Anne Hathaway Says This ‘Verity’ Scene Almost Made Her Break Character — And It Involved a Foot Rub

Verity is packed with twists and unsettling moments — ones that make viewers question what’s fiction versus reality. But despite the film’s intensity and unpredictability, Anne Hathaway says the scene that almost made her break character involved something entirely unexpected: an unscripted foot rub from retired principal ballerina Irina Dvorovenko.

“She was trying to figure out, as the nurse, how she was going to be caring for me. Obviously, I can’t move in the scene, and she goes, ‘You know what? I’m going to give you a foot rub. Would that be alright?’” Hathaway told The Hollywood Reporter at the Verity New York premiere on Tuesday night (Dvorovenko portrays Verity’s caretaker, Anna).

“I had never gotten a foot rub from a ballerina before, but let me just say, they know what they’re doing,” Hathaway added. “I almost broke character because I couldn’t contain the ecstasy that I was experiencing from her really, really gifted hands.”

Based on Colleen Hoover’s 2018 novel of the same name, Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh (played by Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer hired to finish the bestselling book series of renowned author Verity Crawford after an accident leaves her incapacitated. While working at the Crawford home, Lowen discovers a secret manuscript containing Verity’s apparent autobiographical notes, raising disturbing questions about her past and sending her spiraling over what to believe.

Hathaway wasn’t the only one who found herself struggling to stay in character at times. For Josh Hartnett, who plays Verity’s husband Jeremy Crawford, the erotic thriller’s sex scenes were what nearly made him crack.

“Frankly, the sex scenes — they were really funny. There’s such specific details in Colleen’s writing of these sex scenes, so there were things with the headboard and stuff… it’s very technical,” Hartnett recalled. “Sometimes Annie’s husband was there [on set] or my wife was there, and we’re just like, ‘We have to do this now, so let’s make it fun.’ Of course, that’s the thing that does make us break, because it is a little bit embarrassing, right?”

Hathaway, who also served as a producer on Verity, said it was crucial to include “unexpected, sexy, psychological” scenes. She pointed to the dream sequence featured in the trailer, in which Johnson’s Lowen pulls away from kissing Jeremy only to see Verity’s face — much to her horror.

The kiss was one of several moments created specifically for the film adaptation to heighten its psychosexual elements. Still, director Michael Showalter said his primary goal was to remain as faithful as possible to Hoover’s novel, in what marks Hoover’s fourth book-to-screen adaptation.

“Colleen Hoover was very present in this process. She was on set. I texted her, we would talk on the phone,” Showalter said. “I really relied on her opinion and her taste to make sure that she felt we were going in the right direction.”