She’s keeping her life in balance

Three years ago, gawky, misfit teen Mia Thermopolis made her royal debut as princess of Genovia in the surprise $108-million-grossing hit “The Princess Diaries” -- and the actress who played her, Anne Hathaway, was making a debut (on the big screen) of her own. Suddenly, Hathaway had a new pal in co-star Julie Andrews, an enthusiastic schoolgirl following, and repeated comparisons from director Garry Marshall to no less than Julia Roberts, Audrey Hepburn and Judy Garland. But Hathaway (or Annie, as friends call her) insists those years haven’t quite been a “whirlwind.”

“It’s been busy and different and a lot of responsibility, but nothing that’s been completely overwhelming,” says Hathaway, who talks excitedly, as if in a hurry, over an outdoor lunch at a favorite cafe in Studio City. “I don’t mean to sound completely blase about it. It’s so exciting, and I’m absolutely thrilled. But other stuff has gone on too that’s been far more exciting and important.”

One thing has been the three semesters the inquisitive Hathaway -- she strikes up a conversation about Ayn Rand with a fellow diner who’s carrying a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” -- completed at Vassar during time off she took from acting, a balancing act Hathaway shares with other actresses such as Julia Stiles (Columbia), Natalie Portman (Harvard) and Claire Danes (Yale). “Yes, there’s a whole crop of us who apparently can act and read, and enjoy it,” she says.

Hathaway, 21, wants to graduate at some point, but for the moment she’s focused on acting. In addition to two studio films on the way, one drastically change-of-pace indie drama was just released. “Ella Enchanted,” a cheeky, live-action fairy tale based on a popular children’s book, opened April 9. Then there is a sequel to “The Princess Diaries” scheduled to open in August, with Andrews and Marshall returning, and “Havoc,” a “Thirteen”-like tale of an overachieving Pacific Palisades high schooler who self-destructively becomes enthralled with Eastside Latino gang culture, directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple.

“The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” promises more of Hathaway’s endearingly clumsy physical comedy. (In an oft-told anecdote, Hathaway landed the role after she stumbled on her chair in the audition with Marshall, an awkward moment that’s even been incorporated into the sequel.)

“I’ve found that if there was a dull moment in a scene, Garry would ask me to trip over something,” Hathaway says. Far more uncomfortable were the casting sessions for Mia’s love interest. Marshall chose a kissing scene, which “would have been OK if he was testing two or three guys. He decided to test a dozen. And I’m not that kind of girl! Don’t get me wrong, I love kissing, but the idea of having to kiss 12 different people that I’ve just met in one 10-hour period of time is a little much for me.”

Hathaway found herself in royal court once again in “Ella Enchanted,” as Ella of Frell, who is given the dubious gift of obedience by a not-so-adept fairy. “I thought, ‘You can stay away from the princess roles, or you can accept the fact that there’s only a [short] time in an actor’s life in which you can wear a tiara and ball gown, dance with a prince and save a kingdom’ ... so I might as well go with that” she says.

“Ella Enchanted” also presented a musical number for Hathaway -- a trained soprano -- to perform, although she says she held back to keep it in character, to her frustration. Hathaway even picked out the song with director Tommy O’Haver when she put in a Queen greatest-hits CD to listen to “Bohemian Rhapsody” on a whim and spotted the title of a song she’d never heard but that fit perfectly with the scene: “Somebody to Love.”

Hathaway won raves last year for her New York stage debut in the City Center Encores! concert revival of “Carnival,” though it was limited to five performances. “I was asked if I would be interested in committing to a longer run and I wasn’t, because the experience was too perfect,” she says. “I wanted to remember it as it was.”

She also participated in the well-received workshop of the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Woman in White,” which is being prepared for London’s West End, but she turned down that role as well.

“Now I’m out here [in L.A.], I have some very lovely momentum going,” she says. “I’ve been going on a lot of meetings and getting great responses and it seems like this needs to be a moment where I need to [stay] here and see what happens.” In fact, Hathaway was up for the part of Christine in Joel Schumacher’s film version of Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera” (the role eventually went to “Mystic River’s” Emmy Rossum).

For “Havoc,” which co-stars Bijou Phillips and “Six Feet Under’s” Freddy Rodriguez, Hathaway got a major makeover: “I darkened my hair for it, I lost a ton of weight, I completely changed the way I walk and dress.”

The crash course in gang life was an eye-opener; some of the actors, she notes, covered up when they were off set the fake gang tattoos they wore for the film for fear of getting shot. “I had no clue that that could go on,” Hathaway says. “You know, I’m a girl from suburban New Jersey. My reaction was very different from [my character’s]. I was like, ‘OK, I need to go hug my mom.’ ”

Indeed, Hathaway’s mom, in town for a visit, swings by to meet up with her daughter at lunch’s end, but not before Hathaway has signed autographs for a waiter’s daughter, then a girl strolling by with her mother.

Hathaway blushes, explaining, “It usually doesn’t happen twice a day.” She just might have to get used to it.