Anne Hathaway Assesses 'Les Miserables' Performance as 'Eh'

Despite all the Oscar talk, Anne Hathaway is "eh" about her acclaimed, home-run performance as Fantine in Les Miserables.

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After 20-plus takes of "I Dreamed a Dream" in Tom Hooper's big-screen adaptation of the musical, Hooper pulled the plug on any more, having said earlier that take No. 4 was the best one. (Hathaway, however, aimed to keep going to see if she could improve upon her performance.)

"And I was like, 'Fair enough.' I never bettered it," Hathaway told the Los Angeles Times' Amy Kaufman. When asked for her assessment of the cut that wound up in the movie, she replied in a word: "Eh."

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Hooper told the Times he thought Hathaway had gone too far in her pursuit of Fantine's pain and "tried to discourage her" from losing 25 pounds to play the destitute single mother forced into prostitution in 1800s Paris. (Cue the mock horror from David Letterman.)

"Tom didn't like what I was doing, but he understood why I was doing it," Hathaway said. "No one liked what I was doing. By the end, people were hugging me and they would get emotional because I felt so frail."

Meanwhile, Les Miserables has topped the holiday box office, raking in more than $30 mil as of Wednesday and scoring the second-best Christmas Day opening of all time (and the best opening day for a musical). It's received an A CinemaScore amid early buzz on a supporting actress Academy Award nomination for Hathaway and a best actor nom for Hugh Jackman.

The two were also nominated for Critics' Choice Movie Award, a SAG Award and a Golden Globe Award this year.