Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie Share Why ‘Eileen’ Intrigued Them

Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie star in Eileen, which is based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel of the same title. Neon will release the film in theaters on December 1.

Eileen follows a peculiar young woman whose dreary life stretches on toward unending misery. In frigid 1960s Boston, Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) shuffles between her father’s dingy, emotionally haunted home and the prison where she works alongside colleagues who have ostracized her. When an intoxicating woman (Anne Hathaway) joins the prison staff, Eileen is taken. Just when the possibility of a salvational friendship (or maybe more) takes hold and forms a singular glimmer in Eileen’s darkness, her newfound confidant entangles her in a shocking crime that alters all.

Thomasin McKenzie in EILEEN.
Photo Credit: Jeong Park

“I think something that stood out to me about Eileen, and is actually spoken about in the film, is that Eileen isn’t the usual kind of character you would focus in on, she’s not the kind of person you’d expect a film to be made about. Her dad says himself, like, ‘Eileen, you are someone who people don’t really notice, you kind of sink into the background and you’re looked over,’ so I think it’s interesting that Eileen is the person who this story is being told through the eyes of,” McKenzie explained.

“I really was very intrigued by the idea of what it takes to make someone snap, like what’s the thing? And, you know, I think that it kind of leans into the nature versus nurture debate. Who would Eileen have been in a different family, in a different time, in a different place? Who would Rebecca have been in a different family, different time, different place? And that watching Eileen kind of — the idea that to step into yourself, to create the life that you want might mean committing acts that you never thought yourself capable of, I was very, very intrigued by that,” Hathaway, who plays Rebecca, shared with me. “Then, I’m also very interested in the idea of kind of the toxicity of glamour and kind of the idea of power and toxicity, and Rebecca was a great way to explore that. I also think glamour can be very, very fun. Clearly, I don’t mind a little bit.”