Anna KendrickPhoto: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for History (Getty Images)
Anna Kendrick is not one to shy away from openness or vulnerability. It’s part of what makes her one of Hollywood’s most recognizable celebrities off-camera, even as the Oscar, Tony and Emmy-nominated star continues to wow on camera. Her latest film, Alice, Darling, is the perfect example: her emotionally profound performance is preceded by a press tour in which she elaborates on how closely the material matched her own traumatic experiences. More recently, Kendrick has mentioned to outlets including The AV Club that discussing such personal work in interviews was another lesson in setting safe, healthy boundaries. “I’m just figuring out what works for me and what doesn’t,” she tells us with welcome frankness.
Directed by Mary Nighy and written by Alanna Francis, Alice, Darling paints a detailed psychological portrait of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. Unlike most such depictions, however, Alice undergoes manipulative emotional abuse, which Kendrick points out is inherently more difficult to convey in a film. Accepting the uncomplicated nature of such a relationship became Kendrick’s North Star, and is emblematic of what she’s accomplishing in Hollywood as an actress, producer, and soon to be a first-time director (The Dating Game, which has just wrapped , starring Kendrick as real-life game show contestant and serial killer Cheryl Bradshaw). Here she covers the transition behind the camera, why collaborators are more than just collaborators, and whether acting is always therapeutic (spoiler alert: it isn’t).
Alice, Darling (2023 Movie) Official Trailer – Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Wunmi Mosaku
The AV Club: So you’re making your directorial debut! What was it like stepping behind the camera?
Anna Kendrick: I remember saying [my director of photography Zach Kuperstein], maybe a few days before filming that I got this horrible habit of just having an actor’s job but feeling like it’s all my responsibility in a way that’s super unhelpful and very counterproductive. And I was very excited that actually everything is my responsibility and I see how that feels! I had the time of my life, it was so exciting. I haven’t had this much fun in years. We just wrapped up filming in December and yes I just couldn’t be more grateful and over the moon about it.
AVC: What was it like directing the actors and overseeing the tech?
AK: The behind-the-camera stuff, I definitely went all-in on it and said, “I have visual deficits.” I’ll never be the palette guy. I think that so often there are things we don’t want to get involved in because we think, well, if I’m not an expert at this, I don’t deserve to try. I was really excited to work with actors and it was a total delight. But I also realized that usually my best friend on any set is an A-camera [operator]. So I’m around the camera all the time thinking about the camera. And I was really trying to be the kind of actor that would help with editing, you know? How I think about what the editor needs. And I think that kind of thought process was helpful in bringing that to the direction.
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AVC: The film sounds fascinating, I’m excited to see it. We also need to talk about Alice, Darling, which describes a form of abuse that we haven’t often seen on screen. Were there other depictions of this psychological dynamic that inspired you?
AK: Someone else just asked me about this and they are a huge movie buff and they couldn’t think of anything that made me feel better because I haven’t come up with any movies like this. I think it’s a really difficult thing to capture on screen. And the combination of writing and directing and all these amazing performances from the entire cast really helped turn something impossible into a movie. It’s challenging because the experience of being in a relationship like this is so damn hard to describe. So how the hell do you get it on screen? But I think we all had this common goal of never taking the easy way out — like having at least one scene where Simon pushes Alice into a wall so we can all agree, okay, so he’s the one villain and she a good guy. [Instead it was about] forcing the viewer to live in a space unsure if they can trust Alice in any way. Because, yeah, when you’re in there, you don’t know if you can trust your own thoughts or your own feelings. And I find that the most insidious thing about it, it really robs you of your confidence.
AVC: In this kind of unreliable narrative, how did you approach the step-by-step unveiling of what’s really going on with Alice? It seems to me that you, as an actor, had to signal us that something was wrong without further specifying what it was.
