Hathaway, 24, is one of Hollywood's rising young stars who mostly stays out of tabloid headlines.

"A lot of people put pressure on me. I put a lot of pressure on myself," Hathaway said in an interview. "There was a time when I considered stepping away from the project because I really didn't want to fail."

She stayed on, Hathaway said, because she felt she had more to gain by overcoming her fears than walking away.

The actress became a teen sensation through 2001's The Princess Diaries, displayed maturity as the wife of a gay man in Brokeback Mountain, and held her own as a plucky assistant to a demanding fashion editor (Meryl Streep) in The Devil Wears Prada.

Becoming Jane marks the first film in which her popularity is the key draw.

For the movie, Hathaway had to master an English accent as well as learn the history and customs of the late 18th century. Further raising her anxiety was the fact Becoming Jane is a fictional tale of Austen's life.

The movie imagines Austen as a young woman falling in love with a brash young man, Tom LeFroy, and it creates events that audiences are led to believe could have shaped Austen's novels such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

Taking liberties with history has raised eyebrows among Austen purists, but Hathaway argues that little is known about Austen's early years and what influenced her writing.

Hathaway said she read Austen's novels as a 14-year-old, and while they take place some 200 years ago, the stories' themes are still relevant today.