by KendrickAnna Cooke Kendrick (born August 9, 1985 in Portland, Maine) is an American actress. Noted roles of hers include Beca Mitchell in the Pitch Perfect trilogy, Jessica Stanley in The Twilight Saga series, and Natalie Keener in Up in the Air, the lattermost for which she earned Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations.
Kendrick started her career on Broadway at the age of 12, traveling to auditions in New York on Greyhound coaches — with only her 14-year-old brother as a chaperone — since her parents were too busy to drive her. She eventually landed a role in a stage production of High Society, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination.
She is a very capable singer with a long background in theater, and has been consistently met with praise for her onscreen charisma and acting chops, as well as her sense of humor. She also has a very supportive mother who has a habit of aggressively calling distributors in order to get her indie films shown in her hometown — and then going with "throngs of friends" if she's successful to make sure the movie does well locally.
Kendrick published a memoir titled Scrappy Little Nobody in 2016, consisting of a compilation of autobiographical essays she wrote. From 2020 to 2022, she was in a relationship with Bill Hader, who co-starred with her on Noelle. No relation to retired IndyCar/NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, despite the strong facial resemblance.
Her films include:
- Camp (2003) - Fritzi Wagner
- The Twilight Saga - Jessica Stanley
- Twilight (2008)
- New Moon (2009)
- Eclipse (2010)
- Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)
- Up in the Air (2009) - Natalie Keener
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) - Stacey Pilgrim
- Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023)
- 50/50 (2011) - Katherine McKay
- What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) - Rosie Brennan
- ParaNorman (2012) - Courtney Babcock
- End of Watch (2012) - Janet
- Pitch Perfect (2012) - Beca Mitchell
- Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)
- Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
- Drinking Buddies(2013) - Jill
- Rapture-Palooza (2013) - Lindsey Lewis
- The Voices (2014) - Lisa
- Cake (2014) - Nina Collins
- The Last Five Years (2014) - Cathy Hiatt
- Into the Woods (2014) – Cinderella
- Mr. Right (2015) - Martha
- Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) - Alice
- Trolls (2016) - Poppy
- Trolls Holiday (2017)
- Trolls World Tour (2020)
- Trolls: Holiday in Harmony (2021)
- Trolls Band Together (2023)
- The Accountant (2016) - Dana Cummings
- The Hollars (2016) - Rebecca
- Table 19 (2017) - Eloise
- A Simple Favor (2018) - Stephanie Smothers
- The Day Shall Come (2019) by Chris Morris - Kendra Glick
- Noelle (2019) - Noelle Kringle (Christmas movie on Disney+)
- Dummy (2020) - Cody Heller (Quibi series; also served as executive producer)
- Love Life (2021-) - Darby Carter (A slice of life romantic HBO Max mini-series; Kendrick also served as executive producer for Season 2)
- Stowaway (2021) - Zoe
- Alice Darling (2022) - Alice
- Woman Of The Hour (2023) - Cheryl Bradshaw note
Anna Kendrick's works provide examples of:
- Cast the Expert: Coming from Broadway musicals made film roles that involve singing an obvious choice for her. Pitch Perfect, Into the Woods, and Trolls are the big ones.
- Deadpan Snarker: In many of her roles, and her Twitter account shows that she's very much one in real life as well.
- Endearingly Dorky: Tends to play dorky characters in most of her movies. Her performances in 50/50 (2011) and Up in the Air are the prime examples to the point where she eventually manages to defrost the protagonists by her natural charm.
- Older Than They Look: Her characters are frequently this, even Lampshaded several times in her movies.
- In 50/50 (2011), she's playing a therapist, and one of her patients compares her to Doogie Howser, M.D..
- In Cake (2014), she’s playing a character several years older than her actual age, and after finding this discovery, a main female character in the movie expresses her disbelief, saying that she (Kendrick’s character) looks younger.
- Star-Derailing Role: To an extent, after several successful roles such as The Twilight Saga, Pitch Perfect, and Into the Woods, she had a major role in The Accountant (2016), which did not reach the box office expectations for a major studio film, although it still performed well. While she received some praise for her more dramatic role, Warner Bros. appear to have blamed Anna as the reason it didn't pull a bigger audience, which led to her being offered less leading roles in blockbuster films. Even so, the success of Trolls a month later was enough to keep her profile afloat, followed by Pitch Perfect 3 and especially A Simple Favor, which also served as a Career Resurrection for its director Paul Feig. Even so, her output has been largely indie films written or produced by people in her circle of industry friends and various streaming shows.
- The biggest role since The Accountant was as the titular Noelle, and Disney pulled it from a theatrical release, showing it on their streaming service instead. Stowaway (2021), which premiered on Netflix, fared a little better, as the film earned good reviews again for her dramatic performance.
- Star-Making Role:
- Getting a Tony Award nomination for the stage version of High Society as a young teenager launched her career.
- Her role in Up in the Air gained her recognition and rave reviews from movie-goers and movie critics, and Pitch Perfect propelled her even further towards a mainstream audience.
- "When I'm Gone" Song: Her massive hit single "Cups", aka "When I'm Gone", featured in the soundtrack to Pitch Perfect.
