Anne Hathaway has played many roles over her 20-year career, but this is the first time she’s played a pop star. As a singer, she usually gravitates toward musical theater, with the exception of her stunning cover of Queen’s “Somebody to Love,” but David Lowery’s “Mother Mary,” released Friday on A24, required her to go full pop star in the role of Mother Mary, a traumatized fictional singer reminiscent of Madonna and Lady Gaga.
It’s a completely different style of singing and acting, and during a Q&A in New York on Tuesday (hosted by Variety’s Jem Aswad) as part of a listening event for her seven-song soundtrack album sponsored by A24 and Spotify, she revealed that Beyoncé’s “American Requiem” was the key that unlocked her inner pop star.
“I grew up in a family of phenomenal singers. My mother is an amazing singer in musical theater and has a very high belt,” she said. “My voice is completely different. My voice is softer, so I’ve never really considered myself as a singer in my head because I don’t do what real singers do. When I was a kid, I thought, ‘Whitney Houston, that’s a real singer,’ and I can’t sing like that. But now that I’m older, I’m grateful that I compared myself to someone who had a divine voice,” she said. Cheers from the audience.
“So when I got this (part), it puzzled me for a long time because it was a whole new way of singing. It took me about two years to finally crack it. And most of that was just studying what other singers were doing and trying to figure out, frankly, why they sound so cool. Because there’s a lot of great things in musical theater, but it’s not the coolest sound,” she laughed. “Not known for stolen goods!”
Naturally, it was Queen Bey who led her to that swag.
“So I listened to Beyoncé’s ‘American Requiem’ over and over again,” she said to cheers from the audience, encouraging “I mean, come on! You think she can hear us?!” — before continuing. “Her technique on that song is so mesmerizing and amazing, and listening to her delivery and musical talent and understanding the history of her voice that allows her to sound so quiet and present. I studied that and realized that Beyoncé can be a[powerful]vocalist, but she also knows how to keep quiet.”
“And I thought, maybe there’s something to be said about having a sweet, quiet voice, maybe I could get a job with this. But learning pop phrasing was a really big thing. It was like learning a new language.”
