The Princess Diaries celebrates its 15th anniversary next Wednesday. Say it with us: “Shut up.” It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since we first met the frizzy-haired Mia Thermopolis in the tale about an awkward teenager who discovers she’s the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Genovia. Hollywood has rumbled with the question of “will they or won’t they” make a third installment in the series, but with the passing of the film’s beloved director, Garry Marshall, it seems unlikely that anyone but the late king of romantic comedies could do the project justice. “I was with Anne Hathaway a couple weeks ago, it looks like we want to do Princess Diaries 3 in Manhattan,” Marshall said in March. The morning after Marshall’s death, Hathaway took to social media to pay tribute to the director. We expect Hathaway will be honoring his work again come August 3 for the film’s anniversary, a tradition that goes back to its 2001 release. “I remember [that day] and I give thanks to the universe, a big open-hearted thank you, because that was the day that dreams came true for me,” Hathaway once said. “There are a lot of aspects to my life that are very real, but also a lot that are very fairy tale. That was the day that my fairy tale started.” To celebrate the film’s landmark anniversary, here’s the full story on what the Princess Diaries cast has been up to all these years.
Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway got her big break as Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries. She later reprised her role for the 2004 sequel, but strategically shed her Disney image when she began appearing in more serious films like Havoc (2005) and Brokeback Mountain (2005). Hathaway seemed destined to play Mia—she may have nabbed the part on the spot after she accidentally fell out of her audition chair. After starring as the troubled lead in Rachel Getting Married (2008), Hathaway picked up a number of awards and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, which ultimately went to Kate Winslet. Fast-forward to four years later and Hathaway officially cemented her status in Hollywood when she won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG, and Academy Award for best supporting actress following her critically acclaimed performance as Fantine in Les Misérables. Hathaway then went on to play the White Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass. She returned to the talk-show circuit to promote her newest fairy-tale revamp just eight weeks after giving birth and took a stand against post-baby-body backlash. Just last month, the actress was named a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador tasked with promoting the equal division of care work between men and women.
Heather Matarazzo
Who could forget Mia’s quirky best friend, Lilly Moscovitz? While Heather Matarazzo has gone on to play a few smaller film and TV roles, she remains just as outspoken as her character, particularly on Twitter, and even stirred up talk of a Princess Diaries 3 after she retweeted a story about the potential revamp. Matarazzo is also a frequent commenter on feminine social justice issues. In 2015, Matarazzo wrote a widely publicized essay for her personal blog titled “What the Fuck Is Fuckable?” in which she details being turned down for roles because she wasn’t “fuckable.” The issue came to a head again when Matarazzo, along with Jessica Chastain, announced her support for Rose McGowan, who was reportedly fired by her agent for taking to Twitter to share a casting note for an Adam Sandler film she found offensive. Matarazzo, who is a longtime LGBTQ and women’s rights activist, also served as a keynote speaker at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network Boston’s annual conference in 2005. In 2008, she was engaged to musician Caroline Murphy but the couple has since split. Matarazzo remains close friends with Hathaway and they reunited again at her baby shower earlier this year.
Julie Andrews
The Princess Diaries marked Julie Andrews’s first Disney film since starring in Mary Poppins in 1964. Her role seemed to reinvigorate her relationship with Disney; she voiced the part of the Narrator in Enchanted (2007). Last year, Andrews made a surprise appearance at the Academy Awards after Lady Gaga paid tribute to Andrews by singing a medley from The Sound of Music in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary. Andrews is now headlining in an upcoming educational preschool television series she cocreated with her daughter, Emma. Julie’s Greenroom is set to debut on Netflix in 2017 and will feature a number of big-name stars including Alec Baldwin, Sara Bareilles, and Tituss Burgess, as well as the cast of original puppets from The Jim Henson Company.
Héctor Elizondo
Héctor Elizondo, who played HRH’s soft-spoken head of security, was already an established constant in Marshall’s films. Elizondo appeared in 18 of the director’s films and Marshall has referred to him as his “good-luck charm.” But that’s not to say that the actor has never worked with another director; since 2011, Elizondo has played Tim Allen’s boss on the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing.
