Anne Hathaway says Christopher Nolan doesn’t allow chairs on his sets

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Christopher Nolan tackles some of the biggest movies of the modern age; armed with big budgets and sprawling casts, these films are incredible feats to pull off, but the director has one little trick up his sleeve to make sure the entire cast and crew doesn't have many idle moments.

Anne Hathaway has worked with Christopher Nolan on two movies, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and INTERSTELLAR, and while speaking with Hugh Jackman for a LES MISERABLES reunion via Variety, the actress revealed a little tidbit about Nolan's sets; not only does he not allow cellphones on set, but he also has something against chairs as well.

Chris also doesn’t allow chairs. I worked with him twice. He doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working. I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing.

If you've worked in the service industry, you've likely heard your boss or supervisor tell you, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." Feels like the same energy, but it certainly does seem to work. Despite the shortage of chairs, Hathaway counts her times under the direction of Christopher Nolan as some of her favourites. "You know how you have those jobs and you just go, 'I don’t know how I’m going to work again because this was such fun,'" Hathaway said. "Chris’ whole approach to filmmaking is one of my favorite ones. He’s broken it down to its most minimal, but also his movies are just so huge and ornate. That combination of really being intentional about what it was that we were doing — and also, he’s just so inspiring." Nolan's next film is TENET, which is now slated to hit theaters on August 12, 2020. As for Hathaway, she will next be seen in a big-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's "The Witches," which is set to for a 2021 release.