Anna Kendrick Talks Scott Pilgrim And Live With It

Though she is only 25 years old, Anna Kendrick has already made a huge impact on the film world. She’s acts in one of the biggest modern franchises, earned an Academy Award nomination for her stellar performance alongside George Clooney in Up In The Air and plays a role in one of this summer’s most critically lauded films. And her star is only going to grow bigger.

I was granted the opportunity to sit down with the actress, who plays Scott Pilgrim’s sister, Stacey, in Edgar Wright’s film to talk about the welcomed frustration that comes with working with Wright, her experience working in ensemble casts, and her upcoming film, Live With It.

How did you come to the project and were you familiar with Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic series before hand?

I was not familiar but Edgar sent me the books in anticipation of meeting about the role, and I obviously just tore through them, they are just so fun to read. They were great as a reference point.

And how did Edgar contact you about the role?

He just got in touch with my agency after seeing a film I did called Rocket Science. My first meeting with Edgar was actually before I shot even the first Twilight movie. So I’ve been involved in this for a long time. [laughs]

If you look at Edgar Wright’s previous TV work/movie work, he has a very specific and unique vision. On set, is that something noticeable in the way he actually films it?

Oh yeah. It would be hard to miss for sure. He’s so specific to a point where you almost feel like you’re going crazy because it gets to a point where you are being sort of puppeteered by so many things. You’re turning your body on a certain word, and your chin goes down on a certain word, and your eyes go up on the next word, and you’re waiting, out of the corner of your eye for the camera man to finish that crash zoom so you can say the next word. At a certain point you’re sort of doing choreography to your own dialogue. It was really fun.

Was it like anything you’ve ever experienced before?

No, definitely not. At a certain point you kind of want to just knock something off the table because it takes a long time to get all the elements to line up and you just have to hope that the one time that they all line up you said your line correctly and hopefully in a funny way. There’s probably a lot of outtakes of me stomping off angrily because I didn’t flip my hair at the right time or whatever the direction was.

The movie has a lot of influence from comic books and video games. Before signing on did you have any interest in either of those worlds?

I can’t pretend to be a big gamer, but doing this movie and going to Comic Con and stuff and meeting Bryan definitely heightened my affection for comic books and Hope Larson, Bryan’s wife, gave me her book. It’s definitely made the world feel a lot more accessible, because at some point it feels overwhelming when you don’t have an entry point into that comic world. I haven’t read comics since I was little.

Scott Pilgrim is very much an ensemble film, and your other films, like Up In The Air and Twilight have some of those elements as well. Do you find that doing those kinds of projects help your method of acting?

On this it was so great to work with such an experienced cast. Not everybody in the cast is recognizable to your average person on the street, but I knew almost all of these actors before working with them. I’ve seen their independent films dating back to when they were in their teens. It was really exciting and they are so talented. It was great to see, especially the girls, just be so funny because so often in movies like this the girls are just pieces of furniture. And seeing how fun Alison Pill and Aubrey Plaza and Brie Larson, nobody’s a weak link.

You recently wrapped filming on the Seth Rogen-Joseph Gordon Levitt movie Live With It and you play a character named Katie. Can you talk a little bit about your character and the film?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a young man who gets cancer, and it’s actually based on the screenwriter’s real experience surviving cancer. I play his social worker who is very, very sweet and has the best intentions, but is really new and doesn’t know what she’s doing. She is trying to help but it’s pretty vulnerable and, I think, in a way Joe’s character is more helpful to her than she is to him.

For the longest time the movie was known as the Untitled Cancer Comedy, but at the same time cancer isn’t something that is generally associated with laughter. Is there a line drawn between the comedy and drama in the film?

I think it definitely blends it, but Will Reiser, our writer, is just a really funny guy and Seth Rogen was his best friend and essentially plays himself in the movie. If you’re a funny person and you have funny friends, you’re still going to have humor in your life. This sad thing can happen, but you’re going to be able to see the humor in a lot of these situations. There’s a kind of realism in that. It’s not a like a heightened comedy, it’s not like a spoof by any means. There’s almost more of a realism to it than a real melodrama. You kind of get to see what this guy went through and where he found humor and the parts that he didn’t.

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The Boston Globe interview to Anna Kendrick on her Meteoric rise to Fame

Anna Kendrick has become “that girl.’’ Most notably, she’s that girl from “Up in the Air,’’ the peppy one whose sparring with George Clooney earned her a nomination for best supporting actress at this year’s Oscars. To the indie movie crowd, Kendrick is that girl who played spitfire Ginny Ryerson from 2007’s “Rocket Science.’’ And to a different segment of the population — the one that’s still debating Team Edward vs. Team Jacob — Kendrick is that girl from the “Twilight’’ series, the too-peppy, self-absorbed Jessica, who steals many a scene from her brooding costars, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

And now, because of her small-but-sharp role in the film adaptation of the comic book “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,’’ Kendrick will be a geek-love hero for bringing Scott’s endearingly judgmental sister, Stacey Pilgrim, to life on the big screen. The movie tells the story of Scott, who must fight his new girlfriend’s evil exes in order to win her heart. Those exes are played by a number of familiar faces, including “Fantastic Four’’ star Chris Evans, Brandon Routh of “Superman,’’ and Jason Schwartzman of “Rushmore.’’

For Kendrick, a 24-year-old Mainer who began traveling to New York to audition for Broadway shows when she was a kid, it’s been a weird and fast journey. What started with a Tony nomination for her role in “High Society’’ when she was just 12 has become a busy, A-list movie career that had her filming “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’’ “Up in the Air,’’ and “Scott Pilgrim’’ at the same time. She just wrapped a movie (“Live With It’’) with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon Levitt up in Canada. And soon, she’ll be back on the road to film yet another installment of “Twilight.’’

