to think about it in the future is actually

not so much about ticking boxes of like this kind

of movie or this kind of character,

because the more that I've been able to work

and work with really incredible people,

the people that really leave an impression on me

are the people who seem happy,

people who are working and loving their work and also loving

the life that they live.

And they've found this balance.

I'm Anna Kendrick. And this is the timeline of my career.

Excuse me, is there some place we're supposed to check in?

- Over there, is this is your first summer?

- No, I was here last year.

Remember?

We were at night, mother together.

So camp is the first movie I ever did.

Well, I actually got involved in that project

because the director was cousins

of Randy Graf,

who was in the Broadway show that I did

when I was 12 years old.

So she was like, "If you're looking for a girl

"who could play my character in that film,

"the creepiest, most of obsessive weirdo of all time,

"I've got just the girl for you."

The blessing about that film was that it was

because it was non union, it was everybody's first film.

So it was a lot of anxiety, but we had the blessing

of like no cast member knew anything.

So you were allowed to ask questions and be an idiot

and not feel quite as much shame.

And at the time, I mean, you couldn't tell me

that these people were not my family

and that we were not bonded for life.

Like this was the most significant experience

I had ever had.

And when I left, I was sobbing.

It was like a break-up, I cut my hair,

I did like all the breakup stuff.

I was inconsolable.

Like I'm used to it now, but it is a really bizarre,

like all consuming

experience.

And that's why you get these kind of heightened things.

Then that's why people fall in love with each other.

And that's why Christian Bale yells at his GP.

And it's all just part of like what happens.

You just go slightly crazy.

You're Joe Simmons, my name's Christie.

- She's got a great spike, huh?

- Yes.

I'm Jessica by the way.

Hey you're from Arizona, right?

- Yeah.

- Aren't people from Arizona supposed

to be like really tan?

I auditioned for Twilight because Katherine Harvick

had seen me in a film at Sundance called "Rocket Science"

and asking me to come in and audition.

And I really thought it was such a blow off audition.

I just thought like well I'll you know, do as well

as I can so that the casting director like thinks

of me for other stuff and I actually saw my friend

Mae Whitman at that audition and we were both like,

"What are we doing here?"

Like we're obviously not going

to be this like mean girl character.

Yeah I got that job, which was I mean,

truly like such a shock.

The first movie we filmed in Portland, Oregon,

and I just remember being so cold and miserable.

And I just remember my converse being completely soaked

through and feeling like, you know,

this is a really great group of people and I'm sure

that we would be friends in a different time,

but I want to murder everyone.

Although it was also kind of bonding.

There was like something about it that was like,

you know, like you go through like some trauma event.

Like you imagine like people

who survive like a hostage situation.

And you're kind of bonded for life.

The second movie, for whatever reason,

like the weather wasn't quite as intense.

And that's sort of, I think where we all got

to know each other a little bit better.

I was shooting "Up In the Air" by the time

that we were making that second movie.

So they rearranged a lot of scheduling stuff.

Cause it would have been a real dick move,

but you know, they have legally they had the right

to stop me from doing "Up In the Air"

so shout out

to those guys.

[mumbles] anyway, so we're supposed

to like draw a parallelogram.

Our answers were things like astronaut, president

or in my case, a princess.

When we were 10, they asked again,

we answered rockstar, cowboy

or in my case, a gold medalist.

But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer.

They all start to blend into one at some point

because my whole job was just to go like this family

of very pale people who we never see eating.

They're really weird, right?

Anyway, what did I do in the third movie?

Oh, I did the graduation speech in the third movie.

That's right and I remember thinking like,

"Oh, why did they make my character the valedictorian?"

Like she's very obviously not a good student.

But you know, they just wanted me to like have something

to do because it was a speech so I just like did

what was scripted and I swear that scene,

people are like,

"You know, that speech that you give in

"that third movie, it's really sweet.

"It's really moving."

And I swear to God, I'm like the thing that is happening

is you are looking at Kristen Stuart's reaction to

that speech and that is the thing that is moving you.

