​Anne Hathaway: ‘Women Have Borne The Brunt Of The Pandemic’

Anne Hathaway has spoken out about the devastating impact of the pandemic on the gender gap.

The Oscar-winning actress tells Tyla leaders must put a 'special emphasis' on getting women back into work as life begins to return to normal after 12 months of lockdown.

Anne, 38, is speaking ahead of the UK release of Locked Down, in which she stars alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor as a high-flying fashion exec navigating a crumbling relationship while working from home in locked-down London.

She plays Linda - the undisputed breadwinner of the couple, in a dynamic that's arguably still rarely seen on screen - but concedes that we still have a long way to go before gender parity becomes the norm in the real world.

The mother-of-two was "very disturbed" by a December 2020 report highlighting that out of 150,000 job losses in the US, every one was held by women - highlighting the need for "positive examples of working women on screen".

"We've lost so much in terms of what has been gained up to this point," she adds. "I very much hope that it becomes a priority to all of us to ensure that everybody gets back to work but with a special emphasis on women. Because women have really borne the brunt of the pandemic."

Glass ceiling aside, Anne had a lot of fun playing Linda - a woman who, despite her professional success, is teetering on the verge of a lockdown-induced breakdown. For much of the movie we see her makeup free, pyjama-clad, glass of wine in hand.

"It cracks me up whenever I meet people [on interviews]," she says. "Because the hair's always done, the makeup's always done, but I have a much more feral side.

"It felt great to [portray] someone who was just losing it, someone who had just put so much pressure on herself to make herself appear a certain way and be so contained."

Playing Linda resonated with Anne's own experience of the past 12 months, she admits. "Before lockdown, there was this speed to life that we were all living - rush off to this thing, rush off to that thing.

"And when you didn't have all that rushing around, it was amazing when you took a step back and looked at your life, which parts resonated with you as something you enjoyed... and which parts you're like 'I don't miss this, do I even like this?'

"To have that opportunity to take stock of your life, I think a lot of us did that."

You can rent the movie premiere of Locked Down at home from 11th March

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