Anna Kendrick Says 7-Year Relationship Turned Abusive 'Overnight'

Anna Kendrick is opening up about her past abusive relationship — and how it caught her completely by surprise.

On Wednesday’s episode of Call Her Daddy, the Pitch Perfect star explained to host Alex Cooper about how important it was she take the role of an abuse victim in last year’s Alice Darling because of how much she related to the plot of an abusive partnership:

“I had just gotten out of a relationship that was extremely similar to the movie.”

She said she took the part despite her recent breakup because she “didn’t want anybody to tell me to not do it”. In her own personal relationship, the 39-year-old explained how, much like the movie, the abusiveness didn’t follow a “traditional pattern”:

“It didn’t follow the traditional pattern. Because I was reading all the articles and going like, ‘This doesn’t look like—some of it looks like how they’re describing it, but not completely’. The relationship was seven years, but it was like an overnight switch, and that went on for about a year.”

An “overnight switch” after SEVEN YEARS?? So terrifying for women out there who think their relationships are solid. Damn.

Related: Anna Made Embryos With Ex ‘Husband’ Before He Became ‘Toxic’

It’s unclear who this abusive ex was. She famously dated director Edgar Wright from 2009 to 2013. And recently she was with Bill Hader from about 2019 to 2022. Neither of those relationships lasted seven years, so it’s highly unlikely she’s talking about either of them. Hmm.

Anna went on to say the intense change of character had her questioning everything — so much so it took her a long time to admit it wasn’t her fault:

“It came out of absolutely nowhere, but I had so much love and trust for that person, so I thought it had to be me. Like I if one of us is crazy, it must be me. So it was very, very difficult to actually go, ‘No, I think this is him’.”

It didn’t help that even the couple’s therapist didn’t even recognize the signs until it was too late. She said their counselor didn’t “realize” it was happening until right before the two broke up:

“I’ve had several sessions with him in the last several years where he’s apologized to me, because I think he realized what was going on right toward the end.”

Wow… Their therapist not realizing what was going on is so troubling.

But therapy did help. It wasn’t until Anna completely lost her composure during one of the sessions that she could finally start looking at her own relationship through a fresh set of eyes:

“I sent the therapist an email being like, ‘I’m so embarrassed. I’m so sorry. I know I need to control myself’. And he called me, which he hadn’t done before, and was like, ‘No, I’m so proud of you’. And that’s when I knew, like, ‘Oh, something has shifted’ … Things ended pretty quickly after.”

Anna wrapped up her discussion by once again talking about how important it was for her to take on Alice Darling. She said:

“It’s a similar thing where it was like pushing myself off of a cliff and not giving myself the time to go, ‘Is this a good choice?’ Because I just didn’t want somebody to tell me—maybe this is the childhood thing of, like, ‘I don’t want you to tell me it’s bedtime.’ Like, ‘I need to do this. I’m gonna do this’.”

Such a brave decision to take on a project that hits so close to home. We’re sending Anna so much light. Thoughts, Perezcious readers?

[Image via MEGA/WENN]