Anna Kendrick Reveals Requests She Made for New Movie 'Alice Darling' & How She Related to Her Character After Surviving Abusive Relationship
Anna Kendrick related to the character she plays in her new movie Alice, Darling because of her own history in an abusive relationship.
The 37-year-old Pitch Perfect actress previously revealed that she accepted the role shortly after leaving a relationship where she was subjected to “emotional abuse and psychological abuse.”
She shared more insight into how her experience inspired the way that she played her character onscreen and how she felt a connection to her in a new interview.
Click inside to see what Anna Kendrick had to say…
Anna told the Los Angeles Times that she advocated for Alice to be in a relationship that was emotionally rather than physically abusive.
“That was a big part of my problem,” she said about her own relationship, noting that it was not physical but left her “in so much fear all the time.”
Director Mary Nighy agreed and pushed for a scene where Alice displayed signs of physical abuse to be removed from the original script.
“In society, physical abuse is very clearly defined as an evil, and I think psychological and emotional abuse, even for those who have suffered it, can sometimes question whether it’s a real thing,” she said of the decision.
During an emotional point in the interview, Anna also explained that she wanted the story to focus more on Alice than cataloguing examples of the abuse she suffered.
“I was begging Mary, ‘Can Alice be the evidence,’” she explained. “Because not only do I want us to not make a movie that’s already been made, but personally, I need to trust that I’m the evidence. Part of it was like, if you can’t trust Alice, then I can’t trust myself. So it was really, really important that the movie relied so heavily on just staying with Alice.”
She reiterated that it was personal: “I have to believe we can follow Alice and trust her, because that’s my work now: to trust myself.”
Anna said that her character’s “obsessive mind” resonated with her and recalled things she journaled during her own relationship.
“I’m just going to try a little harder. If I could just get it right, if I could make it perfect, if I could just say it in the perfect way, I’ll be OK,” she said she wrote.
Alice, Darling was released in theaters in Los Angeles on December 30. It will be released in AMC theaters across the country on January 20, 2023.
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