Biography
Date of Birth
9 December 1985, Portland, Maine, USA
Birth Name
Anna Cooke Kendrick
Height
5' 2" (1.57 m)
Mini Biography
Anna Kendrick was born in Portland, Maine, to Janice (Cooke), an accountant, and William Kendrick, a teacher. She has an older brother, Michael Cooke Kendrick, who has also acted. She is of English, Irish, and Scottish descent.
For her role as "Dinah" in "High Society" on Broadway, Anna Kendrick was nominated for a Tony Award (second youngest ever), a Drama Desk Award, and a Fany Award (best actress featured in a musical). Her spectacular performance landed her the Drama League and Theatre World Award.
She was a lead performer with Cabaret's Kit Kat Club at "Carnegie Hall Live" in Great Performances: My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies (1999) (TV). She also had the privilege of working with director Scott Ellis and choreographer Susan Stroman at the New York City Opera House with Jeremy Irons amongst many more celebrity status actors, playing the role of "Fredrika" in "A Little Night Music".
Anna work-shopped "Jane Eyre" & "The Little Princess" for Broadway and starred in the feature film Camp (2003) with director Todd Graff.
Trivia
Was nominated for Broadway's 1998 Tony Award as Best Actress (Featured Role - Musical) for "High Society." She was the second youngest nominee (after 1991's Tony winner in the same category, Daisy Eagan) in Tony history,
George Clooney mocked her on the set of their movie Up in the Air (2009) because she was flying from and to this set to Twilight (2008)'s, filming at the same time.
Was Jason Reitman's first and only choice for the role of Natalie Keener in the film Up in the Air (2009).
Ranked #15 in People's "25 Beauties (and Hotties) at 25" list in 2011.
Jason Reitman cast her in Up in the Air (2009), after seeing her performance in Rocket Science (2007).
Only actress of the 'Twilight Saga' to be nominated for an Oscar, while the 'Saga' was still in production. She was nominated in 2010, between the second and the third installments in the series.
Graduated from Deering High School (Portland, Maine) in 2003.
London, filming Into the Woods (2014). [September 2013]
Has the unique achievement of appearing in three big screen musicals - Into the Woods (2014), The Last Five Years (2014) and Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) - that are set to be released theatrically within just six months of each other, from December 2014 to May 2015.
During an interview with the A.V. Club in 2011, she called Jessica, the character she played in the Twilight (2008)-series, an idiot.
Advocate for The Trevor Project.
Had a body double for her nude scene in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016).
Of mostly English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, with many recent Canadian-born forebears, Anna Kendrick is the daughter of William Kendrick, a history teacher who also works in finance, and his wife, Janice Cooke, an accountant. Kendrick is the younger sister of Michael Cooke Kendrick.
(February 1, 2019) Recovering after being hospitalized with kidney stones.
In a relationship with British cinematographer Ben Richardson since 2014, having first collaborated on Drinking Buddies (2013).
She is the Spokesperson for Hilton Hotels. Ad agency saw her in the Movie Up In The Air about traveling executives.
Trademarks:
Petite frame
Very often sings in her roles
Often plays likable awkward characters
Deadpan sarcastic sense of humor
Quotes
People like to make fun of the fans who camp out but people have renaissance fairs; people do Civil War re-enactments; people do what they like. I'm tired of hearing people rage on the fans. If you don't like Twilight, don't buy a ticket.
I guess I'm drawn to... I think, even when I read serious scripts, the moments that I connect to are the little glimpses of humor, because, you know, I think every script, no matter how serious it is, has bits of humor in it. Even End of Watch is really funny. So those are the moments where I can kind of see what I can do with it that's different, and I feel like that's the easiest way for me to get inside a character's head, is through the humor, like what sense of humor they have.
[on not being part of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)] I'm not in it, I don't know anything about it, so I'm excited just to see it, you know, as a normal moviegoer. (August 2012)
While I wouldn't wish being teased on anyone, I think it eventually leads to a kind of solidarity in adult life. The few people I know who weren't picked on in school are people I find I can't relate to on much more than a surface level. There's a sensitivity that comes with feeling like an outsider at some point in your life. I'd rather be emotionally tuned in to other people than slightly more confident because no one ever made fun of my hair.
