Anne Hathaway explains how Jessica Chastain inspired her 'possessed' “Mother Mary ”dance scene
Anne Hathaway explains how Jessica Chastain inspired her 'possessed' “Mother Mary ”dance scene
Tiffany KellySun, April 26, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
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Anne Hathaway in 'Mother Mary'Credit: A24Key Points -
Anne Hathaway shares details about her ominous dance sequence in the new film Mother Mary.
The scene, which required Hathaway to train for eight hours a day, sees her pop star character move like she is "possessed by something," the actress tells EW.
Director David Lowery calls the dance an "invitation to an exorcism.”
This article contains minor spoilers for Mother Mary.
Anne Hathaway’s turn as a fictional pop megastar preparing for her comeback show in Mother Mary required intense training.
The Oscar winner performs original songs by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX, and FKA Twigs in the new David Lowery film. But one of her most demanding scenes is devoid of singing, or even background music.
After showing up unannounced at the house of fashion designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel), years after the friends had a falling out, Hathaway’s Mother Mary demonstrates the dance she intends to unveil at her upcoming performance. It’s raw, powerful, and, by the end, a tad frightening.
“At a certain point, what was inside of her took over, and what was inside of her was messy and violent and out of control, and she just had no choice but to let it take over,” Hathaway tells Entertainment Weekly of the memorable sequence.
Anne Hathaway in 'Mother Mary'Credit: A24
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Hathaway says she trained for about eight hours a day in the months leading up to filming the dance number, which was choreographed by Dani Vitale, known for her work with real-life pop stars like Rihanna, Katy Perry, and BTS.
"I could make a documentary about the making of that dance," Hathaway says.
In the film, Mother Mary performs the piece without music for Sam, who refuses to listen to the pop star’s work. Wearing sweatpants and no shoes, she goes through the movements in Sam’s dark and spacious barn studio, the silence highlighting the physicality of it all. The result is a haunting modern dance that looks and feels like an exorcism, or, as Lowery puts it, “the invitation to an exorcism.”
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Although the audience experiences the scene without music, Hathaway shares that she actually performed the dance to two pieces of music, which Lowery says "brought out different emotions."
"The movement was always largely the same, but there was so much expression that changed from one take to the next," Lowery explains.
The dance hints at spooky events to come, and that's not just because Mother Mary intends to pair it with her new song, “Spooky Action.”
For her ominous routine, Hathaway tells EW she found inspiration in her Mothers' Instinct costar, Jessica Chastain.
“I have to give a shout out to Jessica Chastain, who, when she did A Doll’s House, did a danse macabre on stage that I saw right before I left to start this,” she says, “and it just blew my mind and made me wanna go even deeper than I already had gone.”
Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in 2024Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty
In the end, Hathaway says, the key to pulling off the dance was learning how to look “possessed” in her movements.
“It’s not just about the performance,” she says, “it's about looking like something else is coming through, that you are actually possessed by something.”
Mother Mary is now in theaters.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