But the other day — during a stop in Boston to promote the Friday release of “Scott Pilgrim’’ — the very approachable and sensitive Kendrick was just happy to be home in New England.

AK: [Looking skeptically at a cappuccino that was delivered to a hotel conference room before her arrival.] Is this for me?

MG: It’s not for me. I didn’t order it. I think they brought it for you.

AK: I didn’t ask for it. It’s funny — there’s a cappuccino here as though I demanded it. I didn’t. I asked for nothing. It looks like, “She’s such a diva.’’

MG: I’ll make sure I put that in the story. “She did not make a demand for coffee. Not a diva.’’

AK: Good [laughs].

MG: We should have done this interview years ago, when you started your career, because you’re basically from here. We consider Maine “here.’’

AK: I feel like I’m from here. When I was growing up [in the Portland area], Boston was like, the big city — sort of in starry lights, like the proverbial starry lights. I have spent quite a bit of time at the bus station — South Station. Most of my time in Boston was spent taking the bus to New York or the bus from Boston back home. I’ve had a lot of lonely nights with, like, a crappy Discman.

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Kristen Stewart: Still indie at heart

Kristen Stewart can still remember the moment when she finally realized how big a bite Twilight was going to take out of her life.

During the filming of the vampire saga, which has gone on to suck up nearly $500 million (U.S.) at the box office, the actress focused on the work at hand, not allowing herself to think about the fans that've turned the Twilight novels by Stephenie Meyer into global bestsellers.

"I had tunnel vision and I wasn't paying attention," she says.

Then Stewart showed up for a book signing in Rome and was given a reception that literally left her rocking and reeling, the crowds were so big and intense.

"While we were exiting the building, I couldn't get to the car," she recalls. "I was dragged by security. I wasn't even on my own feet. I was thrown into a van because if they hadn't done it, I would've gotten ... I don't know what.

"So I was literally picked up and thrown into a van and then the doors shut and the van started shaking ... It was a really surreal experience."

Never mind that Stewart, who turns 19 on Thursday, has been working in movies for more than a decade. Twilight eclipsed the rest of her work. Yet with offers rolling in – and Twilight sequels to be shot – Stewart is staying true to her indie-movie roots.

Despite what she calls a year that's been "really insane and absolutely psychotic," the actress is making the promotional rounds on behalf of a pair of no-budget indies she shot immediately before entering the Twilight zone.

Mary Stuart Masterson's The Cake Eaters, which was given a limited theatrical run before being released on DVD, features one of Stewart's finest performances as a high schooler suffering from a fatal nerve disorder.

The slightly more upbeat Adventureland, which opened yesterday and is directed by Superbad helmer Greg Mottola, stars Stewart as Em, a Pittsburgh twentysomething who is trying to shore up her finances by working at a run-down amusement park.

Em's personal life is complicated by a relationship with a married man (Ryan Reynolds) and an attraction to a brainy but neurotic co-worker (Jesse Eisenberg).

"I think that my character in Adventureland has no concept of what she really wants out of life," says Stewart. "She puts on an act that she's very secure and self-sufficient but she's so not. She realizes too late that she should get over her hang-ups and be good to herself."

Quirky characters are something of a Stewart specialty. She's contributed understated yet vivid turns as a hippie singer in Into the Wild, a lonely teenager in In the Land of Women, and an alienated upper-cruster in Fierce People.

Despite staking a claim on the mainstream with Twilight, Stewart says she'll always have a place in her heart for offbeat fare.

"I just finished up a movie (Welcome to the Rileys) where I play a homeless kid, a really damaged, really broken little kid, and she looks or acts nothing like my Twilight character," notes Stewart. "In fact, she's a stripper. So I'm not worried about (typecasting). I never really was."

With Welcome to the Rileys in the can awaiting release, Stewart is already back into the world of neckbiters and werewolves.

New Moon, the second instalment of the Twilight series, began shooting for a Nov. 20 release. In contrast to the first movie, which tracked the romance between Bella and fanged boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson), New Moon finds Bella drawing closer to wolfman Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

"Taylor is still playing Jacob and that's the coolest thing," says Stewart. "After Edward leaves, Bella is like a zombie and Jacob is like the light.

"It's like, `He is who I should be with but I'm totally in love with this guy that I shouldn't be with.' That's girls."

Stewart says she's looking forward to having the chance to grow up with Bella.

"New Moon is a much more painful story than the first one. It's actually quite devastating. Bella is entirely depressed, but she matures."

Stewart's grew up largely on movie sets. The Los Angeles native is the daughter of John Stewart, a TV producer, and Jules Mann-Stewart, an Australian-born screenwriter.

At age 8, she landed a role in a Disney Channel TV production, The Thirteenth Year. At age 11, she played Jodie Foster's mopey daughter in Panic Room.

Stewart has since amassed credits in movies ranging from horror (The Messengers) to family-friendly adventures (Catch That Kid; Zathura).

Stewart has a slate of diverse movies on her to-do list. She'll reprise Bella once again in Eclipse, due in theatres on June 30, 2010. She's also hoping to co-star in K-11, a movie her mother scripted and will direct about a special dorm at the L.A. County Jail.

"The wing is specifically for people that can't be put into general population, people who need to be protected because they would be subject to a lot of danger," says Stewart. "They're an eclectic bunch of people. They're famous people, gay people, cross-dressers, transsexuals."

After she shoots New Moon, Stewart will rip it up as rocker Joan Jett in The Runaways, a biopic about the all-girl punk-rock band. Stewart will play Jett and Dakota Fanning has been tapped to play singer Cheri Currie.

"It's a big job," says Stewart. "I've never played a real person before. That period with the Runaways was so important ... I'm nervous and intimidated. But that's the best way to feel before you do a movie."

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