This is going to sound odd/cheesy, but as a half-Indian woman, I really admire when pale white women commit to their paleness. I enjoy seeing Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, even Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman really commit to being pale. No fake tans, no orange makeup, no tanning booths. It feels like they acknowledge at some point, “I am pale and I’m going to own that sh-t and douse myself in sunblock every day.” I was reminded of that as I looked through Elle Magazine’s editorial with Hathaway, who is their April cover girl. The images are very stark and spare, but it works. Anne’s skin looks amazing. The cover shot in particular is fantastic! Anyway, Anne is promoting her strange-looking monster movie Colossal, and you can see Elle’s cover package here. Some highlights:

On her husband, Adam Shulman: “He changed my ability to be in the world comfortably. I think the accepted narrative now is that we, as women, don’t need anybody. But I need my husband. His unique and specific love has changed me.”

On the importance of focusing on paid parental leave in the U.S.: “I can’t believe we don’t already have it…When [my son] Johnny was a week old and I was holding him and I was in the ninth level of ecstasy, I just all of a sudden thought, ‘Mommy guilt is invented nonsense.’ We’re encouraged to judge each other, but we should be turning our focus to the people and institutions who should be supporting us and currently aren’t.”

On starring in Ocean’s Eight and working with a female-led cast: “Hollywood is not a place of equality. I don’t say that with anger or judgment; it’s a statistical fact. And even though I’ve been in some female-centric films, I’ve never been in a film like this. It just kind of makes you aware of the ways you sort of unconsciously change yourself to fit certain scenarios. It’s not better or worse…or right or wrong, but there are certain things you understand about one another because of experiences you have in common…it’s probably easy for men to take that for granted. Just being on a set where I’m the one who possesses that ease is really something. It’s a nice alternative narrative.”

[From Elle]

Anne is talking about parental leave because she’s the new UN Ambassador for the issue of paid parental leave – go here to read more about that. I’m as liberal as they come, so I believe that there should be three months of paid maternal leave, no questions asked, and I’m willing to listen to a lot of proposals about paternal leave, leave for LGBT parents and more. Of course, I also think college should be free (because it’s an investment in the future workforce) and that we need to teach boys and girls about rape culture starting in elementary school. I don’t have kids so… that’s all I have to say about that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As for what she says about equality in Hollywood… I wish she would get angry. I wish more actresses, female directors and female producers would get angry and really start calling out sexist bulls–t every time they see it. Like, I think Jennifer Lawrence is angry about it, to the point where she’s being told to tone it down lest she alienate people. F–k that. GET ANGRY. Oh, and what she says about her husband? Hm…

Photos courtesy of Terry Tsiolis/Elle.