Why is Anna Kendrick not a famous Hollywood star? Granted, this question could be asked of any number of charismatic and skilled performers, and the typical response is a combination of superheroes and streaming: We’ve entered an era in which characters and so-called intellectual property are frequently more popular than the actors who bring them to life (Batman is more popular than Robert Pattinson; Chris Evans is only a marquee-level star when he plays Captain America; that sort of thing). This has led to a large number of famous actors and actresses embracing streaming, which frequently entails producing prestige miniseries rather than feature films (Kate Winslet may be in the Avatar sequel, but her biggest star turn of the past decade was on the HBO show Mare of Easttown).
Nonetheless, Kendrick is well-positioned to convert his name recognition, critical acclaim, and fan love into a leading career. She’s starred in a hit franchise (Pitch Perfect) that allows her to perform comedy, drama, and singing; she played a relatable mother in the hit thriller A Simple Favor; and although most of us can never truly know the people we watch on film and television, Kendrick doesn’t appear to have a massive Hollywood ego. Even though there was a touch of false modesty in her memoir’s title, the stories of her theater-kid past made it plain that she is not exactly a nepotism product.
However, Kendrick has not starred in a notable theatrical release since 2018’s A Simple Favor. Since then, she has directed two streaming films (Noelle for Disney+ and Stowaway for Netflix), and her latest film, the horrific domestic drama Alice, Darling, is currently screening in select AMC locations. Her second 2023 project is a film written and directed by Jake Johnson, her co-star in indie films such as Drinking Buddies and Digging for Fire; if it is anything like those films, it will be both worthwhile and low-budget.
Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection’ is the credit line for this image.
There is nothing wrong with Kendrick’s evident preference for independent films. She began her career in that milieu, stealing scenes as a teenager in Camp (singing “Ladies Who Lunch,” which was followed by a notable understudy’s appraisal of the original actress: “She’s fucked, I’m ready, and the goddamn show must go on”) and the underrated Rocket Science. One of her best and least-seen performances comes in Joe Swanberg’s low-budget film Happy Christmas, in which she portrays a more grounded version of the lovely blunderer she would play in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. The latest film, Alice, Darling, is a story of emotional abuse that she describes as deeply personal and meaningful to her; it is not the type of production generally produced by a major studio. Since its release on 30 December 2022, it has grossed little north of $100,000.
Yet Alice, in her constrained humility, also underscores what seems to be missing from Kendrick’s filmography: a movie or two with contrasting zip. Beca, the caustic, but ultimately kind-hearted music fanatic from the Pitch Perfect trilogy, is most likely still her most recognizable part. It’s akin to being recognized for your high school grade point average; the Pitch Perfect films realize, as they progress, the ridiculousness of a collegiate a cappella group being together after graduation. However, the uneven sequels do not diminish Kendrick’s performance in them. In comedies such as these or Mike and Dave, she displays a screwball sourness accompanied by Liz Lemon-like social anxiety. She combines the qualities of Rosalind Russell’s quickness and Diane Keaton’s hesitance to imbue low-quality material with a sense of buoyancy.
Why, therefore, has she never starred in a pure romantic comedy? (Mike and Dave is ultimately a single film, but it devotes a great deal of time to bromance shenanigans. Also, although Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a nice film and Anna Kendrick is funny in it, the Oscar contender can do better.) She’s had more success in musicals—starred she’s in The Last Five Years, co-starred in Into the Woods, anchored the musical-like Pitch Perfects, and sung her heart out in many Trolls films—but she’s never played the lead role in a major film.
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Modern genres that eclipse rom-coms and musicals include, of course, science fiction, fantasy, and action—superhero material. The Twilight series, in which Kendrick played a supporting role early in her career, provides a hint of how she might react to all the worldbuilding in Marvel films: Motormouthed, half-interested, and secretly the most entertaining character on-screen. It is difficult to think of a job that would fit her personality now that she is likely too old to play the goofy, endearing Marvel superhero Squirrel Girl.
It’s possible that after a string of romantic-interest roles in the late 2010s, Kendrick is no longer interested in fitting her image into half-hearted studio blockbusters. Alice, Darling scrapes away a layer of nouveau-yuppie professionalism and self-deprecation to reveal the fears and psychological wounds beneath, and her previous leading part in the space survival thriller Stowaway is quite somber. (No spoilers, but the story does not conclude with her in a passionate embrace.) These films can afford to minimize her allure because at least part of it will still shine through.
This is precisely what makes her seem like a future star: Her inherent attributes — brilliance pursued by self-doubt and haplessness pursued by shrewdness — remain like a flame. There’s also something insistently modern about Kendrick’s fast-talking anxious energy; she’s sort of a distilled super-millennial, young enough to be adept at Twitter but old enough to remember a period before Facebook, beautiful and insistently uncomfortable with that beauty. It’s difficult to imagine her in a period piece set more than a couple of decades in the past, which is exactly where a number of great directors, such as Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Jane Campion spend their time today.
Kendrick is currently working on her own period piece. The Dating Game, which she directed and starred in, is based on the true story of a serial killer who appeared on and won the 1970s game show. It is unclear if this will be a true-crime drama, a full-fledged thriller, a dark comedy, or a combination of all three, which is precisely why it sounds intriguing. In addition, it sounds like another break from a leading-lady career in the mainstream that she has not pursued. She may become the quintessential millennial movie star: a pleasant and gifted overachiever.
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