Anne Hathaway received an Oscar, a Bafta and a Golden Globe in early 2013 for her role as the tragic Fantine in Les Miserables.
But she was also the recipient of vitriol. Hathaway even beat Chris Brown, Rihanna's violent ex-boyfriend, in a poll of the most hated celebrities in Hollywood.
Her response was to lie low.
"I was in the press so much at the beginning of 2013, I think people got really sick of me. I mean, I was really sick of me, so I can't even imagine how everyone else felt," says the 31-year-old, dressed today in a preppy black skirt, white blouse and thick denier tights.
"I was very happy to take a break from the limelight."
But now the actress is midway through promoting the animated sequal Rio 2.
Hathaway makes for entertaining company, taking the mickey out of herself on camera and talking openly about her husband Adam Shulman (whom she married in a clifftop ceremony in September 2012). In between she takes sips of fresh mint tea.
"I've had it the whole press tour," she says. "It's like giving your insides a hug."
It's three years since Hathaway first voiced Jewel, the feisty macaw who gets together with Jesse Eisenberg's gentler and geekier Blu in Rio. This time round, they're enjoying domestic bliss with their three kids, though Jewel wants to embark on an adventure to the Amazon to discover whether they really are the last of their kind.
"It was fun to play somebody that has the arc she'd had from the first one," says Hathaway of her feathered alter ego.
"She was very angry and mistrustful of the world. Not to get too serious with it, but a little bit damaged. To see her in this new place, where she loves being the mother, her heart's so open and she's enjoying life for herself, I was really happy to see her go on that journey. And happy to get to voice it."
Given her character's evolution to "mother bird", Hathaway has found herself dodging lots of questions about whether she is feeling broody.
"Everybody asks! On camera, on planes - people want to know that," she says. "A lot of people want to know whether playing a mother in this film changed my attitude towards motherhood, but I've truly wanted to be a mother since I was 16. I just wanted to have a career as well."
Now, she admits, she at an age where motherhood's a serious possibility.
"My friends have started to have kids and getting to meet the next generation is pretty moving and awesome, so hopefully I'll be a part of that club soon."
Born in Brooklyn, Hathaway studied at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, The Barrow Group in New York City, and at NYU's Collaborative Arts Projects "CAP 21", where she focused on musical theatre.
Following several stage productions, Hathaway's role in the TV series Get Real earned her wider recognition. It was followed by the 2001 film The Princess Diaries, with Julie Andrews.
Dramatic roles in Brokeback Mountain, Becoming Jane and The Devil Wears Prada followed, and in 2009 Hathaway earned her first Oscar nomination for her depiction of an alcoholic young woman in Rachel Getting Married. (She lost out to Kate Winslet for The Reader, but scooped the golden statuette four years later.)
Like the first Rio outing, Rio 2 has an impressive soundtrack. Hathaway gets to sing once more on the big screen - although, she jokes, it was "less intense than Les Mis".
"Singing is something I've always loved to do in choirs, like most people do in school, and that it's been able to find a way into my movie career when I never thought it would has been wonderful."
Later this year, she'll also be promoting Intersteller, the sci-fi epic directed by Christopher Nolan, with whom she worked (as Catwoman) on The Dark Knight Rises, opposite Christian Bale.
That means the cameras will be out in force once more.
On the Miami leg of the Rio 2 tour, Hathaway got a stark reminder of the harsh intrusion she can expect to face once again. She was snapped being hidden with towels by a group of hotel staff.
"It's surreal, uncomfortable," says Hathaway on being papped simply walking from the beach to her hotel. "It's not something I'd choose for myself and I feel terrible about how it impacts other people. In this particular case, the photographers were so aggressive, they were pushing over children - and they're never penalised."
But, she remains defiantly upbeat.
"Look, it [fame] has its positive benefits and it has its drawbacks, like anything. I used to get really angry about it but now I try to let it go.
"As one of my friends says, 'Find the beauty in the moment.' When I was in the water, I knew they were on the beach, but I just turned away and looked at the horizon. That's what you try and do."
*Rio 2 releases in Australia on July 3.
