Anna Kendrick says THIS 'Pitch Perfect' costar helped with directorial debut

Anna Kendrick had some help from her Pitch Perfect co-star Brittany Snow when it came to taking the director’s chair for TIFF-acclaimed Woman of the Hour.

Kendrick’s thriller is based on true events from the 1970s, when a serial killer joined a dating show named The Dating Game. The Accountant actress also stars in the movie as Cheryl Bradshaw, who was courted by serial killer (Daniel Zovatto).

However, Kenrick was nervous about directing the film, and her ex co-star gave her the pep-talk she needed.

“I spoke to Brittany Snow on the phone, and she, in a very role-reversal way of our relationship, gave me the most casual pep talk, which was literally in a very flat voice: ‘You’ll get on set, and you’ll know what to do,'” she told Entertainment Weekly.

She continued: “And it was just like, ‘Yeah, OK.’ That’s usually how I find myself talking to her, and I think I was expecting this flowery, long pep talk, and she so cut to the chase that I was like, ‘OK, damn girl. I’ll just figure it out, I guess.'”

The A Simple Favor star recalled that the movie was given a start date without any director attached: “We spent maybe 48 hours trying to find somebody to jump on board quickly. And we were certainly not looking at first-time directors. The idea would be to find someone experienced enough to get $2 and a roll of duct tape and make a movie.”

So Kendrick realized she could direct the movie herself: “I just found myself having this absolutely terrifying thought — it was physically bubbling up, and I kept trying to shove it back down — which was like, ‘Well, what if I pitched myself to direct the movie?'”

The Oscar-nominated star concluded, “I think there was something about the movie overall that I found compelling. I was aware that while I liked the character, I was way more interested in the movie as a whole. And of course, the whole two years, I’m sitting there going, ‘Well, if it were my movie, this is how I’d do it. But it’s not, so it’s not my call.’ I just got so excited about the idea of taking this script that I loved so much and shaping it in the way that I saw it.”

Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour will stream on Netflix from October 18.