Anne Hathaway ‘Would Benefit From Learning From Blake Lively’s Mistakes’ Ahead of ‘Verity’ Release (Exclusive)

Anne Hathaway has never been busier.

The 43-year-old actress has five huge films coming out this year, including Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel Verity and the much-anticipated sequel to The Devil Wears Prada.

“Anne didn’t exactly plan the 2026 she had ahead of her, where she’ll be front-and-center in five major films including three that are already expected to be surefire hits,” a source tells Star. “But she has made the decision to lean into her ubiquity this year, really put herself out there in interviews, and put her appeal at the global box office to the test.”

It’s a strategy that “comes with some risks,” notes the source, and Hathaway’s husband Adam Shulman “is always going to be the one warning” the Academy Award winner “to be careful not to make people sick of her again like they clearly were during her awards season push back in 2012.”

Hathaway faced significant backlash — a.k.a “Hathahate” — following her Best Supporting Actress win for Les Miserables. “A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles, because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online,” she later confessed to Vanity Fair.

“[Anne] walked away from the experience with her first Oscar, but there was also some real blowback that came from being in everybody’s face at every awards show that year,” adds the source. “You couldn’t get away from her!”

That pattern could repeat itself when Hathaway hits the promo trail for Verity in October.

“The movie is going to be sold entirely on her shoulders,” reveals Star’s source, adding that the actress is “going to have to put a lot of muscle behind [it] if it’s going to escape the shadow of Hoover’s most famous book-to-film It Ends With Us.”

Blake Lively — who is locked in an ugly legal battle with director and costar Justin Baldoni — was panned for how she promoted the film, telling fans to “grab your friends and wear yours florals” to go see a movie about domestic violence.

“Anne would benefit from learning from Blake Lively’s mistakes,” says the source. “You can go too far to sell a film, you can annoy even your most loyal fans, and even if the movie makes a lot of money, you can hurt your image if you look too desperate when you’re trying to see it.”