Until the recent Hollywood blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises, no one would have imagined Anne Hathaway landing the classic role of the sexy, smart Catwoman– neither did she.

" I didn't think they would revisit that character, because Michelle Pfeiffer's performance( in the 1992 Batman Returns) had been so iconic," Hathaway told Entertainment Weekly.

Right after losing weight for Catwoman, the actress also had to cut her long hair for her role as Fantine in Les Miserables. " There's no need mentioning what long hair means to a woman, but I'm glad it turned out to be a new breakthrough," she told Allure magazine.

Hathaway's two big breaks as an actress came in 2001 and 2006. After acquiring fame through The Princess Diaries( 2001); a more mature and sophisticated Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada( 2006) made her a worldwide hit.

Since then, Hathaway has widened her territory by portraying different characters: Jane Austin in Becoming Jane( 2007); Kym the drug addict in Rachel Getting Married( 2008), which gained Hathaway a nomination for Best Actress in the Academy Award; and not least, the graceful White Queen in Alice in Wonderland( 2010).

Although only a few months away from turning 30, Hathaway is relaxed because she thinks it is the age when actresses start" kicking ass".

" I think it's the beginning of a process that really blossoms when you hit 30. It's when you stop apologizing for who you are. That's such a freedom," she told Marie Clare magazine earlier this year.

She added that it is also an age when she will put less pressure on herself.

" Success is such a subjective thing. Certainly when I was starting out, I just had this unbelievable pressure to get jobs," Hathaway said. " But that has changed. Now I do it with hope.