Anna Kendrick Opens About Escaping Abusive 7-Year Relationship

Anna Kendrick is opening up about her experience with an emotionally abusive relationship.

The actress, 39, spoke candidly about how her 2022 film Alice Darling aligned with her own real-life experience in a conversation with Alex Cooper during the Oct. 23 episode of Call Her Daddy, revealing that she took the role shortly after ending the relationship of seven years.

“I had just gotten out of a relationship that was extremely similar to the movie,” she explained, adding that she hadn’t told any of her loved ones about her decision to take the role because “I didn’t want anybody to tell me to not do it.”

Kendrick revealed that similar to her character in the film, who didn’t immediately recognize the abuse she was suffering, she likewise took a long time to identify what was going on in her own relationship.

“It didn’t follow the traditional pattern,” she explained. “Because I was reading all the articles and going like, ‘This doesn’t look like—some of it looks like how they’re describing it, but not completely.’ The relationship was seven years, but it was like an overnight switch, and that went on for about a year.”

“It came out of absolutely nowhere,” the Pitch Perfect star continued, “but I had so much love and trust for that person, so I thought it had to be me. Like, if one of us is crazy, it must be me. So it was very, very difficult to actually go, ‘No, I think this is him.’”

Even the couple’s therapist at the time struggled to see the signs of abuse at first. “I’ve had several sessions with him in the last several years,” Kendrick said of her therapist, “where he’s apologized to me, because I think he realized what was going on right toward the end.”

When it came to taking the role in Alice Darling, Kendrick said she wanted to make the choice on her own. “It’s a similar thing where it was like pushing myself off of a cliff and not giving myself the time to go, ‘Is this a good choice?’” she shared. “Because I just didn’t want somebody to tell me—maybe this is the childhood thing of, like, ‘I don’t want you to tell me it’s bedtime.’ Like, ‘I need to do this. I’m gonna do this.’”

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. You can also chat with a representative at thehotline.org​ or by texting “START” to 88788.