Anna Kendrick: ‘If it wasn’t for the weirdos, I’ve have no career’

AK1

I used to be pretty ambivalent about Anna Kendrick – in my mind, she wasn’t the worst and she wasn’t the best. She was talented, not a famewhore, but not really that interesting. But over the past year or so, she’s really grown on me. She’s smarter than the average starlet, she’s sassy and witty, and she’s right up there with Emma Stone as one of the “great hopes” for this 20-something generation of actresses. Kendrick covers the February issue of Fashion Magazine (Canada) to promote Into the Woods, where she plays Cinderella to Chris Pine’s Prince Charming. In the interview, she talks about real-life Charmings, being the child of divorce, and how she views the red carpet hustle:

Anna on dating someone like Chris Pine’s Prince Charming: “Oh no. Never. I’ve never really gone for the razzle-dazzle types, no quarterbacks, no flashy guys and no Prince Charmings. Chris Pine’s version of Prince Charming is so funny, and so on-point, and very much all style and no substance. A [date] once picked me up in a Mustang and he was leaning on the hood of it. He waiting for me and I was inside my apartment, looking out the window, thinking ‘Oh, this is going to go terribly.’ The wrong kind of guy to fall in love with is the guy who will let go of the steering wheel as a joke. A guy who finds it amusing to make you uncomfortable, which is more common that you’d think, is someone you want to avoid.”

Her parents’ divorce: “They taught me that staying together for the kids is the wrong approach. It perpetuates this warped idea of what a healthy relationship looks like.”

The best Valentine’s Day of her life: “When I was in my early twenties, I was in L.A. and I had one of those big kind of “Anti Valentine’s Day” dinners with all my single friends which is just a classic move. That went terribly wrong. We tried but none of us could cook—to make pasta with sauce—but it got all sticky and we just had to use like a fork to cut it up and like the chicken was so dry that people couldn’t eat. Cookies got burned too. We ended up ordering pizza and laughing about it.”

Her most awkward fan encounter: “I had a guy come up to me in a bar and I was trying to play darts with my friends but he was trying to talk to me during the game. I was really nervous that I was going to like hit [him] in the face with a dart. I didn’t. It would be one hell of a headline.”

Her secret matchmaking skills: “If it wasn’t for the weirdos, I’ve have no career. There were these two fans of mine that sent me this thing for my birthday—through my publicist. It was a letter about how they met on a fan forum and they like lived in different states but they met up and – sort of weirdly got together. Two weirdos found each other because they liked what ever weirdo vibes I was giving off! That was so sweet, it almost made me cry. That said, I’m really grateful to all the weirdos out there but I think it’s better for my personal sanity not to read my own fan fiction.”

Her red carpet strategy: “Recently I’ve decided that there’s no point in getting dressed up if I’m not having fun. I’ve looked at enough red carpets right now and realized that everyone might think that Taylor Schilling looked better than Lena Dunham at the Emmys… but I thought Lena rocked that red carpet more than anybody else. What the point in fashion if you’re not having a good time?”

[From Fashion Magazine]

A few points – Anna might be having a good time with her style, but no one is really paying attention to it. She barely makes an impact on red carpets. Maybe that’s a good thing – she’s not a Fashion Girl. She’s actually a real, working actress. And I’m totally with her about avoiding guys who think it’s funny to make a girl feel uncomfortable. I wasted too much time on those d-bags when I was younger. The jerks, the mean guys, the emotionally cruel guys. Ugh. I’m also with her on what she learned from her parents’ divorce – right on, girl.

AK2

Photos courtesy of Max Abadian/Fashion Magazine.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

34 Responses to “Anna Kendrick: ‘If it wasn’t for the weirdos, I’ve have no career’”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. LAK says:

    Every time I read an interview she’s given, i’m more sucked in.

    And I agree 100% with her views On divorce.

    • MOT says:

      Nice to here that people don’t think divorce is always horrible…I will be getting divorced in 6 months and am dreading telling the kids. It will be very amicable but I know it will be initially devastating for the little ones. Hope they see that we weren’t happy one day…. Sorry for the TMI

      • Esmom says:

        Not TMI, I think you’re very brave. Wishing you a smooth transition and a happy new chapter.

      • Andrea says:

        Replying as a child of divorce to say that as long as you guys keep it amicable, continue to act as a united front with your kids, and love them to pieces, they’ll be fine. My parents were poster children for great divorces, my sister and I were young when it happened, and it was never an issue – we both get to see our parents happy individually and understand why they don’t work as a couple even though they’re both magnificent in their own right.
        And it’s been helpful in my own relationships to see how I’m like each of my parents and how those traits may or may not work with significant others long-term.
        tl;dr You sound like a good parent; they’ll be alright after the initial shock.

  2. Lee says:

    Love her! She and Rachel McAdams are my fav actresses!

  3. Anastasia says:

    Please forgive me; I’m an English teacher, and I have to do this.

    Anna: it’s “if it weren’t for the weirdos…”

    That being said, I’ve always liked her. She’s mega talented.

  4. Angie says:

    “The wrong kind of guy to fall in love with is the guy who will let go of the steering wheel as a joke. A guy who finds it amusing to make you uncomfortable, which is more common that you’d think, is someone you want to avoid.”

    This is so true. I’ve known a shocking number of guys like that unfortunately.
    She seems bright, funny and insightful. And of course she’s a riot on twitter. I’m not really blown away by her as an actress but I think she’s someone I’d enjoy hanging around as a person.