Robert Schwartzman
When Robert Schwartzman (brother of Jason Schwartzman!) played the role of Michael, Lily’s lovesick guitar-playing sibling, he undoubtedly drew upon his experience as the frontman of his own high-school band, Rooney. But this was no flash-in-the-pan garage project: Rooney went on to put out four more albums and multiple world tours. Schwartzman later branched out and released his first solo album, Double Capricorn, in 2011; a pop EP, Starsystem, in 2013; and an app called 22 where fans and artists can communicate via 22-second audio messages. In addition to his musical pursuits, Schwartzman appeared in a 2012 episode of The Dog Whisperer and has even rescued and found homes for multiple four-legged friends, reportedly keeping at least one for himself. While Schwartzman hasn’t acted in a major feature-length film since The Princess Diaries, he’s not done with the movie biz all together: In 2013, he synched up with Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes to score Palo Alto, a film starring Emma Roberts and directed by Gia Coppola (Schwartzman’s real-life cousin), and just this year, graduated to the director’s chair with the comedy-drama-musical film hybrid, Dreamland.
Erik von Detten
Since Erik von Detten played the hot-but-dumb jerk Josh Bryant, he has, for the most part, stayed virtually off the radar. While he later joined the cast of a few short-lived television series (Dinotopia, Complete Savages), his arcs never lasted longer than a single season. He landed a few small-screen one-off roles including Malcolm in the Middle, Bones, and Family Guy, but perhaps his biggest subsequent role to date, is continuing to voice Sid in Toy Story 3. And although his character Josh never could quite get Mia’s “leg to pop,” that didn’t stop Jessie James from casting the actor as her love interest in the music video for her 2009 country hit “Wanted.”
Mandy Moore
After she hung up mean-girl Lana Thomas’s cheerleading skirt, Moore landed her first leading role in A Walk to Remember. Moore continued to peddle her signature brand of teenage dream girl and starred in series of romantic comedies including How to Deal, Chasing Liberty, and Saved! (the latter of which also featured her Princess Diaries costar, Heather Matarazzo). Although Moore was able to bridge the gap from singer to actress, her stint as a fashion designer proved somewhat less successful. In 2005, the 5-foot-9 Moore launched Mblem, a line of contemporary knitwear and cashmere aimed at providing clothing for taller women, only to shutter it less than four years later. Of her decision to close up shop, Moore told WWD that she planned to instead focus on her music. Moore then voiced Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled the following year (and will be reprising her role in 2017 animated television series by the same name). She, along with her costar Zachary Levi, performed the film’s Grammy-winning theme song, “I See the Light,” at the 2011 Academy Awards. Last September, Moore revealed that her seventh studio album was in the works and 2016 will mark, “the reemergence of her music.” This fall, Moore will star in the buzzed-about NBC dramedy, This Is Us.
Patrick John Flueger
After Patrick John Flueger played the small part of the prankster Jeremiah (with penchant for a bottle dye-job, we might add), he worked his way up through the television cameo circuit with one-off appearances on JAG, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and CSI: Miami. In 2004, Flueger landed the lead in the cult sci-fi series, The 4400, but has since returned back to his procedural television roots for his current role as a regular in the NBC legal drama, Chicago P.D. where he also met his girlfriend, actress Marina Squerciati. Right now, Flueger is busy filming the 2017 thriller, The Super, which he costars in along with Val Kilmer.
Caroline Goodall
After Caroline Goodall played the voice of reason as Mia’s mother, Helen Thermopolis, in The Princess Diaries, she went on to play more serious roles including Dorian Gray (2009) and The Dressmaker (2015) with Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth. Most recently, she tried her hand at screenwriting for The Bay of Silence, based on Lisa St Aubin de Terán’s best-selling novel by the same name. The thriller, which stars Uma Thurman and Toby Stephens, is currently in preproduction and is expected to release later this year.
