Anne Hathaway is 'Team Letter' in Verity — and she doesn't trust Lowen or Jeremy
Anne Hathaway has officially picked a side in the Verity finale debate. The actor, who plays the titular novelist in the Colleen Hoover adaptation, is Team Letter — and she makes no secret of why the manuscript reading doesn't convince her.
The ending has split fans: did Verity Crawford tell the truth in her manuscript, or was the letter Lowen Ashleigh discovers the real story? Asked where she stands, Hathaway was quick.
"Letter," she tells The Hollywood Reporter. "The reason that I'm letter... she's a terrified woman being very, very careful." Her harshest jab is aimed at the manuscript itself. "There's a passage where Lowen is describing it, and she's like, 'I've got to be honest, this book isn't very good, and it's really just a lot about sex.'"
Her logic: a genuinely villainous Verity would have written a better book about herself. "I was pretty bored during the next 100 pages... if Verity really was this no good, villainous, horrible evil murderess that she's made out to be, don't you think the book that she would have written about herself would have been excellent?"
She is equally ruthless about the other characters. "I don't trust Lowen. I don't think Lowen's well, and I think she sees herself as a victim in all situations, and I definitely don't trust Jeremy. He goes from zero to crazy angry, real fast."
Even Hoover can't commit
The film follows struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), hired to finish Verity's series after an accident. Josh Hartnett plays Jeremy, Verity's husband.
Author Colleen Hoover says her own read on the ending has shifted. "When I wrote the book... I was in Lowen's perspective... so I was just as confused as she was... I've actually gained a whole new perspective, and I still don't know." Director Michael Showalter stays neutral too: "All the actors have their own version of what they believe is true... So I'm agnostic."
Verity opened this weekend at No. 1 domestically, earning $32.6 million from 3,510 North American locations against a $40 million budget.