Anna Kendrick visits WIRED to answer her most searched for questions on Google. Did Anna Kendrick enjoy the 'Pitch Perfect' films? How old was she when she made 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World?' How did Anna Kendrick get her start as a performer? Anna replies to these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview
WOMAN OF THE HOUR starring and directed by Anna Kendrick premieres on Netflix October 18, 2024. http://www.netflix.com/womanofthehour
Director: Justin Wolfson
Director of Photography: AJ Young
Editor: Louis Lalire
Talent: Anna Kendrick
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins, Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Marques Smith
Sound Mixer: Gray Thomas-Sowers
Production Assistant: Faith Evans, Spencer Mathesen
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
WOMAN OF THE HOUR starring and directed by Anna Kendrick premieres on Netflix October 18, 2024. http://www.netflix.com/womanofthehour
Director: Justin Wolfson
Director of Photography: AJ Young
Editor: Louis Lalire
Talent: Anna Kendrick
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins, Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Marques Smith
Sound Mixer: Gray Thomas-Sowers
Production Assistant: Faith Evans, Spencer Mathesen
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Anna Kendrick, and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.
00:03I'm gonna start, and this might be a window into hell for me.
00:10Okay.
00:15Did Anna Kendrick enjoy Pitch Perfect?
00:17Do people really Google this?
00:19That's so weird.
00:20Yes?
00:21Yes!
00:22This is kind of what makes this interview hell, because you're like,
00:26Wait, what, what, what, do people, like, think that I don't?
00:30Those girls are family.
00:31Does Anna Kendrick ever come back to Maine?
00:34Hi, stalker.
00:35I think that I tend to go back in the wintertime.
00:39In the last couple years, I tried to go back in the summer and was like,
00:42oh, right, this is a really popular tourist destination,
00:45and I can't just, like, book a hotel super last minute.
00:49But yeah, I feel very lucky that I grew up in Maine,
00:51and I try to get back when I can.
00:52But, you know, it's very far away.
00:54How old was Anna Kendrick in Scott Pilgrim?
00:58Again, this is really getting Googled.
01:01I think I was 23.
01:03Really curious about why people specifically want to know that.
01:07But I guess I can't Google back.
01:10What is Anna Kendrick's vocal range?
01:11Girl, I don't know.
01:13I don't know, you're the musician, not me.
01:14I'm really not a strong musician.
01:17You know, however I sing is however I sing.
01:21It's very much your call if you enjoy it or not.
01:24But it's embarrassing how little I know about music.
01:29Okay.
01:30Anna Kendrick up-in-the-air monologue.
01:33Oh, but I think there's two.
01:35I think at one point I go on, like, a little self-pitying rant
01:38about, like, how at age 23 what I thought my life was going to be,
01:43and then I go off on George Clooney at one point,
01:45so I don't know if it's that.
01:46That was a fun day.
01:47I got to get really angry,
01:50and I remember it was something that, like,
01:53I didn't really get to express in real life.
01:57So, like, yelling at someone who's, like,
01:59one of the most famous people on planet Earth?
02:01Pretty cathartic.
02:01Highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.
02:04But not me. I'm not famous enough,
02:05so don't, like, come up to me and yell at me.
02:07Anna...
02:10Guys, what are we doing?
02:11Anna Kendrick owl?
02:14I think I took a picture once with an owl.
02:17I think I put an Instagram post because there was an owl...
02:20I think the scene got cut,
02:21but there was a scene where an owl was supposed to, like,
02:23fly near my head in A Simple Favor 1.
02:26Is that what this is about?
02:27Yeah, and you looked a little serious.
02:29You kind of were making an owl face,
02:30and then it got memed.
02:32Oh, I'm a meme and I didn't know it?
02:34I mean, what's the point of being a meme
02:36if you don't know you're a meme?
02:38How to do...
02:41Where is this going?
02:42How to do Anna...
02:44Ah, yes, of course.
02:45How to do Anna Kendrick cups.
02:46If you're Googling this
02:47and you live at home with your parents,
02:49please stop because they will come up to me on the street
02:52and they will be pretty upset.
02:55And all I can do is apologize.
02:57I feel like I will probably spend the rest of my life
02:59apologizing to parents on the street
03:01because they come up to me with a very tight smile
03:04and go, my kid won't stop doing the cup song.
03:07And I am just so sorry.
03:09So very sorry.
03:10So maybe at least go into your room
03:13and lock the door before attempting this.
03:16And I say that from experience
03:17because when I learned to do it,
03:19my roommates were really, really annoyed with me.
03:21Do you remember how to do it?
03:23I think I could do it now.
03:24I think it's probably like riding a bike.
03:27I think I could do it.
03:27Do you have interest right now?
