Actress Anne Hathaway‘s latest movie Serenity is finally out in theaters! And although she loved playing the role of Karen Zariakas, a domestic abuse victim, in the flick, she explained in a new interview that she was actually surprised to be considered for the part because Serenity is not normally a script that she gets sent to read.

“I’m not the hot blonde in Hollywood. I often get sent the grown-up girl next door,” Anne, 36, recently told Us Weekly. “It was painful to go into this space because everything about her is controlled by an abusive husband. So, everything about her has been conformed to the male gaze without her input. That is what I chafe against in this world! So, it was challenging and an incredible opportunity. I’m so happy they thought of me.”

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Anne acts alongside Matthew McConaughey in the film and the 49-year-old actor plays her ex-husband, a fishing boat captain, who’s tasked with killing her new lover by throwing him to the sharks. But despite how intriguing this exciting storyline may sound, the script was not the only reason why Anne wanted to tackle the role.

“No. 1 was Matthew was already attached to it and our tastes tend to skew similar, so I knew there was probably something in it that I’d love,” she gushed. ”I was also a huge fan of [director] Steven Knight. Then I read how Karen was described, and I couldn’t believe I was being sent it!”

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The Devil Wears Prada star jumped at the opportunity and in Matthew’s opinion, she did an amazing job with the movie. “She’s as good as it gets between action and cut,” he said about his costar. “She asks great questions, she does her homework, she shows up prepared. We also don’t always agree! We enjoy disagreeing. We give each other, I think, a good bit of resistance. What I mean by that is that sometimes, we perform better with more resistance, more to overcome. With her, we have good resistance and yet we really respect each other as peers.”