Anne Hathaway has Emma Thompson to thank for her new role playing Jane Austen, because she was too scared to play the English fictional icon until the Oscar-winning actress intervened.

Hathaway, who stars as the famed author in forthcoming movie Becoming Jane, was having doubts before Thompson, who won an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 movie adaptation of Austen novel Sense And Sensibility, convinced her to take the role.

She explains, "I was having doubts but then I met Emma, who asked me what I was doing. I couldn't tell her I was not going to play Jane Austen. So I just did it."

And Hathaway has more than just the starring role to thank because of Thompson - she has developed a passion for tea since filming the movie in England.

She says, "I've this passion for tea - PG tips, builders tea. My dialect coach and I would discuss for hours the merits of sugar or milk with tea."