Alison de Souza
Updated
Oct 22, 2024, 02:59 PM
Published
Oct 22, 2024, 02:00 PM
LOS ANGELES – Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with Woman Of The Hour, a film based on the true story of an American serial killer who appeared on a dating game show in 1978 in the middle of his rape-and-murder spree.
The American actress, who starred in the hit Pitch Perfect musical comedy films (2012 to 2017), was originally supposed to just act in the period crime thriller, which is now available on Netflix.
But at the 11th hour, she decided to make a play for the director’s chair too.
“I’d been attached to the movie for about two years as an actor, and I kind of got this crazy idea to pitch myself to direct the movie, which was very scary,” the 39-year-old says at its premiere in Los Angeles in early October.
“And I think maybe the only reason I did that is because the train was moving so fast, I knew I wouldn’t have time to panic and back out at the last second, because it already was the last second,” adds the star, who picked up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the comedy-drama Up In The Air (2009).
“If it had been six months away (from filming), I probably would have been, like, ‘Guys, we should get someone who’s more experienced (to direct).’
“But I just didn’t really have time to do anything except try to keep my head above water, so it was a trial by fire.”
In Woman Of The Hour, Kendrick plays aspiring actress Cheryl Bradshaw, who agrees to be a contestant on popular American television game show The Dating Game in the 1970s, hoping it may lead to her big break.
But Bradshaw has no idea that Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), the man she is eventually matched up with after he wins the episode, has killed at least five women, and would later be dubbed “The Dating Game Killer”.
Kendrick says she was nervous throughout the experience of making the movie, but is excited about sharing her first film with the world.
“I haven’t seen the finished film with an audience, so this is a really special evening,” she says.
She thanked the cast and crew, including her 33-year-old Costa Rican-American co-star Zovatto, “who, although he is actually terrifying in the film, is the man I would have been lost without”.
“I am forever in the debt of everybody who showed up and was passionate and supportive enough to help me muddle through my best impression of someone who was not in a blind panic every day,” says Kendrick, who also voiced Princess Poppy, the lead character in the Trolls animated films (2016 to 2023).
She says she was drawn to the script because it is an atypical serial killer story, also focusing on the perspective of the female victims and how they are objectified and ignored, rather than just the murderer.
“While it is a fascinating true-crime story, the script had this really powerful emotional resonance for me – and I hope (it will) for other people – about the ways we walk through our day trying to survive emotionally, financially and physically,” she adds.
The story takes some creative liberties with certain facts of the case and some of the real people involved.
“There are changes we made in the movie that were done because I think there’s an emotional truth that we’re trying to get at,” Kendrick says.
“And because to me, when I look at the totality of this case, it’s really a story about injustice and women being left on their own in a system that was not set up to protect survivors or victims.
“It was never the idea to make the film in great detailed accuracy,” she says.
“It was always more about just trying to tell that deeper emotional truth, and so there were lots of little nods in the movie to the fact that it is a dramatised version of a really impactful story.”
- Woman Of The Hour is available on Netflix.
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