Anne Hathaway has recalled the “gross” occasion where she had to “make out with 10 men” during an audition.

Hathaway said this was done as a chemistry test when she was doing an audition in the early 2000s.

“Back in the 2000s – and this did happen to me – it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is actually the worst way to do it,” she said.

“I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.

“And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labelled ‘difficult’, so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it. It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me.”

“It was just a very different time and now we know better.”

To illustrate how much things have changed, Hathaway compared that experience to a chemistry test in auditions for her recent film The Idea Of You. The romantic comedy stars Hathaway as a 40-year-old single mother who becomes involved with a 24-year-old

“We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love, that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little [improvisation]”, Hathaway said.

The actor who got the part – Red, Whtie and Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine – chose an Alabama Shakes song for his audition.

“I heard Brittany [Howard]’s voice and I just started smiling. And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing.

“Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”

Reports emerged in February that Hathaway was being eyed for the second series of the hit Netflix show Beef.

Per Deadline Hollywood, Lee is currently eyeing A-listers Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway – who starred together in the 2010 rom-com Love & Other Drugs and in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain – as one couple.

Also being eyed to star as the second couple are Priscilla standout Cailee Spaeny and May December and Riverdale star Charles Melton. According to Deadline, “no deals are in place” at the moment and that Netflix and A24 are “ready to get the second season into production by late summer or fall.”

Earlier this month, Hathaway joined Cillian Murphy as the faces of the new Versace Icons campaign.