Although Anne Hathaway is not stranger to a musical role, she had trouble finding her inner pop star for A24’s Mother Mary.

The Oscar winner admitted that she told her husband she wanted to quit after seeing footage of herself singing and dancing to original songs by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX and FKA twigs in the David Lowery-written/directed A24 film.

“This is really bad,” she recalled thinking to Elle after seeing footage of herself. “I don’t know that I can ask people to come to see this.”

Hathaway ultimately decided to stick it out. “I came to the conclusion that there would be no shame if I was fired, but there would be if I quit,” she said.

The actress ended up taking months of dance lessons for the movie, in addition to working on her vocals for a year during postproduction and returning to the studio with Antonoff to re-record most of her part. “He whipped his head at me goes, ‘You have been working,'” said Hathaway.

In Mother Mary, which premiered last month in theaters, Hathaway plays the titular pop star, who confronts old wounds when she reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer Sam (Michaela Coel) before staging her comeback performance.

Hathaway previously won her first Oscar in 2013 for Best Supporting Actress after playing Fantine in the movie musical adaptation of Les Misérables.