AK: One of the interesting things is when I did something with Charlie [Carrick], who played Simon, he and I always gave each other a lot of variety. There were times when even I really slipped into the role of the perpetrator and he slipped into the role of the victim. When I was shooting the scenes where I knew Alice would have those flashbacks, as an actor I didn’t even know which version Mary would use. And I think that was a perfect thing. Because again, the experience – like, what do I remember? How did that go? I’m not even sure. We kind of toyed with the idea of Alice having Flashes for both versions, something we ended up not needing. But that was always something I found helpful in knowing the world of the film and the tone of the film. That this person is in so deep that every memory is just a dealer’s pick, how can I remember he went under? And was I the perpetrator or the victim at a certain moment?
AVC: That goes back to your idea of giving the editor a lot of options, that performances are made in the cutting room. Playing out so many different versions of a scene must have really deepened the dynamic of Alice’s relationship with Simon.
AK: Yes. And I asked Charlie if he’d be comfortable with that, and then I asked Mary if we’d try out the scenes that way. Because he was such an incredibly creative ally and he was so thoughtful about a character, I would understand any actor who didn’t really want to think about it much. But he was really able to find that balance, having some compassion for Simon, that’s the only way for him to play it grounded and real.
(LR:) Wunmi Mosaku, Anna Kendrick and Kaniehtiio Horn in Alice, DarlingImage: Courtesy of Lionsgate
AVC: Without going into too many personal details about the relationship that you said influenced your approach to these characters, you once said you were concerned you might be filming this too soon from your own real-life experience. Have you seen actors use storytelling to work through something only to be further traumatized by it?
AK: Oh yeah.
AVC: Or, as some have claimed, is art always therapeutic?
AK: No, I don’t think art is always therapeutic, really. I think we want it to be like that. And I think it can be in different ways. What you’re talking about, I watched it happen and I felt like re-traumatizing themselves doesn’t help anyone. Yeah, so there was a point when I first spoke to Mary, we weren’t quite sure when the film was going to start filming. But I told her that if the film was suddenly shot in two months, I think it would be a mistake to do it. And some time passed – and obviously it wasn’t just the time that passed and supposedly healed all the wounds that helped me – it was like I had built up a lot of resources to rely on at that point. Ultimately, what I wasn’t expecting was the fact that the people who decided to shoot this tiny, tiny movie on a lake in Canada showed up because the script really spoke to them personally. Being surrounded every day by people who knew exactly what this experience meant made me feel incredibly safe. Because that’s all we can hope for when we’re in a crisis is to be with people who really see you and believe you. And I never really felt like I was in the danger zone. If anything, some of the press stuff was a little harder to navigate. And I just figure out what works for me and what doesn’t and make changes based on that. But honestly, even being able to make those changes instead of just saying, “okay, well, I’ll just grit my teeth and keep doing what I’m doing” is something I couldn’t have done without at some point. And lots of therapy. [Laughs]
AVC: I hear that and appreciate your sharing so much – it comes through in your interviews and in the film itself. What is your overall artistic mission, the intersection between your storytelling and your values? Because it feels like Alice, Darling lives up to what you’re trying to achieve in Hollywood: tell honest stories, destigmatize shame and sanity and all.
AK: wow sorry, did you say the connection between my storytelling and my value? Or values?
AVC: Values and Beliefs, yes. Not worth it as a person!
AK: ok yes [Laughs] ‘Cause I was like, oh, you wanna get in this shit? … I always feel very pretentious, like, “What am I supposed to do [believe] about stories?” But yeah, something that was important to me about this film and that I hope to be able to carry over to any other project I do, is simple – if someone looked at it, would they find it grounding and affirming? Or would it be an oversimplification of a really complicated problem? Lo and behold, there are also films that are comedies or simply have a different goal in mind. But I guess that’s been my constant, daily mission with Alice, darling, to keep it in the world of really complicated things. Because I really wanted an Instagram video or a self-help book to tell me what’s going on in my life and what to do. And I’m so disappointed to say that it doesn’t exist. [Laughs] So the most valuable thing for me was making this film really complicated and maybe not even particularly helpful at times, I think.