Earlier this month, Anna Kendrick opened up on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast about the years of abuse she suffered while in a seven-year-long relationship. You can listen to her interview here. Anna is promoting hew new Netflix movie, Woman of the Hour, which is based on the true story of The Dating Game serial killer, Rodney Alcala. Anna directed the film and stars as Cheryl, a contestant on The Dating Game.
Anna appeared on another podcast this week, Crime Junkie AF. She mentioned that when she realized that the movie was going to make money, she decided to donate it to charity because it felt “gross” to profit off of it. The charities that she’s donating her profits to are RAINN and The National Center for Victims of Violent Crime.
In a recent interview, Anna revealed she actually didn’t make any money from the movie, as she donated her earnings to organizations that specialize in victims of violent crime and sexual abuse.
“Believe me, this was never a money-making venture for me, ’cause you know, all the resources went to actually just making the movie,” she said on the Crime Junkie AF podcast. “But it wasn’t until the Toronto Film Festival, where the movie premiered and it’s this big film festival for someone to buy movies, and that is where eventually Netflix bought the movie.”
“But, it wasn’t until like the week before TIFF that I thought, ‘Oh, the movie’s going to make money,’” Anna said. “Like, I was just so, I went from being like, ‘Let me know when the movie happens!’ to like, ‘Oh god, I’m responsible for this,’ and then I was just making the movie, making the movie, and then we just barely made the deadline to get into TIFF.”
“Then it was like, ‘Oh, there’s like money going to be exchanging hands,’ and yeah,” she continued. “I sort of asked myself the question of like, ‘Do you feel gross about this?’ and I did, and so yeah, I’m not making money off of the movie. The money is going to, or has gone to, RAINN and to The National Center For Victims of Violent Crime, which is a charity that Matt Murphy recommended to me.”
This is a really powerful gesture from Anna. She’s putting her money where her mouth is and donating to two great charities. Even more so, she’s making more people aware that they exist. I truly hope that it helps in her own healing process. It also makes me want to watch Woman of the Hour even more. It’s already out on Netflix, so I’m adding it to my list now.
Anna isn’t the first actor to donate the money she’s made from a movie to a related charity. Al Pacino donated his pay from his 1980 movie, Cruising to different charities because he felt that it’d be “exploitative” to the LGBTQ+ community. Brendan Fraser donated the money he made from his movie Gimme Shelter to the shelter that the film was based on. Beyonce did the same with her salary from Cadillac Records, donating it to the drug rehab center where she worked while prepping to play Etta James.
Photos are production still and behind the scenes images from Woman of the Hour, credit: Leah Gallo/Netflix
Creating art out of a horrible situation and giving back to help prevent and help others is incredibly noble. I really respect Anna for doing this.
Blake Lively should take notes.
Agreed, I don’t watch/listen to any true crime anymore and I’m uncomfortable with things like this that are based on real life and people’s suffering while also believing that stories need to be told and victims given voices. Telling the story in a non-exploitative way and not profiting from it seems a great way to approach the situation.
I don’t know why we have to put down another woman in this context? What Kendrick did was admirable and we can just praise that and let it stand on its own.
Blake Lively helped bring to life a story about domestic violence. When she did the promotion, she acted as though this was a romantic film alone without the DV. She also hawked her hair care line. And while this is a film, she produced I do not think that this was an appropriate vehicle to use to sell items.
We hear about women dying by the hands of their abusers every day and in MY opinion, she did not treat it in a serious manor. She is supposedly going to work on adapting the accompanying book into a film and she should think about how she promotes that film.
I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet but I’ve heard it’s really good, and I hope we see more of her as a director. I very much like how she handled the money aspect of this.
We watched it Sunday night–it was quite good. This was a very honorable and admirable gesture on her part. I really like Anna Kendrick and only want good things for her.
I thought the movie was well done. It resonated with me, with how Charlene had to navigate in this world with so much misogyny.
Anna Kendrick as an actor and person is really growing on me. I am looking forward to her future projects.
The movie is- as one would expect- unsettling.
The sexism that runs through every interaction in horrific and made me want to set crap on fire.
I was enraged by all the non-serial killer men, as much as by the horrific serial killer.
It is a good movie, worth a watch if you enjoy being a bit unsettled.
This is a very thoughtful and generous thing — the donations and the attention brought to the issue are really worthwhile things to do. Good for her.
I have mixed feelings about Anna Kendrick but I’ve got no shade for her for this gesture; this was a really good thing that she did and THIS is how you handle and promote a movie with dark themes.
_looks pointedly over at Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and all the This Ends With Us tomfoolery_
I watched the movie a few days ago and thought it was really well done. She did an excellent job directing and acting in it. The way she handled the blatant sexism and undercurrent of possible violence throughout the film was hard to watch as a woman because so many of us know how those situations feel. She got it exactly right. To hear she’s donating the money to charity is a breath of fresh air.
I’ve never been a very big fan of hers because she’s come across a little stuck up in certain interviews through the years IMHO, but this is really changing my mind and I’m excited to see where her career goes next.