Anne Hathaway's empowering reason for starring in Harry Styles-inspired romcom

Anne Hathaway has opened up about the personal reason why she decided to take the role in her latest film The Idea of You - which is said to be loosely based on Harry Styles.

In the romcom, Hathaway plays a 40-year-old divorced mum named Solène Marchand who takes her teenage daughter to the Coachella Musical Festival where she happens to meet 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of famous boy band August Moon, and the pair develop a budding romance.

The film has been adapted from a 2017 book of the same name, written by Robinne Lee who has previously said inspiration from the book came from watching videos of a boy band singer who “often dated older women," which people online believe to be Styles. Comparisons between August Moon and One Direction have circulated since the movie trailer dropped.

Lee told Vogue how Hayes was her "dream guy" inspired by "like Prince Harry, meets Harry [Styles]" as well as Eddie Redmayne along with ex-boyfriends and her husband.

“This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles,” Lee added.

“It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole."

On March 16, The Idea of You premiered at SXSW where Hathaway appeared emotional at the audience's reaction to the film.

“You have no idea the gift that you’ve just given us with your responsiveness, by being so connected to every little nuance in this,” she said. “I will never forget this screening. Thank you so much."

The 41-year-old also explained why she was "thrilled" to tell a coming-of-age story that takes place at a later point in life, compared to the teen and young adult coming-of-age stories we're used to seeing on screen.

“For some reason, we talk about coming-of-age stories as being something that happens to you in the earliest part of your life, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I keep blooming. So when Cathy [Schulman] and Gabrielle [Union] so generously offered me the part, I was thrilled to say yes," Hathaway added.

Viewers were clearly enthralled by the film as Variety reported how "by the time the actors were kissing, the gasps, shrieks and applause were deafening."

The Idea of You is set to be exclusively released on Amazon Prime on May 2.

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