Anne Hathaway admits she spent a week preparing for the wrong role before Christopher Nolan corrected her

Anne Hathaway has admitted she spent an entire week preparing for a role Christopher Nolan was going to offer her, only for there to be a bit of a mix up.

There's no doubt that the Oppenheimer director is one of the biggest names in Hollywood, so if you've been invited for a chat with him, you're always going to prepare.

So, that's exactly what Hathaway did when she was approached by Nolan for a role.

The problem was that Hathaway thought she was being auditioned for The Dark Knight Rises to play Harley Quinn, but she was instead meeting for the role of Catwoman in the DC movie.

It wasn't until two hours into the meeting with Nolan — when the director informed her — that Hathaway realized she was being interviewed for the role of the next Batman villain.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast recently, Hathaway said: "Here’s the thing that worked in my favor: she’s a chameleon. So, I knew I was auditioning for… I was meeting with Chris [Nolan] for the female role in the Batman trilogy, the next instalment.

"I thought that I’d gamed it out, because I was just like, ‘It can’t be Catwoman because Michelle Pfeiffer was so iconic… [gasp] It’s going to be Harley Quinn!'”

Anne Hathaway spoke on the mishap in a recent podcast appearance (Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images)

Hathaway continued: "So, I spent a week developing demonic Harley Quinn energy. I was wearing weird jester flats and a striped top.

"And then, about two hours into our conversation, Chris is like, ‘So, the part’s Catwoman,’ and I was like, ‘Transform!’ So, I just then decided that I was like, ‘Well, this top is very sensual.’ And I was going to be very… like a psychopath. I changed personalities like a psychopath."

Despite the lack of preparation for the role she was actually spoken to about, Hathaway bagged the post of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, in what was the actor's first time working with Nolan.

Hathaway has since appeared in other Nolan hit films, Interstellar, as well as the upcoming, The Odyssey, which is set to release this month.

Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway pictured in 2015 (Mathew Imaging/WireImage)

The next Hollywood blockbuster from Nolan features a ton of big names including Hathaway, Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Zendaya.

As for Hathaway, she credits Nolan with saving her career amid the backlash surrounding her Oscars win for Les Misérables.

"I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of," she told Vanity Fair in 2024.