Anne Hathaway Recalls ‘Hathahate’ During Powerful Speech About Love & 'Learned' Behaviors

Anne Hathaway has a message for Hathahaters.

During Elle’s Women in Hollywood event Monday, the 39-year-old was spotlighted alongside Issa Rae, Michelle Yeoh, Sigourney Weaver, Ariana DeBose, Mindy Kaling, Zoë Kravitz, Nina Garcia, Olivia Wilde, and Sydney Sweeney — and Anne took the opportunity to make waves.

The star reflected on a time in 2013, around her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for Les Misérables, where she was receiving an inordinate amount of vitriol online, sometimes referred to as #HathaHate on social media. Unfortunately that hate sadly mirrored her own self-deprecating views at the time. During an impassioned speech, Anne revealed how it all affected her — and how she got through it, beginning:

“Ten years ago, I was given an opportunity to look at the language of hatred from a new perspective. 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. When it happened to me, I realized that this wasn’t it. This wasn’t the spot. 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.”

It’s so sad that receiving hate from online trolls is what it took for her to change her own self-image, but we’re glad she was able to learn from it and eventually turn a new, positive, loving leaf. She continued:

“Because there is a difference between existence and behavior, 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.”

The Interstellar star 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… The good news about hate being learned is that whoever learned it can learn. There is a brain there. I hope they give themselves a chance to relearn love.”

It’s probably safe to assume that raising sons Jonathan, 6, and Jack, 2, with husband Adam Shulman, contributed a great deal to her shift in mindset, as well. She had the opportunity to raise these young men to maintain that love she spoke about being born with. We’re all for breaking negative generational norms!

The award winner had previously spoken on her hate in a 2014 Ellen interview, addressing a story called Why Does Everybody Hate Anne Hathaway, which she had a hard time moving past because she “didn’t love” herself. However, it inspired her to begin her “journey,” which eventually landed her “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.” See more (below):