Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews are the reason a small Disney comedy about a clumsy teenager became something people still quote a quarter century later. Before Hathaway was an Oscar winner and a fashion-movie icon, she was Mia Thermopolis, a painfully awkward San Francisco kid whose ordinary life got interrupted by one significant family secret.
She was a princess.
The Princess Diaries was Hathaway‘s feature debut, adapted from Meg Cabot‘s novel, produced by Whitney Houston, and it put a nervous unknown opposite one of the most beloved performers in movie history. What came out of it was a royal comfort movie built on friendship, family, romance, Genovian pears and one unforgettable makeover.
At 25, it holds up completely.
Anne Hathaway Remembers The Princess Diaries
When we spoke with Anne Hathaway during the original release, she was still processing that people were about to actually see the thing.
The hard part was over. Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews had already done the work, alongside Garry Marshall, through princess lessons and a state dinner that goes spectacularly wrong. Now came sending it out into the world.
Click on the media bar below to hear Anne Hathaway reflect on making The Princess Diaries and preparing for its release.
Listening to it now makes it sweeter. She was standing at the front end of a career that would include an Academy Award, blockbusters and serious dramatic work, and she was a young actor wondering whether anyone she admired might happen to catch her movie.
Plenty of people caught it. The film took more than $165 million worldwide and turned her into a star.
Garry Marshall Built A Set Where She Could Stop Being Afraid
Anne Hathaway‘s memories land on the thing everyone says about the late Garry Marshall. He knew how to make people comfortable.
He’d already made Pretty Woman and built a reputation for finding humanity in characters who could easily have played as cartoons. With this one he understood the fairy tale collapses unless Mia reads as an actual teenager.
Her clumsiness wasn’t a problem to solve. It was the point.
Marshall reportedly kept spontaneous moments when they made the movie funnier, including Mia’s fall on the bleachers. That looseness let Anne Hathaway be awkward and vulnerable and funny without turning Mia into the joke.
He also surrounded Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews with people who brought warmth. Heather Matarazzo made Lilly more than a best-friend slot. Héctor Elizondo gave Joe quiet dignity and a lovely gentle thing with Queen Clarisse. Mandy Moore committed fully to Lana Thomas.
Marshall died in 2016. Anne Hathaway still talks about him emotionally, saying the role changed her life and crediting him with looking after her when she was very young.
Anne Hathaway And Julie Andrews Find The Grandmother Under The Crown
Then there’s Julie Andrews.
She didn’t just play a queen. She arrived carrying generations of affection with her. Younger viewers met Queen Clarisse Renaldi. Their parents and grandparents were watching Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp.
That history handed Clarisse instant authority. What Julie Andrews found underneath was the grandmother.
The relationship between Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews starts with posture drills, etiquette rules and an impossible list of expectations. Slowly Clarisse works out that Mia doesn’t need to become someone else. She needs encouragement and room to figure out what kind of princess she wants to be.
Julie Andrews shaped the world too. When Marshall asked what Genovia might be known for, she suggested pears, and a very specific piece of franchise mythology was born.
For Anne Hathaway, working with her was its own fairy tale. She’s described getting to hug her every day as magical, and credits Julie Andrews with teaching her how to treat admirers with patience and kindness.
Why It Still Works
The makeover is iconic. The hairbrush breaks. Paolo announces he and his team have turned Mia into a princess. The glasses vanish, the hair transforms, everyone reacts like royalty just walked in.
But the movie never argues that the makeover is what makes her worthy.
Mia is still Mia. Compassionate, uncertain, frequently overwhelmed, fiercely loyal. Becoming a princess doesn’t remove her fear. It forces her to decide whether she’ll let it run her.
That’s the real fantasy here. Not that an ordinary teenager might secretly be royal, but that the things making you feel awkward and out of place might turn out to be what makes you worth something.
The movie also gets that growing up means disappointing people, making terrible calls and finding the nerve to fix them. Mia isn’t inspiring because she never fails. She’s inspiring because she comes back, apologizes and tries again.
That’s aged better than any tiara.
Genovia Isn’t Finished
The affection never faded. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement followed in 2004, and a third film has been in development for years.
Adele Lim is directing, with Flora Greeson writing and Debra Martin Chase, who originated the franchise, producing. Hathaway returns as Mia, now Queen of Genovia, and produces through Somewhere Pictures.
Lim‘s pitch is the interesting part. She’s noted there are plenty of wish-fulfillment movies for princesses and almost none for queens, and says the goal is showing a woman in her full power. She’s promised shooting in Europe and “a lot of fun returns” from the original cast.
Hathaway has said the team had a story breakthrough after scrapping the previous script and starting over with a new direction, which she acknowledged isn’t the update anyone wants to hear. She’s also stressed nothing is greenlit, and that she’s currently expecting her third child.
Whatever happens, the original doesn’t need a sequel to prove anything.
At 25, The Princess Diaries is still a celebration of kindness, courage, friendship and the discovery that being worthy of a crown has very little to do with looking perfect.
It’s also still a record of the moment a nervous young Anne Hathaway wondered whether anyone would see her movie.
They did, and they never stopped.
The Princess Diaries is available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital platforms, and is streaming on Disney+.
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