'The Witches': Anne Hathaway on how she played the child-hating Grand High Witch while secretly pregnant

A strong argument could be made that Anne Hathaway spent a lifetime building up to her role as the most evil Grand High Witch in the Roald Dahl adaptation "The Witches."

The Oscar-winning actress, 37, posted pictures of her adorable youngster self throwing a spell as a rainbow-wigged witch on Instagram with the caption, "How it started." Decades later, stepping into the role of a saucy sorceress with diabolical plans to turn all kids to mice, Hathaway found out she was pregnant with her second child Jack (now 11 months) with husband Adam Schulman.

Beyond rich irony, that actually helped her performance.

"I was really happy on the days when my hormones were raging," Hathaway says. "There was no acting involved whatsoever."

Chatting with USA TODAY, Hathaway explains keeping her pregnancy secret on set and how her "Witches" role (now streaming on HBO Max) is going down at home with Jack and Jonathan, 4.

Anne Hathaway brings grand fashion: Her five most enchanting 'The Witches' looks

Anne Hathaway was not all evil the Grand High Witch in "The Witches." Her real son Jonathan, 4, named her snake ornament, Snix the Snake. "Now it's my all-time favorite outfit," she says.
Question: Your young Anne Hathaway witch posted on Instagram was divine, what did you bring to that as a child?

Anne Hathaway: I brought imagination, a sense of adventure and I hope a cackle. But I'm going to have to double check with my parents on the cackle. I just loved the way my mom's turtleneck puddled on me, because my understanding of the Wicked Witch of the West was that she puddled fabulously.

Q: I love that wicked description ...

Hathaway: I actually can't claim credit to that, that image came by way of Rufus Wainwright in concert.

Q: What about Halloween this year, what's your family of four dressing as? Did you snag a witch outfit?

Hathaway: I'm dressing Jack up as a monkey and I'm going to be the tree. Jonathan and Adam are going to be characters from "Cars." That's a family-favorite movie, in that anything Jonathan loves becomes a family favorite. That's the way it goes with a four-year-old. We're not going trick-or-treating. It just doesn't feel right this year. We're bringing a small group of kids together and hiding candy for a backyard scavenger hunt.