The 'A Simple Favor' actor also revealed she would find very 'challenging and exciting' to play a character that leans into 'anger and rage' Anna Kendrick, who is at the Zurich Film Festival for the European premiere of Lauren Miller Rogen’s “Babies,” spoke briefly about her next directorial project, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” Back in June, it was announced that Kendrick would direct the Netflix film, adapted from Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling novel. The film is written by Liz Tigelaar (“Little Fires Everywhere,” “Casual”), with current revisions by Francesca Sloane (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Atlanta,” “Fargo”).
Jenkins Reid is on board as an executive producer. Kendrick spoke at length about her first experience behind the camera during the hour-long talk. She recalled being “really in a panic” ahead of stepping onto the set.
A lengthy conversation with “Pitch Perfect” co-star Brittany Snow, who had experienced the same first-time-director jitters when making “Parachute.” “[Snow] is normally so emotionally attuned and sensitive and has all the room in the world for your big feelings,” said Kendrick. The actor said the film found a “second life” on HBO in a “pre-streaming” era. I got a platinum record to hang in my house, like I’m Snoop Dogg or something!” The film also gave Kendrick “10 girls who are family, in the truest sense,” including Snow, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp and Hailee Steinfeld.
Now, we’ll be in each other’s obituaries [laughs]. It’s so lovely to have these people where, if any of us is experiencing something troubling, it’s really amazing, and I feel it sounds so corny or like I’m lying, but it’s like ‘Avengers, assemble,’ you know? When someone in the group chat tells us something difficult is happening, it’s like, ok: who is going over to her house tomorrow?
How are we figuring this out? It’s beautiful.” “There’s been a kind of revisionist history where people think of it as this sleeper hit and this box-office smash, which it simply was not,” she added of the film. They genuinely just prefer to be around each other than not be around each other […] It feels like one of those, you and me against the world relationships; it’s just so lovely.
It was great to just observe them together on set and go: ‘Oh, ok, I have my roadmap for this.’ […] It just felt very tender and gentle, and it was very easy to just try to play what I was seeing on set all the time.” Kendrick also briefly touched upon another recent project, Chris Rock’s Toronto-darling “Misty Green.” She brought up the film when asked about a type of character she would like to play, revealing creatives don’t often think of her for an angry character.
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