Anne Hathaway revealed how Oscar-winning performance actually led to major impact on her body

Academy-Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway has revealed the turmoil she put her body through for one of her most iconic roles.

41-year-old Hathaway played Fantine in the critically acclaimed 2012 film Les Miserables, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis.

The role led her to win an Oscar, an experience she couldn't totally enjoy due to what her body had to endure in preparation for the role.

As per the Hollywood Reporter, Hathaway employed 'a researcher who led her to books on sexual slavery and losing weight in two stages (she lost 10 pounds over three weeks before the shoot and an extra 15 pounds during production as her character degenerated).'

She told the publication: “I just had to stop eating, all for a total of 13 days’ shooting.”

With regards to her Oscar for best supporting actress in the film, Hathaway told the Guardian: "I felt very uncomfortable.

"I kind of lost my mind doing that movie and it hadn’t come back yet.”

She added: "I had to stand up in front of people and feel something I don’t feel, which is uncomplicated happiness.

"It’s an obvious thing, you win an Oscar and you’re supposed to be happy. I didn’t feel that way. I felt wrong that I was standing there in a gown that cost more than some people are going to see in their lifetime, and winning an award for portraying pain that still felt very much a part of our collective experience as human beings.

"I tried to pretend that I was happy and I got called out on it, big time. That’s the truth and that’s what happened. It sucks. But what you learn from it is that you only feel like you can die from embarrassment, you don’t actually die.”

Hathaway won an Oscar for her Les Miserables performance (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Divulging further, Hathaway said during an appearance on PeopleTV's The Jess Cagle Interview: "I was just not in a grounded place in my life.

"I never wanted to go on and on about it, but that weight loss was not a long-term good thing for my health, and it took a really long time to come back from it. In order to do the transformation to play Fantine, I'd lost a lot of weight in about two weeks. I lost an unhealthy amount of weight in a short amount of time, and I was still really sick because of it."

She concluded: "I'd just turned 30, I'd just gotten married.... Even the most positive things can be upheavals to your identity. So to just have this moment and not really know who I was in the moment, where you just feel like you're on display, it wasn't a comfortable feeling."