Anne Hathaway watched Emmerdale to hone her northern accent

Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway has admitted that some Brits think her Yorkshire
accent ‘sucks’ in her new film, One Day.

The screen adaptation of the best-selling book, released in British cinemas today, sees
Anne Hathaway play Yorkshire-born Emma in the love story spanning 20 decades.

The star revealed that she felt under immense pressure to do justice to the well-loved
character. Developing an authentic accent was ‘harder by far’ for Hathaway than the
weight-training, dieting and dance classes required to play Catwoman in the next Batman
movie.

‘The Catwoman thing is no problem,’ she said. ‘But this is more of an interpretation than it
is technical skill.’

Hathaway, 28, has also been considered by many of the novel’s fans to be too pretty to
play frumpy Emma. She said: ‘A few people say I really suck. People just scowl at me
because I’m not their Emma. It was a lot of pressure. Hopefully people who see the movie
will see we put as much of the book in there as possible.’

The Princess Diaries and Devil Wears Prada star also revealed that she spent hours
watching Emmerdale to hone her accent for One Day and that she was deeply moved
on her first reading of David Nicholls’ screenplay: ‘I was on a plane over from the US. I
burst into tears in my seat, and the hostess said, ‘I think you better go to the bathroom to
freshen up’. I sat down in there and cried.’