Anne Hathaway says she was told her career would ‘fall off a cliff’ after 35—um, WHAT?

It’s nothing new for women in Hollywood (and everywhere else on planet Earth, for that matter) to be told that their value diminishes as they age. What is new is for women to talk so openly about it as they defy it and enjoy long, successful careers and rich, fulfilling lives. Anne Hathaway, now 41, started her acting career when she was a teenager, and she soon got used to people telling her that her success had a time limit that was ticking ever closer.

“When I started out as a child, I was warned that my career would fall off a cliff at the age of 35, which is something I know a lot of women face,” she said in a candid new interview with Porter magazine. “The thing that has evolved during [that time] is that more women are having careers deeper into their lives, which I think is fantastic. Obviously, it doesn’t mean we should have a ticker tape parade — someone said this to me the other day: ‘There’s so much to be proud of and there’s so much to fix.'”

As many of us remember, Hathaway’s career took off like a rocket when she landed the lead role in 2001’s Princess Diaries. Since then, she’s had a career that hasn’t slowed down — even scoring an Oscar nomination in 2009, and a win for Best Supporting Actress in 2013 for her role in Les Miserables. 

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“It is such a sweet feeling to know that you’re kind of woven into someone’s life,” she said about acting as a career. “I can’t describe the honor of knowing that I’m involved in the moments where people need comfort. It makes me really excited that my journey as a performer has connected with people. I love [when] projects have a life beyond their initial release.”

Hathaway’s next project is the indie psychodrama Eileen, which opens next month. When Eileen premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Hathaway made headlines for talking about getting her start as a teen actor.

“I just remembered one of the very first questions I ever got asked when I started acting and had to do press was: Are you a good girl or a bad girl?” she said on the red carpet. “I was 16.”