Anna Kendrick‘s recent project sees her take on a more dramatic path in her acting career, portraying a woman experiencing emotional and psychological abuse. The 37-year-old said she tapped into her own experience of psychological abuse to bring her character in Alice, Darling to life.
The internet has been going wild since the revelation, trying to figure out which one of Kendrick’s ex-boyfriends was involved in this trauma.
Anna Kendrick is a woman in love with her abuser in ‘Alice, Darling’
Kendrick is a versatile actor whose latest project proves as much. The actor takes on the role of Alice, a woman in a psychologically abusive relationship with her boyfriend. Alice doesn’t see the abusive nature of her relationship until her friends step in to help.
They take her away on a weekend trip and point out the toxicity, helping her see her boyfriend for who he really is. After the intervention, Alice starts to reassess her relationship and tries to break the codependency despite her boyfriend, Simon’s vengefulness.
Alice, Darling had a limited theatre release on December 30, 2022, enjoying a wide release on January 20, 2023. Charlie Carrick plays Kendrick’s character’s boyfriend, Simon while Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku play her friends, Tess and Sophie.
Anna Kendrick used her personal experience for ‘Alice, Darling’
Kendrick’s heart-wrenching role in Alice, Darling, was personal to her as she recently revealed to People that she was once in an emotionally and psychologically abusive relationship like her character. Recalling the first time she received the screenplay, the Pitch Perfect alum said she was just coming out of abuse herself:
“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’,” she told the outlet.
The actor admitted that although she had watched many movies about toxic relationships, none of them hit close to home until she played Alice.
Kendrick said playing Alice helped her “normalize and minimize” what happened to her. Refusing to name the culprit, the Twilight actor added, “I was in a situation where I loved and trusted this person more than I trusted myself.” She said her then-boyfriend frequently gave her a “distorted sense of reality” and diminished her.
The star however admitted that recovering from the toxic romance hasn’t been easy. “My body still believes that it was my fault,” she said, adding, “It’s incredible the way that recovery has been so challenging.”
Anna Kendrick’s dating history may help flush out the toxic ex-boyfriend
Kendrick told PEOPLE that when she got on Zoom with the film’s director Mary Nighy, she told her she’d been through something similar and wouldn’t be up for shooting soon. Luckily, filming began months after, so she wasn’t in any “danger of re-traumatizing” herself. However, the question remains, who was Kendrick referencing?
News about her casting broke in July 2021, meaning she’d probably received the script in 2020 to prepare. Kendrick has been involved with Edgar Wright, whom she dated for four years splitting in 2013. She was also in a relationship with Bill Hader, but the two parted ways in 2022 after two years together.
Kendrick was famously in a six-year relationship with Ben Richardson, with whom she reportedly created embryos because she wanted a family. The pair began dating a year after her relationship with Wright ended.
In a recent sit-down with Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast, Kendrick revealed that her relationship with Richardson ended after she learned of his feelings for another woman.
The star said she eventually began feeling like she couldn’t express herself without upsetting the cinematographer. Kendrick and Richardson parted ways in 2020. This may align with the timeline of the Alice, Darling screenplay best.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline by dialing 800-799-7233.
