'Trusted this person more than myself': Anna Kendrick recalls ‘psychological abuse’ in past relationship
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: American actress Anna Cooke Kendrick opened up about the “emotional abuse and psychological abuse” she experienced in a past relationship. The 37 years old, Kendrick made this claim days before she is due to be seen in cinemas for her upcoming movie, 'Alice, Darling' in which she is playing a woman in the same situation, "stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship to her successful boyfriend" which is being released on September 12 in the United States.
The 'Pitch Perfect' star found herself “in a situation where I loved and trusted this person more than I trusted myself,” she told People in an interview published Wednesday.
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“So, when that person is telling you that you have a distorted sense of reality and that you are impossible and that all the stuff that you think is going on is not going on, your life gets really confusing really quickly,” Kendrick continued, declining to name her ex-boyfriend.
Anna had a similar story as 'Alice, Darling', so she immediately connected with the script for the movie, directed by Mary Nighy and written by Alanna Francis. "I was coming out of a personal experience with emotional abuse and psychological abuse." Anna continued, "I think my rep sent (the script) to me because he knew what I'd been dealing with and sent it along. Because he was like, 'This sort of speaks to everything that you've been talking to me about.' It felt really distinct in that I had, frankly, seen a lot of movies about abusive or toxic relationships, and it didn't really look like what was happening to me." She added, "It kind of helped me normalize and minimize what was happening to me, because I thought, 'Well if I was in an abusive relationship, it would look like that.' "
Because it was a man she "trusted", Kendrick also struggled to deal with the trauma. Anna said, "I was in a situation where I loved and trusted this person more than I trusted myself." "So when that person is telling you that you have a distorted sense of reality and that you are impossible and that all the stuff that you think is going on is not going on, your life gets really confusing really quickly."
"I was in a situation where, at the end, I had the unique experience of finding out that everything I thought was going on was in fact going on. So I had this kind of springboard for feeling and recovery that a lot of people don't get," she added. Anna is still figuring out what "really happened" with her ex, as she confessed it was "the hardest task of my adult life." She continued, "My body still believes that it was my fault. So even with this concrete jumping-off point for me, to walk out of that relationship knowing that I wasn't crazy - it's incredible the way that recovery has been so challenging." Edgar Wright, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Richardson, and Bill Hader, are among Anna's exes whom she dated from 2020 until 2022.
In a plot summary for 'Alice, Darling' says, "A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends." Anna mentioned it was the first time she felt this deeply connected with the script, adding, "Usually, it's just I read a good script and I like the people involved, and I make the movie. And it was really surprising timing that we found this script at that moment in my life. And in fact, I remember my first Zoom meeting with Mary Nighy, the director, disclosing to her what I was going through."
"And I even said to her, 'This all happened very recently. In fact, it happened so recently that if the movie was shooting in a month, I probably shouldn't do it.' But it was many, many months away. So I wasn't in danger of re-traumatizing myself. But yeah, it's certainly a unique experience," Kendrick continued.