    • anonymous says:

      spot on advice — definite red flag — spare yourself alot of trouble and avoid them like the plague

  5. Kiddo says:

    I know everyone on this site loves her, but I’m neutral. I haven’t seen her biggest film with Clooney, so I haven’t caught the buzz. As far as this interview, she seems okay, but nothing extraordinary. What am I missing, because I feel out of the love loop?

    • I like what movies of hers I’ve seen, but I’m not IN LURVE with her. I think she’s a good actress, who will have staying power because she’s not basing her fame on daily walks to the gym, y’know??

      I also like her because she seems kind of….awkward, I suppose. Just like me, lol.

      • Kiddo says:

        You don’t seem awkward at all to me.*

        Her Valentine story sounds like something Taylor Swift would say, except her cookies would have come out as good as Martha Stewart’s.

        * Maybe that’s a testament to my own awkwardness, who knows?

      • Lol, you and me both, Kiddo.

    • Mean Hannah says:

      Everyone here seems to love her, but like everyone’s love of Elizabeth Banks, I don’t get it. I do think she’s a decent actress, though I haven’t seen her in much. For a short excerpt, there are quite bit of awkward grammar going on. That’s what jumped at me – that and she never seems to me to be having any fun on red carpets. She mostly looks awkward and uncomfortable.

    • QQ says:

      No Kiddo I’ve said that before and will say again, I like her Talking points but Not Only do I find her Super Meh ( tho when i I watch movies with her in it I Enjoy her as an actress… I just don’t ever ever seek a Movie based on “Oooh Anna Kendrick Is It”) But something in her face is repellent as F*ck to me… another commenter pegged it down to it being very mousy/rodenty Like and I believe that’s what turns me off at a very basic level since I have huge huge rodent Issues

  6. B says:

    “I’ve have?”

    • Rachel says:

      I’m choosing to believe the interview was transcribed incorrectly??

    • RisiaSkye says:

      Thank you. It’s in the headline pull-quote, and the interview, and it’s driving me nuts. Sometimes it’s such a relief not to be the only one bothered by such errors.

  7. Dhavynia says:

    I used to think she was a snob but she’s grown on me after catching Pitch Perfect on cable whatever reason…now I’m an accabitch fan lol

  8. Helo says:

    @Kiddo: I’m with you on Kendrick….l remain neutral. The mag interview is fine (very Swifty-esque) but, yeah, nothing that special. Still neutral. Up there with Stone or Lawrence?…no, not yet.

  9. Mia4S says:

    Love her (and loved Into the Woods although it was Chris Pine who stole the show). She’s also the only actress who should be allowed to have twitter, it’s funny and spot on.

  10. Lara says:

    I loved the tweet she did about watching a Ryan Gosling film in the cinema… That’s what made me like her.

  11. Lucy2 says:

    I’ve liked her for a long time, she seems like a regular girl who ended up in Hollywood but doesn’t buy into the whole celebrity thing. Plus she’s smart and very talented.

    • Esmom says:

      I haven’t liked her for a long time but she is growing on me. She definitely seems to care more about the work than the trappings of celebrity. My teen son is just starting to dabble in drama and so I’ve been on the lookout for good role models. She seems like she could be.

  12. TTMuch says:

    You’re welcome!

    Sincerely,

    A Weirdo

  13. RobN says:

    I can’t quite forgive her for Cups. It’s been stuck in my head for what feels like decades.

  14. Lucy says:

    She’s talented, smart, funny, and her twitter game is STRONG. What’s not to love?

  15. Nonny says:

    Wish I had, had that advice 17 yrs ago! Love this chick!

  16. JenniferJustice says:

    I was pleasantly surprised to see such support of her. I guess I thought most people didn’t like her and I didn’t understand that. I must have let Lainey’s hate hard-on for her cloud her actual fanbase. I, for one, like her. She was on Ellen last week and was charming, so polite, and fun as was Meryl. Emily Blunt was there too – all promoting Into The Woods. Blunt, unfortunately was borish. She was stoic and completely non-animated.

  17. OTHER RENEE says:

    That is one of the biggest reasons I got divorced. I didn’t want my daughter to think that being so unhappy and living with emotional and verbal abuse was normal. Now she sees me in a very happy marriage and I know for sure that’s had a wonderful impact on her life a d perception of relationships.

    Speaking of my daughter, she swears she saw Anna Kendrick in an airport a few months ago, hiding behind dark glasses and juggling 2 phones. She’s a big fan and very observant so she’s probably right.

  18. Ginger says:

    Although I’m older than Anna I learned the exact same lesson from my parents. They broke up numerous times during their marriage and made themselves and myself and my brother too miserable as a result. I always thought they should have stayed broken up the first time they separated when I was little but instead stayed together until I graduated high school. Because of that lesson, I ended up going through with my own divorce (after many years of trying to make it work) because I did not want to put my own son through that misery. He is older now and has told me that he’s glad his father and I have remained friends and get along. I don’t think we would have had the same result if we had stayed together. I’m not saying divorce is easy because it isn’t but sometimes it’s the best decision and you have to listen to your own heart and not the so called “advice” you get from other people (many of whom have never experienced divorce in any way). And Anna, I have to say that I love weirdos and I am one, so hooray! The world would be so boring otherwise.