03:28Oh, I see what you're doing.
03:30I see what you're doing.
03:31No, no, no.
03:33I see what you're doing
03:34because then I'm going to look like the guy that was like,
03:36does anyone have a cup?
03:39Me? No, I couldn't possibly.
03:40Give me the cup.
03:41No, so nice try.
03:44How does Anna Kendrick have such a perfect face and body?
03:48I mean, I don't.
03:50Oh, oh my God, that's so nice.
03:52I was being sassy.
03:54Gosh, do I?
03:55That's awesome.
03:56That is a mystery because I am mostly Irish and Scottish
03:59and yeah, I feel like we age like cheese.
04:04I would assume that it is my lifelong aversion
04:07to the sun and the outdoors in general.
04:10So being an insufferable couch potato
04:14has served me in at least one way.
04:19How did Anna Kendrick get her start?
04:21I feel like over the years I've tried to come up
04:23with like an interesting non-convoluted version of this
04:26and I don't know how successful I've been.
04:28I started in community theater when I was a little kid.
04:32I was really into it.
04:33Then a national open casting call
04:37for the Broadway revival of Annie
04:40and any little girl who liked to belt her face off
04:43and annoy her parents wanted to audition to be Annie.
04:47Spoiler alert, I did not get the job,
04:48but I ended up like getting an agent in New York City
04:54who was probably in retrospect a very shady cliche
04:57of like a child agent, like, you know,
04:59just smoking cigarettes.
05:00They could get me into an audition
05:03that wasn't just like a full open cattle call
05:07as they liked to call them.
05:08And that was like gonna be my best shot
05:11at being Annie on Broadway.
05:13I still didn't get the job,
05:14but that agent was like,
05:16we'll send you out for other things, doll.
05:18And so they did.
05:20And eventually I got a show called High Society
05:25on Broadway when I was 12.
05:26Then I kept trying and it was kind of a slower
05:32and more humiliating process
05:33than I would like it to have been.
05:37Was Anna Kendrick on SNL?
05:39I did get to host SNL.
05:41It was the single most nerve wracking experience of my life.
05:45I remember being, you know, behind the opening doors
05:49and hearing the announcer say my name
05:52and thinking I could just run.
05:55I could just run for it.
05:56Like, what are they gonna do, tackle me?
05:57I could flee to Mexico by morning.
05:59And that being a very, very tempting proposition.
06:03And then I just blacked out and then it was over.
06:06So it was great.
06:08Is Anna Kendrick really singing in Pitch Perfect?
06:11I am really singing in Pitch Perfect.
06:13I think that all of the group songs are prerecorded
06:17because it would just be too complicated
06:19to get everybody, you know, singing and dancing,
06:23you know, perfectly every take.
06:25But like in the first movie,
06:28the cup song that I do as my audition,
06:31I was just singing that live.
06:33So it is pretty impressive.
06:38It has almost no vocal range,
06:40but that was really me singing live.
06:43Anna Kendrick.
06:47Okay, it's fine, it's fine.
06:49I'm not mad.
06:50Anna Kendrick, woman of the house.
06:54I'm hoping that people mean Anna Kendrick,
06:58woman of the hour,
07:00which is the film that I directed
07:02that will come out soon.
07:04This is fascinating.
07:05I guess I confess that when we decided
07:08to call the movie woman of the hour,
07:10it was kind of a last minute change.
07:11You know, naming any movie after an idiom
07:15is a little risky.
07:17I did not anticipate people going woman of the house.
07:20That's a phrase, right?
07:21Woman of the house.
07:23This feels slightly like a smear campaign
07:27from some of my friends
07:29because I don't leave the house.
07:31I am the ultimate couch potato.
07:33So in a way, this feels like
07:37it's kind of stepping on my neck.
07:39Get out of here.
07:40So sorry.
07:42So sorry about that.
07:43Are you okay?
07:46Okay.
07:48Maybe I should stay home?
07:50This?
07:52Okay, okay.
07:53No, I like it.
07:53I like the sass.
07:55Keeps me on my toes.
07:58What was Anna Kendrick's first movie?
08:01A non-union little ditty
08:03that I got paid $75 a day to do
08:05called Camp.
08:07You'll be shocked to find out.
08:08It was about a bunch of little theater nerds
08:10at a nerdy little theater camp.
08:12Kind of a mind-bending experience
08:14because we were all actually living at the camp
08:18that the movie was based on
08:20and there was no cell service
08:21and no Wi-Fi
08:22and no TV
08:24and we all got really, really close
08:27because there was nothing else to do.
08:29So I was inconsolable when that movie was over
08:32and I probably haven't had a movie experience
08:35that was quite that intense since then.
