Anna Kendrick has shared a memory working in the film industry – one that involves an “uncomfortable” costume change she was made to do at age 19.
The interview took place when the Pitch Perfect star spoke with The Guardian recently, ahead of the release of Woman of the Hour – her debut as feature film director.
Available on Netflix from October 18, the project is a factually inspired thriller about Rodney Alcala, the serial killer who appeared on The Dating Game – the US equivalent to Blind Date – in 1978.
When talking about the sensitive themes tackled in the film, Kendrick recalled how some of the negative experiences she had in the industry found their way into the plot. One, she recalled, was when she was pressured to do a nude scene.
In Woman Of The Hour, Kendrick’s character Cheryl goes to an audition where she is asked whether she is willing to appear naked. When she says it’s “not for her”, the male casting director gestures at her breasts and says: “Oh, I’m sure they’re fine.”
“That is lifted verbatim from something that happened to me when I was 19,” Kendrick told the outlet, reportedly getting emotional. “I’ve had experiences where I found out there was a wardrobe change that the costume designer had been cagey about, likely because she felt her hands were tied.”
“It’s like you can’t get to the bottom of it: ‘Wait – sorry – um, why would I be in a bathing suit in this scene?’ But I’m grateful that this happens a lot less now. And when you say you’re uncomfortable, there’s more of a culture of being taken seriously,” she added.
She also reflected on how her role in the 2022 drama Alice, Darling resonated with her as it allowed her to mirror her own experience of being in a coercive relationship for five years.
“Recovery has been so challenging… I have good days and bad days. But it’s more accurate to call them good months and bad months,” she explained. “If you’d asked me three years ago, I would have said there was something almost embarrassing about that. Like: ‘Aren’t you over it by now?’ But I guess I feel a lot grosser saying: ‘I’m doing great.’
“If we speak in another five years, please God tell me I’m not still struggling then, you know? I don’t know how much of that feeling is based in my pure desire to feel OK versus: ‘That’ll mean I’m such a weakling.’ It’s all still swirling around in there somewhere,” she added
She continued, saying that her therapist uses the phrase “Grief has tentacles’. “[It means] that whenever there’s some minor challenging event in the present, it reaches back to more challenging things in the past. Sometimes I feel this specific event in my life is with me all the time and I wish I could just put it away.”
Woman of the Hour will be released on Netflix from October 18.
