked about her on-screen love interest, Hathaway attempted to describe how she knew Galitzine was the perfect person to play him, before asking the crowd if anyone had read the book, only to be met with complete silence.
Anne Hathaway felt pretty embarrassed while promoting her new movie The Idea of You on The Tonight Show on Tuesday.
She was trying to describe how she knew he was perfect for the character and asked the crowd if anyone had read the book… but literally no one responded.
After a few seconds of complete silence, a stunned Hathaway covered her mouth as Fallon joked, “No, we don’t read,” prompting the actress to respond, “Well, you should, it’s fabulous.”
Fallon added: “We don’t read.” This is tonight’s program. Yes, you should turn to Stephen Colbert if you want to get people to read books.
Hathaway covered her face with both hands as the audience laughed, before pulling herself together and trying to recover.
“Well, you’ve got an amazing book coming up,” he said, as Fallon joked that perhaps his audience might be more inclined to listen to the book, saying, “We do Audible here, does that count?”
The late-night host then attempted to get the interview back on track, adding, “Okay, so it’s based on this book,” while Hathaway joked, “What’s a book?”
“Well, the book has fans… somewhere, and I think the book is amazing,” the actress added.
She went on to say that her love interest character, Hayes Campbell, “is so beautifully written in the book that we knew we really needed to find someone really special.”
And (Galitzine) walked in and I thought, “Oh, that’s Hayes Campbell.” And that was almost two years ago, and now (he) and I have become very good friends,” Hathaway said.
After a few seconds of complete silence, a stunned Hathaway covered her mouth as Fallon joked, “No, we don’t read,” and added, “Well, you should, it’s fabulous.”
Fallon added: “We don’t read.” This is tonight’s program. Yes, you should go to Stephen Colbert if you want to get people to read books.
“Well, you’ve got one hell of a book ahead of you,” he said, as Fallon joked, “We do Audible here, does that count?”
The interview comes just after the actress shared a new profile on the New York Times who had been without alcohol for five years.
She gushed that the achievement felt like a “milestone” and added that being “forty years old feels like a gift.”
The Princess Diaries star, who teased a third film in the series in the same interview, shared her update years after revealing years earlier that she hoped to stay away from alcohol until her first child turned 18.
In January 2019, she appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, which has since ended, to discuss how expanding her family with husband Adam Shulman had made her want to get sober.