Anna Kendrick may have made her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour but she made no profit from it after deciding to donate all of her pay to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and the National Center for Victims of Violent Crime.
While appearing on the Crime Junkie AF podcast to chat about the Netflix film, Kendrick reflected on making the decision for her donation.
“This was never a money-making venture for me. All the resources went to actually just making the movie,” Kendrick told host Ashley Flowers.
She said that things took a turn ahead of taking the film to the Toronto International Film Festival where she realized money would become involved in conversations about the film: “I went from being like, ‘Let me know when the movie happens,’ to being like, ‘Oh god I am responsible for this,’ and then it was making the movie — we just barely made the deadline to get into TIFF — and then it was like, ‘Oh, there’s money gonna be exchanging hands,’ and yeah I sort of asked myself the question, ‘Do you feel gross about this?’ And I did.”
“So I’m not making money off of the movie,” she continued. “The money is going to — or has gone to — RAINN and to the National Center for Victims of Violent Crime. It’s still a complicated area but that certainly felt like the least that I could do.”
The film, which premiered on Netflix on Oct. 18, tells the true story of Cheryl Bradshaw and her encounter with ’70s serial killer Rodney Alcala while on an episode of The Dating Game. Bradshaw chooses Alcala, who appears as an ordinary contestant, but his appearance took place during his murder spree. The film chronicles Alcala’s murders in the ’70s and his encounter with Bradshaw, who is portrayed by Kendrick. Daniel Zovatto portrays Alcala, who was eventually dubbed “The Dating Game Killer.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Ian McDonald noted that despite Alcala possibly being compared to Ted Bundy, there was a key difference between the two.
“People will compare him to Ted Bundy, but Ted Bundy was really good at pretending to be this good-natured, all-American guy, and Rodney Alcala really didn’t even pretend. The thing that’s most interesting about him is the way in which the people around him look the other way, and how that enabled him to get away with bad behavior for as long as he did. Sometimes that’s police or The Dating Game or just the court system in general,” he told THR.
Though initially attached to just act in the film, Kendrick pitched herself as the director, but only wanted the role if producers thought it was the best decision. After securing the role, she even called Paul Feig for advice, Kendrick told THR at the film’s L.A. premiere. “I was really surrounded by people who were incredibly talented and supportive, and they’re really the reason why it didn’t all fall apart all the time,” she said.
McDonald also credits Kendrick for “saving the movie” and helping it get made after deals fell through for the film: “She saw the movie exactly the way that I did, and she just had really smart, incisive notes. But importantly, her notes were things that made the script more what I wanted it to be, not less. She was a fresh set of eyes, and she could see things that, over the course of years, I had become blind to. A wonderful collaborator.”
Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson, Pete Holmes, Autumn Best, Kathryn Gallagher and Kelley Jakle also star in the film.
English (US) ·