Anna Kendrick says she chose her latest movie role because it touched on 'emotional abuse and psychological abuse' she's dealt with in real life
- Anna Kendrick said she was once in a relationship filled with "emotional" and "psychological abuse."
- She said her upcoming movie "Alice, Darling" helped her cope with recovering from it.
Anna Kendrick said that her new movie, "Alice, Darling," is unlike others she's starred in.
The "Pitch Perfect" star explained to People leading up to the movie's world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this week why the movie about a woman who is stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship "resonated" with her so much.
"I was coming out of a personal experience with emotional abuse and psychological abuse," Kendrick said about the first time she read the script. "I think my rep sent it to me because he knew what I'd been dealing with and sent it along. Because he was like, 'This sort of speaks to everything that you've been talking to me about.'"
"It felt really distinct in that I had, frankly, seen a lot of movies about abusive or toxic relationships, and it didn't really look like what was happening to me," she continued. "It kind of helped me normalize and minimize what was happening to me, because I thought, 'Well, if I was in an abusive relationship, it would look like that.'"
In the movie, Kendrick plays the title character, Alice. While on a trip with friends, played by Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku, Alice beings to unravel due to her boyfriend's mind games. It leads to Alice telling her friends what's going on and they then try to help her.
"I was in a situation where, at the end, I had the unique experience of finding out that everything I thought was going on was in fact going on," she said. "So I had this kind of springboard for feeling and recovery that a lot of people don't get."
Kendrick told People that often she chooses projects because of the script and people involved. "Alice, Darling" is the first time in her career that she's in a movie that is relevant to her own life experiences, she said.
"My body still believes that it was my fault," Kendrick said of the relationship, though she would not divulge the name of the former partner. "So even with this concrete jumping-off point for me, to walk out of that relationship knowing that I wasn't crazy, it's incredible the way that recovery has been so challenging."