'Mama bear' Anne Hathaway offers major insights into 'The Odyssey' mom role

In The Odyssey, Anne Hathaway portrayed Penelope, Odysseus's devoted wife.

But above all, she is a protective mom of their son, Telemachus, played by Tom Holland.

Hathaway took inspiration for the role from her experience of being pregnant for the third time.

This led her to say, "I'm a little bit of a mama bear; nothing comes between me and my cubs."

Notably, Penelope's son faces challenges in the absence of his father in The Odyssey.

Ultimately, her real-life and on-screen roles mirrored each other in her parenting instinct to protect her child.

"And I definitely think, given everything, all that Penelope was going through, given how high the stakes were, given how targeted her son in particular was without his father there, she knew that she had to be protective in more than one way," she told People.

The Odyssey is the latest of several movies Hathaway has in store for this year.

But despite her pregnancy announcement, the actress kept on with her relentless work ethic, which an insider described to People as "unbelievable".

The movie's official logline read, "After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way."

The Odyssey rolls out in cinemas on July 17.