Because I was like, "I did all right,"

but I was just kinda like I dunno, I'm reading the speech

and then it cuts to Kristen, she's so moved

because she's so talented that I was like,

Oh, people are like, "That speech is so amazing."

And I'm like, "No, it's just her and she's great."

So I was in the fourth grade and it was

just like a wedding scene where again, I'm like,

"Hmm, these people are so weird,"

and you're in like just half frozen mud in

what was the final scene of filming for everybody.

You know, it's like I get to come in and you know,

work for a week or two.

And everybody else has been like giving

their blood, sweat and tears to the project for months.

I show up at the end and I'm like,

"Guys, we did it's over."

[laughs softly]

[laughs softly] That's so funny.

Never want to get married.

- Nope.

- Never want kids.

- Not a chance.

- Ever?

- Never.

Is that so bizarre?

- Yes.

So "Up In the Air" was, you know,

a script I got, it was like this really high profile thing,

this amazing part opposite George Clooney.

And well I'll go in and I'll do my best and you know,

they'll give it to somebody more famous.

I remember my agents calling me a couple

of days after my audition and being like,

"Okay, we're pretty sure that an offer is coming in."

And I was like, "You weren't in the room."

Cause I was just totally convinced

that I'd left no impression and basically spent

the first weeks of filming thinking like,

I'll just enjoy this and you know, I'll be like the,

is it Eric Stoltz in "Back To the Future"

where it's like a funny story that like initially

they hired somebody else.

Clooney was so classy,

man.

I know that everybody describes him that way,

but it's just you know, on my first day he was like,

"So do you get nervous?

"I get nervous."

In retrospect, bullshit.

No he doesn't.

But it was such a generous thing to say to me

and I believed it at the time and I was like,

"Oh, we're the same."

Which is the whole point, you know, he's so good

at disarming people and trying to get them to forget

that he's international movie star George Clooney.

I just couldn't have asked for a better,

I guess like Sherpa, you know,

in that situation, to just see like

how does somebody handle themselves?

You know, everybody's looking to them for the tone,

and you know, the kind of manner in which we're all going

to treat each other.

I was doing one of my first interviews about the movie

with Jason Bateman and he made you know,

an innocuous comment to me about how I might need

to be picking out a nice dress in the spring.

It just totally threw me

that anybody would genuinely be thinking that.

So it felt like a little funny joke,

I guess, in retrospect to like of course

I wish I could have just accepted that

and seen it for what it was,

which was just a compliment that anybody

would be saying that.

I'm kind of glad that I at least had the presence of mind

at the time to go, "Anna, you might look back on this time

"and get mad at yourself for not enjoying it more.

"So I want you to actually take in like how overwhelming

"this is and how much pressure there is

"and how you have no idea how to navigate it

"and that's okay."

It kind of lets me at least kind of

let my younger self off the hook a little bit.

Yes it is.

- I just don't see the value in it.

- You know what we should really talk about

is you have trash on your floor and there's no reason.

I mean, you know, at least have a bag in the back

to put the trash in.

- Adam, your girlfriend cheated on you.

We don't have to talk about it, you don't have to.

"50/50" was like the first time that I felt

like I kind of pulled a little bait and switch

on someone because on paper she felt

really similar

to my character from "Up In the Air"

and I knew that that was like, why they hired me.

I just wanted to make her like really soft,

you know, Natalie and "Up In the Air" it's like trying

so hard to be a hard ass.

And this wasn't a far cry from that just on the page.

I did worry that I would get there

and that Jonathan Levine, the director would like tell me

to basically play it more like my character

from "Up In the Air"

And he, I feel like is this weird, like Jedi master

where like, it doesn't feel like he's doing a lot.

And then every movie he does is like,

why does this have this much heart?

You know, things like "Warm bodies" or "The long shot"

Those movies have no right to make me cry.

Yeah, he just really like, didn't shy away

from that vulnerability.

I just broke up with somebody recently, myself.

- You did.

- Yeah.

[phone ringing]

- 17 years old, scandal.

- That's not true, who told you?

- Wallace, duh.

So "Scott Pilgrim vs The World" I just did

because I loved Edgar Wright's movies.

I loved "Shaun of the dead" and I loved "Hot Fuzz"