08:38So every time that actors are like,
08:40oh, making this movie was like summer camp.
08:42I'm like, you don't even know the half of it.
08:44What is Anna Kendrick best known for?
08:46I don't know.
08:47Based on my anecdotal experience,
08:50I guess Pitch Perfect, right?
08:52Probably.
08:53But honestly, I feel unqualified
08:58to answer this question
08:59because how could I say
09:00if it's other people's experience?
09:02I will say that recently,
09:04there's an uptick in people
09:07asking me if I'm that girl from Twilight
09:10because there's something going on with that series
09:12where people have rediscovered it
09:15or maybe the younger generation
09:17is discovering it for the first time.
09:18But that's been happening in the last year.
09:21Like I'd say maybe every fifth person
09:24asks me about Twilight.
09:25So didn't see that coming.
09:27You said you're unqualified.
09:28I know she's quite familiar with the filmography.
09:30Do you have an opinion?
09:31Yeah, is that why you're so sassy,
09:33you fucking bitch?
09:34Yeah?
09:35I mean, I have no one to blame but myself.
09:38No, I loved you in the last five years.
09:40Oh, now she's being nice.
09:41Now I feel bad about calling you a fucking bitch.
09:44I always do feel closer to someone
09:45once they've insulted me.
09:47Hey, yeah.
09:48We're locked in now.
09:49Yeah, now let's start doing a rip-off.
09:52Take it easy.
09:52What is Anna Kendrick like in real life?
09:56I mean, what?
09:57She should be answering these questions.
09:59What do you think I'm like in real life?
10:01Very nice.
10:02That is a lie.
10:03You do not think I'm nice.
10:04What has Anna Kendrick been doing?
10:08I don't know.
10:09I've been watching Love Island.
10:11I mean, who hasn't?
10:13Honestly, even when someone in my personal life
10:15is like, what have you been up to?
10:16I'm like, oh, don't do that.
10:18That's just going to make me feel
10:19really, really unproductive.
10:21How about that?
10:24Oh, this is going to get interesting.
10:26Who was Anna Kendrick in Twilight?
10:30Here we go.
10:31Is this what you wanted?
10:33I see what you're doing.
10:34Yeah, so in Twilight, I got to just be
10:37like the idiot best friend.
10:39I don't even know that I was supposed to be the best friend.
10:42I think I ended up being around a lot more
10:45because in the first movie, I just like, I don't know.
10:49I was like willing to make a fool of myself.
10:51And so then later on, they were like,
10:53why don't we just like throw you in this scene
10:55and you can be like a big dumb dummy in that too.
10:56But I basically got to do like the easy part.
11:01Everybody else was like wrestling
11:04with like the very nature of good and evil
11:06and like their eternal souls.
11:09And I just got to show up and be like,
11:12what's up with you guys?
11:13You guys are like, you guys are being really serious.
11:16Did Anna Kendrick, okay.
11:20This I think is actually because I tweeted once,
11:24holy shit, I forgot I was in Twilight.
11:25And I didn't know that that tweet
11:27was gonna go as viral as it did.
11:29Obviously in one sense, of course,
11:31I didn't forget I was in Twilight,
11:33but there have been genuinely moments
11:36where when people will talk about Twilight
11:40as like a cultural touchstone of this like moment
11:44where people just like lost their minds.
11:47And it was this huge thing
11:48that people weren't really expecting to be that huge.
11:50And people will say things like,
11:53oh, I'll bet this book series
11:54is gonna be the next Twilight
11:56and they're gonna turn it, whatever.
11:57That I feel so removed
11:59from the cultural phenomenon part of it.
12:03Cause again, I just showed up
12:04and was like a big dumb dummy on screen.
12:06That I will start to think about it
12:10and even like reference it
12:12as though it's something that's totally separate from me.
12:15And then be like, oh my God, I was in those.
12:17Who was Anna Kendrick in Trolls?
12:20I was Princess Poppy.
12:22She's like a little like four inch fuzzy, crazy hair,
12:28all singing, all dancing lunatic.
12:31And I love her so much.
12:33When I finally saw the last movie, the third one,
12:37I was like, oh, this is like kind of emotional.
12:39I feel like this is like my inner child or something.
12:42That's really, that's an intense thing to say.
12:44I know I'm being annoying,
12:45but I love making those movies so much.
12:47Who is Anna Kendrick friends with?
12:49Wouldn't you like to know?
12:51Well, that's all the boards.
12:53In some ways what I thought it was gonna be.
12:55And there's a couple of head scratchers in there
12:57that I feel like I'm gonna go home
12:59and Google some of that stuff
13:00just to be like, what is the origin of this?
13:02I feel like I'm getting sucked into the mystery
13:04with you guys.
13:05Love that for me.