Anne Hathaway was reportedly set to star in the 2000s comedy classic Knocked Up before stepping away over concerns about its graphic childbirth scene.
In a conversation on The A24 Podcast, Seth Rogen, 44, spoke with Olivia Wilde, 42, about her audition for Knocked Up, revealing she had initially tried out for a role in the film but did not land it.
The discussion then turned to who was originally cast in the role before Katherine Heigl, 47, who ultimately starred opposite Rogen in the 2007 film about a couple navigating an unplanned pregnancy.
“It was Anne Hathaway who quit the movie,” Rogen revealed when Wilde asked who originally got the part of Alison Scott before Heigl.
“Because of the crowning—right, is that real?” Wilde asked, referring to the film’s explicitly staged childbirth sequence in which the baby’s head becomes visible at the moment of delivery.
“It could have been a hundred million things,” Rogen replied, adding that it was what he had been told at the time: “She didn’t want the crowning of the baby to be visually representative, which I respect.”
“It’s obviously not real,” Wilde said about the birthing scene, adding, “But she didn’t even want… she felt that it was not her brand.”
Rogen said he took the explanation “at face value,” noting that rehearsals had already begun when The Devil Wears Prada actress quit and suggesting Hathaway, 43, may have simply realized the film was not the right fit for her.
“That’s great because she knew,” Wilde said. “She knew what was right for her,” Rogen added.
Director Judd Apatow originally planned to use real footage of a woman giving birth for the film’s delivery scene, but the idea was ultimately scrapped because of child labor laws.
The film was a box office success, grossing $219 million worldwide following its summer 2007 release.
Following the film’s release, Heigl made headlines in 2008 when she told Vanity Fair that she found the movie “a little sexist.” She later said she regretted how she framed the criticism after Rogen revealed he was hurt by the comments.
“It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as loveable, goofy, fun-loving guys,” Heigl said of the film, adding that she “had a hard time with it, on some days.”
In a 2012 interview with Allure, Hathaway explained that she stepped away from the film because she had no firsthand experience of motherhood.
“My issue with it was that having not experienced motherhood myself, I didn’t know how I was gonna feel on the other side about giving birth,” the actress explained.
Hathaway has since had two children with her husband, Adam Shulman—Jonathan, born in March 2016, and Jack, born in November 2019—and is currently expecting their third.
The Daily Beast has contacted Hathaway’s representatives for comment.
