‘The Hustle’: Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson Think Sexism Contributed to ‘R’ Rating

“The Hustle” is rated PG-13. Like many movies before it, however, the Anne Hathaway/Rebel Wilson comedy initially received an R from the MPAA and had to petition to have that reduced. Speaking to Yahoo!, Wilson claimed that sexism contributed to the harsh rating — not least because “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” of which “The Hustle” is a female-fronted remake, was classified as PG.

“I thought it was extremely unfair that a reboot of that was given an R-rating just because us two sexy ladies were in it,” the actress said. Steve Martin and Michael Caine starred in “Scoundrels,” which was released in 1988 — four years after the PG-13 rating was implemented.

“I thought it was quite sexist that male-driven comedies were much more likely to get PG ratings…when, on a scientific analysis, female-driven comedies had less swear words, less nudity and less violence,” Wilson added.

Hathaway, for her part, recalled experiences on earlier projects in which humorous lines were delivered one way on set and presented differently in the final film. “Sometimes I felt like the joke got cut off a little bit,” she said while acknowledging that her own performance may have been to blame. “It could have been that I wasn’t very funny! So I don’t necessarily want to claim gender inequality for that one. I just might not have stuck the landing.”

“I don’t think there’s an intent to make the female characters less than,” Wilson said of working on studio comedies led by male stars. “It’s more just because those movies are typically written by guys and directed by guys, so you’re working at a disadvantage even from the script level when you come in as the chick in the film. It’s so cool to this movie where we’re both there everyday in these two comic set-pieces just bringing it.”

“The Hustle” opens in wide release tomorrow.