Anne Hathaway is a self-avowed feminist, a hilariously good sport (see her epic rap battle with James Corden) and an award-winning actress and singer. She’s also a UN Goodwill Ambassador, a vegan, and regularly contributes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a non-profit medical corporation leading paediatric treatment and research on children’s catastrophic diseases.

In 2012, following her wedding, Hathaway announced that she would split the money raised from selling her wedding photos would be split between Freedom to Marry (which campaigns for gay couples to have the right to wed), the American Cancer Society, and The Girl Effect, a non-profit which helps impoverished young women.

And, of course, she has starred in some of our favourite films, too, including The Princess Diaries, Ella Enchanted, The Devil Wears Prada, Dark Knight Rises, and Les Misérables, to name but four.

Hathway has, in short, proven herself to be an incredibly talented and inspiring individual. Yet, because she is a women in the public eye, none of the facts mentioned above are as interesting to the tabloids as the subject of her weight and diet – and the actress has had enough.

Taking to Instagram this week, Hathaway made a point of pre-emptively shutting down body-shamers, letting the world know that she’s gaining weight for a new role.

“I am gaining weight for a movie role and it is going well,” she wrote.

“To all the people who are going to fat shame me in the upcoming months, It’s not me, it’s you.

“Peace xx.”

Alongside a video of herself in the gym, Hathaway added: “P.S. I wanted to set this to Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls but copyright said no. Continued peace xx.”

Of course, it’s the sort of graceful response we’ve come to expect from Hathaway – who has dealt with more than her fair share of trolls over the years.

Back in 2013, a number of media outlets seemed to turn against her – and the spate of negative headlines and mean-spirited tweets from ‘Hathahaters’ would often catch the actress “off-guard”.

Discussing that period in her life during an interview last year, the Colossal star said: “Now, it’s not that I’ve gotten a rhino skin to it, but I sort of see all of that for what it is.”

When asked whether it changed the way she thought about herself, Hathaway paused to reflect on the question before answering.

“It made the pause before I answer this question a lot longer,” she said. “How the world feels about me has nothing to do with me. How other people treat me has nothing to do with me.

“But if anything that anybody said resonated with me as something I’d like to work on for myself, I took it in like that […] I still found a way to be grateful to it.”

Image: Getty