HATHAWAY: Honestly, I think it depends on how much prep time I have. Because in Rachel Getting Married, I’m in almost every scene in that movie, but I had a year’s prep time. So when I began production, I was so deep into the character that I didn’t feel any pressure whatsoever. With One Day, we were on shaky ground with the financing for so long that the prep time actually was affected. I didn’t know if I was playing the character or not. I felt like, “Gosh, if I could just have a moment to breathe, then I could work a few things out.” Some days, I was Emma Morley during four separate years of her life. When that happens, you just have to take a deep breath, jump into the deep end, trust your director, and go. Also, it didn’t help that she’s an iconic British literary character that is absolutely beloved. I don’t think too many people were thrilled that an American was playing her. So there was that pressure to contend with as well.

HANDLER: What do you do to prepare for something like that if you have a shorter amount of prep time?

HATHAWAY: In this case, I turned to the book. I’ve got to say, having the book as my guide was a godsend because normally you create a whole backstory for your character; you create a whole inner life and an inner monologue. Whenever I felt lost or unsure or like something was a little vague and I wanted to get more specific with it, I had the book. The movie is different than the book, but I tried to get as much of Emma from the book into the movie—just little things here and there. One of the things was the accent. I wanted to make sure that the accent changed over the course of the movie, and that it wasn’t just a standard Yorkshire—I don’t know if that even exists—or a standard London accent. I wanted to make sure that the accent grew with her.

HANDLER: You mean in terms of the nuances of how her accent changed when she moved from place to place?

HATHAWAY: Yeah. How it was affected by her education, by where she was working, who she was hanging out with. So having the book as my guide to answer a lot of those questions was enormously helpful.

HANDLER: So when you’re doing something like this—or any movie for that matter—what terrifies you? What’s the scariest thing for you as an actor to confront?

HATHAWAY: Oh, I’ve just given you such a gift. You don’t even understand. Okay, so Marcel the Shell is this YouTube video that Jenny Slate, who used to be a cast member on SNL, did. She did this voice of this tiny shell, and it’s just his perspective on life and talking about himself. In the beginning he’s like, “So, my name is Marcel . . . Oh, no, that’s not what I meant to say . . . It’s not the first time I’ve done that . . . My name is Marcel, and I’m partially a shell, as you can tell by my body, but I also have shoes and a face, and I’m a good person and like that about myself . . .” So I guess my perspective on myself is that I aspire to be like Marcel.