Anne Hathaway's 'Ocean's 8' Character Is A Celebrity Cliche & She's So Good

When you watch Ocean's 8, it's impossible not to suspect that Anne Hathaway’s character, Daphne Kluger, is based on a real celebrity. After all, the fictional A-lister is a famous actor in the movie, beloved by fashion designers and invited to all the best events — even though she has a sinister side. So just who is Anne Hathaway's Ocean's 8 character based on? As it turns out, she’s actually an exaggerated version of many different celebrities.

Daphne represents the dark side of fame, using it to gain power over others. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hathaway shared what it was like to play such a character as a well-known actor herself. “I feel like Daphne is my shadow self, and I feel like you can either use fame to do good for other people and use it to get nice restaurant reservations for yourself, or it can really take over and become your entire identity," said Hathaway.

Ocean’s 8 also pokes fun at the celebrity lifestyle in a clever way, placing Hathaway in a role that mocks the rumors of her alleged diva persona. The "Hathahate" started back in 2008, a couple of years after her standout role in The Devil Wears Prada. They continued for almost a decade, claiming that the actor often made outlandish requests at restaurants and was known for being rude. These claims have long been squashed, but every couple of years, a new rumor of Hathaway's alleged behavior emerges. So it's pretty great that the actor's exaggerated take on that type of persona in Ocean's 8 directly pokes fun at how ridiculous those rumors are.

In the EW interview, however, Hathaway revealed that she does relate to certain aspects of Daphne's life, even if they're very different personality-wise. There's a scene in Ocean's 8 when the fashion designer Rose (played by Helena Bonham Carter) tells Daphne that she has the star has the “best neck in the business," and Hathaway confirmed that this type of ego-stroking conversation actually does tend to happen with celebs. “The most ridiculous one I ever heard was somebody going — not to me — ‘Oh my God, you have such a fierce armpit.’ The level of ego-stroking and ego-inflating that can occur is so ridiculous. It was so much fun to poke fun at that,” said the actor.

There’s also the fact that the whole heist takes place at the Met Gala, which Hathaway and her Ocean’s 8 castmates have attended many times in real life. The last time Hathaway played a character who was part of such a lavish, fashion-forward world was over a decade ago in The Devil Wear’s Prada. As fashion newbie Andy Sachs, the actor tackled what it meant to be an outsider having to deal with the pompous side of the fashion industry and celebrity culture. So it feels like it all comes full circle to see Hathaway play a character who is just like the celebrities Andy interacted with. In the Entertainment Weekly interview, Hathaway discussed what it was like to return to that world while playing a vastly different character.

“I think maybe one of the nice parallels that’s between the two of them is in The Devil Wears Prada, [Andy] realizes that dizziness comes from a ton of hard work and intelligence and creativity from a lot of people, and I think with Helena’s character, you see her put all of that heart and soul and talent into it as well,” said Hathaway. “Can you imagine Andy interviewing Daphne? That would be so fun and trainwreck-y.”

Ocean's 8 plays into the archaic stereotype of power-hungry celebrities who'd do anything to be in the limelight. Though not quite an accurate portrayal of true celebrity life, it does shine light into some behind-the-scenes aspects that real celebrities like Hathaway experience.