Anne Hathaway says claims she should not play Jane Austen are fair but wrong.

The announcement that the Princess Diaries actress will play the British author in Becoming Jane has left some saying she is the wrong woman.

She says she understands fans' concerns. "I know there are a lot of people out there that are horrified that the girl from the Princess Diaries is playing Jane Austen," she told the Daily Mail. "I don't blame them."

Hathaway added, however, that she also values Austen. "I love her as much as any of the biggest fans so I don't want to go in there and mess it up," explained the Brooklyn-born star. "I've been reading her since I was 14 and in reading her, I know who she is. I have a handle on her spirit."

She also thinks there is more to the author than some see. She said: "We always think of Jane Austen as this woman who was a spinster, but she had this love affair which was one of the key relationships in her life.

"It awakened her sexuality and inspired a lot of the relationships she later wrote about in her novels."