Anne Hathaway, 24-year-old actress, has come a long way since she gained notice in Disney’s two Princess Diaries flicks. Since then, Hathaway appeared in the critically-acclaimed Brokeback Mountain, and acted opposite Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. Now, Hathaway is starring in Becoming Jane, the semi-fictional Jane Austen flick scheduled for release today…but is Anne Hathaway ready to become an A-list star?

There was a point during production when Hathaway seriously considered walking away from Becoming Jane, which is loosely based on the life of novelist Jane Austen. To the delight of moviegoers, Hathaway stuck with the project, though she did have to do a lot of research for the part. The actress had to learn to speak in an English accent and study the customs of the late 18th century just to play the role. Though Becoming Jane is certainly about a real person living in a real time, the movie itself is not based on actual events.

Hathaway, like most young girls, was already familiar with Austen’s works before production on the movie began. Jane Austen is known for writing incredibly romantic tales like Pride & Prejudice (which recently inspired a Keira Knightley adaptation) and Sense & Sensibility. In the movie, Hathaway plays a just-becoming Jane Austen who meets rogue-like Tom LeFroy, falls for him, and realizes she can’t marry him. He’s poor, so is her family, and it’s on Jane’s shoulders to make an advantageous marriage…as many women were (and in some cases, still are) expected to do. The tale comes from a real friendship Austen maintained during her life with a young Irishman. Though the film is a chick flick in the extraordinnaire, Hathaway shines onscreen as Jane Austen, the romance novelist who never did marry in her own life.

Anna Hathaway, however, is very private. By her own admission, she’s not “a very good celebrity,” spending far less time in the tabloids than other actresses her age. As she is Becoming Jane, will Hathaway become a major Hollywood player, too?