Actress Anne Hathaway first became known for her work in the Princess Diaries films, but since then she’s vastly increased her CV with films like Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada and Rachel Getting Married. In her latest film, Alice in Wonderland, Hathaway plays the White Queen, Wonderland’s rightful ruler. Along with her Alice in Wonderland co-stars, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, she was recently in London where she talked about living in the world of Wonderland, memorising the Jabberwocky poem and being inspired by Nigella Lawson.

Ms. Hathaway, you started out a princess, and now you’re a queen, but there were so many Disney Princesses who couldn’t make it. They are really desperate, they really wanted the role of Alice, I’m thinking of Lindsay Lohan… so I’d like to know what would you suggest to all these girls who started as you, like the Olsen twins… why did you make it and they didn’t?
Anne Hathaway (AH): I don’t know that I can answer that… I attribute most of my success to luck. My mother always told me that luck was preparation meets opportunity and I’ve been given extraordinary opportunities to work with filmmakers, long before I was talented enough to deserve to work with them. And I've learned a lot from them and I just kind of keep getting hired, so I consider myself extremely lucky and I really don't know what's responsible for it.

You really think it's all about luck? You wouldn't suggest anything for them, that they shouldn't do or whatever?
AH: Well, why don't you tell me what you suggest for them?

Well I never see you out partying, and I never see you not wearing panties, so...
AH: I’m sorry to say that I'm very happy that you haven’t seen that.

How did you feel when you first read Alice in Wonderland? You were a big fan of the book, weren't you? Didn't you read it in college?
AH: Yes. Actually, I was just thinking, when I was a young kid I had a wonderful teacher in the fifth grade who had us memorise the poem, The Jabberwock, Jabberwocky, and we all had to get up and recite it in front of everyone and that was kind of my first experience with the words. And I just remember being so excited to get to shout “One, two! One, two! And through and through, The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!” and so much of my character got to work with the vorpal sword, so I was very excited by that.

But in college I kind of focussed more on Alice's kind of search for identity, the way she reacts to the world around her, the way she feels overwhelmed by things. And I just loved all the word-play – I was an English major and that really appealed to me. And re-reading it for this I focussed more on the world, because that was what excited me about Tim coming into it, that he was going to apply his imagination to this world.

What was your inspiration and your approach to playing the White Queen? Is it true that you based her partly on Nigella Lawson, our Domestic TV Goddess?
AH: I thought that the Nigella reference was actually very helpful, the way she's so passionate about food and especially her descriptions of it. That definitely helped me in the cooking scene. When she's in the kitchen – I'm misquoting her but Nigella's always talking about “a cacophony of flavours that enters your mouth” and I wanted to give the White Queen that kind of sensuality in the kitchen. And of course she's talking about Buttered Fingers and things like that and then she makes herself retch, so it's not quite the same effect.

Could you see yourself living in Underland?
AH: I'd be happy to live in a world with no rules like that and where people are curious. I like that a lot, yes.