IT'S three years since Anne Hathaway first voiced Jewel, the feisty macaw in Rio.

Since then she's received an Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe for her role as Les Miserables' tragic heroine Fantine, but she was happy to get back into animated action.

"It was fun to play somebody that has the arc she'd had from the first one," says Hathaway of her feathered alter-ego.

"She was very angry and mistrustful of the world. Not to get too serious with it, but a little bit damaged. To see her in this new place, where she loves being the mother, and she's enjoying life for herself, I was really happy to see her go on that journey. And happy to get to voice it."

Given her character's evolution to 'mother bird', it does beg the question whether Hathaway's feeling broody - a topic she can't escape from.

"Not just my own family, everybody asks! On camera, on planes - people want to know that," she says. "A lot of people want to know whether playing a mother in this film changed my attitude towards motherhood, but I've truly wanted to be a mother since I was 16. I just wanted to have a career as well."

Now, she admits, she's getting to an age where motherhood's a serious possibility. "My friends have started to have kids and getting to meet the next generation is pretty awesome, so hopefully I'll be a part of that club soon."

The sequel boasts an impressive soundtrack and Hathaway gets to sing once more - although she jokes it was "less intense than Les Mis".

"All of the music that's come into my life in the last few years has been a real surprise, but not an unpleasant one - and certainly not an unwelcome one," says the actress.