I sort of marvel at myself. Maybe at a certain point everybody feels like the person they were when they were younger is a stranger. Because I seemed to be much more driven and focused at that age. I had the intention of being on Broadway. I am just very grateful that my parents treated me with respect... and really, really supported me.
Okay, I am happy with the way I look, but I have never, never, ever thought of myself as a 'pretty girl'. Honestly. When I read some of these scripts I'm sent and they describe the heroine as 'incredibly beautiful', I wonder why they sent it to me. I also find myself thinking that she better also be pretty damn interesting, or I'm not going to want to play her. . . I actually went into one audition recently when the script called the character 'an Anna Kendrick type' and I thought to myself 'What the heck is that, anyway?' There was another girl sitting in the room and she was so much prettier than me and I thought, 'Guys, just what are you looking for?'
I do admit that I've never been one to fit in easily to any given pattern. It's not my choice. It's just the way I am. So if the characters I wind up playing are all a bit different, it must be because that's the way I like it. Anna Kendrick is different and she's going to stay that way.
[on being lazy while filming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)] I have an older brother and when I told him about the movie he said, "Oh, so you've been preparing for this movie for 24 years. Ha ha ha." Yeah, I'm just being me. I was SO lazy. I had source material and the REAL Stacy Pilgrim and I'm still just playing me. (Laughs.)
An actor should always let humility outweigh ambition.
I'm really glad that the Oscar stuff is over, to be perfectly honest. I mean, I am infinitely grateful - I'm so lucky - but it's been a really crazy year. You're constantly wearing clothes someone else picked out for you, delivering sound bites instead of real feelings, and walking into rooms full of people you don't know. I didn't become an actor for any of that, so it's been kind of a confusing time for me.
I'll tell you, the really humbling moment is the moment that you get home from the Golden Globes or the BAFTAs or the Oscars, and you sit on your bed, which is the same crappy IKEA bed you've had since you were 18, and you put on an old episode of Family Guy (1999) and you have a frozen meal . . . and you're trying not to get macaroni and cheese on your thousand-dollar gown.
It's luck, pure and simple. I mean, I work very, very hard, but I don't take any of this for granted and I don't think any of it is because I'm better or more talented than other actors. There are people who work at least as hard as me and are twice as talented, and nobody's asking them about makeup secrets. There is a lot of luck to how my life's turned out.
I've been pretty lucky in terms of the films I've been in, and having a slow and steady build. I have done smaller films that a lot of people in the industry have seen, and I feel sort of fortunate that it hasn't been this overnight thing. I'm hoping that it continues to be this slow and steady thing so that I can take a deep breath and get used to it.
We were just in the recording studio for Into the Woods (2014) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) came on, and Emily Blunt and I and a bunch of PAs sat around watching it. It's one of those movies I have a fever-dream memory of, like you watched it when you were so little that you're not sure whether you imagined the entire movie. It was amazing to watch those two little mice get on that seagull.
[on which movies inspired her] Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in In the Name of the Father (1993) made me realize what movies could do. But the super-cheesy answer to that which is probably more accurate is Life with Mikey (1993) , which is about a child talent agency. I desperately wanted to be this chubby little girl who sang at the end of that movie.
I love old screwball comedies: Bringing Up Baby (1938), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), stuff like that. But my two favorite modern comedies are Wet Hot American Summer (2001) and Hot Fuzz (2007).
It occurred to me that doing four musicals was maybe not a great career plan, but when certain opportunities come along you throw the rules out the window.
Is there a button on Hulu ads for 'I already [sic] thinking smoking is super scary and gross, please stop showing that girl peeling off her face'?
As a kid I would I would dream about saving boys from cliffs - not the other way around.
[on Up in the Air (2009)] I thought it was going to be a comedy. I didn't understand that it would be an awards contender at all. The script changed a lot while we were making it, because we were making it when the bubble burst. Lay-offs meant something else by the time that we went into production. The idea of a man who fires people for a living went from hitman to genocidal maniac.
