Category: anna kendrick

Categories
anna kendrick Blake Lively Fashion Ryan Reynolds

Blake Lively wore Tamara Ralph to the NYC ‘Another Simple Favor’ premiere

blake-lively-wore-tamara-ralph-to-the-nyc-‘another-simple-favor’-premiere

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were out again on Sunday, following their somewhat odd appearance at the Time100 gala last week. On Sunday, they came out for a New York premiere/screening of Another Simple Favor. Blake and Anna Kendrick reprise their roles for the sequel, which is exclusively on Amazon Prime. Anna and Blake were shilling for this movie in Europe a few weeks ago, to the point where I thought it had already been released? But no – it comes out on March 7th, so we probably have another week of Blake in promotional mode.

Blake’s friend and fashion designer Michael Kors came out to the premiere, and I honestly thought “oh, I guess she’s wearing Kors?” But no – Kors just came out to support her, and Blake is wearing Tamara Ralph. I’ve already seen some criticism of the dress, but I honestly sort of like it? Blake’s styling isn’t terrible here either. Now, it’s sort of a retro look – it feels very early ‘90s-glamazon-coded.

Anna Kendrick’s ensemble is Zuhair Murad, and I really like this too? It suits her, it’s sexy and light. Anna doesn’t get enough praise for her great hair! Now, the vibes are definitely off – off between Blake and Anna, and off between Blake and Ryan Reynolds.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Categories
anna kendrick Blake Lively Fashion Henry Golding

Blake Lively wore Chanel & David Koma to promote ‘A Simple Favor 2’ in London

blake-lively-wore-chanel-&-david-koma-to-promote-‘a-simple-favor-2’-in-london

Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are in London this week to promote A Simple Favor 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2018 film. The sequel is exclusively on Amazon Prime and I don’t think they’re even giving this one a theatrical release? I’m including photos from the London photocall, the premiere/screening and some photos of Blake outside of a London hotel, smiling at the paparazzi on Tuesday.

Fashion notes: for the photocall, Blake wore head-to-toe Chanel, a black-and-gold cardigan, skirt and boots. Her purse is Chanel and she wore lots of jewelry and hair accessories. Just my opinion, but Blake’s style is always just a little bit “off.” She’s always prided herself on styling herself and you can tell, because most stylists would have asked her to make some smaller adjustments along the way. Anna’s red look is Rixo London – I’m not crazy about it.

For the screening, Blake wore a fringed David Koma trench coat. Anna wore Zuhair Murad! I have to admit, my favorite ensemble is actually the sequined denim look on Blake. I’m really obsessed with those jeans (not so much the matching shirt). As always, people are doing body-language analysis between Blake and Anna – my take is that Anna and Blake are not BFFs whatsoever but they’re okay with each other and keeping it professional?

Obviously, we’ve tapped out on covering the daily minutiae of Blake and Justin Baldoni’s lawsuits, but they’re still fighting and all of the legal actions are seemingly on-going. A crew member recently went on the record with 60 Minutes Australia, and she said that Baldoni was a lovely boss and, in her opinion, Blake tried to take control of the film. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Categories
anna kendrick BAFTAs Demi Moore James McAvoy Lupita Nyong’O Marisa Tomei

Demi Moore wore a stunning Alexander McQueen to the 2025 BAFTAs

demi-moore-wore-a-stunning-alexander-mcqueen-to-the-2025-baftas

Demi Moore attended the BAFTAs on Sunday as a Best Actress nominee. She lost to Mikey Madison, in what was probably considered a surprise. Personally, I’ve thought that Mikey should be the frontrunner of the lead-actress race for months, but Demi is the one winning everything (everything except the BAFTA). Demi dressed like she thought she was going to win as well – she wore this really striking Alexander McQueen gown which is so detailed and interesting.

Lupita Nyong’o wore Chanel to the BAFTAs – this is one of the few times I’ve really loved Chanel on a red carpet. Who knew that Lupita Chanel was such a great combo?

Anna Kentrick wore an archive Georges Chakra – really sexy, and I adore the diamonds and emeralds. She really went all out.

Marisa Tomei in Sophie Couture. I saw some complaints about this and I was like WTF, she looks great. But on second look… the dress is “off” somehow? I get it. The shoulders throw everything off and the large applique at the waist weighs down the dress (and makes it look saggy). But she’s lovely.

Bonus James McAvoy, looking like a snack.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Categories
anna kendrick Charitable Causes

Anna Kendrick donated all the money she made from ‘Woman of the Hour’ to charity

anna-kendrick-donated-all-the-money-she-made-from-‘woman-of-the-hour’-to-charity




Earlier this month, Anna Kendrick opened up on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast about the years of abuse she suffered while in a seven-year-long relationship. You can listen to her interview here. Anna is promoting hew new Netflix movie, Woman of the Hour, which is based on the true story of The Dating Game serial killer, Rodney Alcala. Anna directed the film and stars as Cheryl, a contestant on The Dating Game.

Anna appeared on another podcast this week, Crime Junkie AF. She mentioned that when she realized that the movie was going to make money, she decided to donate it to charity because it felt “gross” to profit off of it. The charities that she’s donating her profits to are RAINN and The National Center for Victims of Violent Crime.

In a recent interview, Anna revealed she actually didn’t make any money from the movie, as she donated her earnings to organizations that specialize in victims of violent crime and sexual abuse.

“Believe me, this was never a money-making venture for me, ’cause you know, all the resources went to actually just making the movie,” she said on the Crime Junkie AF podcast. “But it wasn’t until the Toronto Film Festival, where the movie premiered and it’s this big film festival for someone to buy movies, and that is where eventually Netflix bought the movie.”

“But, it wasn’t until like the week before TIFF that I thought, ‘Oh, the movie’s going to make money,’” Anna said. “Like, I was just so, I went from being like, ‘Let me know when the movie happens!’ to like, ‘Oh god, I’m responsible for this,’ and then I was just making the movie, making the movie, and then we just barely made the deadline to get into TIFF.”

“Then it was like, ‘Oh, there’s like money going to be exchanging hands,’ and yeah,” she continued. “I sort of asked myself the question of like, ‘Do you feel gross about this?’ and I did, and so yeah, I’m not making money off of the movie. The money is going to, or has gone to, RAINN and to The National Center For Victims of Violent Crime, which is a charity that Matt Murphy recommended to me.”

[From JustJared]

This is a really powerful gesture from Anna. She’s putting her money where her mouth is and donating to two great charities. Even more so, she’s making more people aware that they exist. I truly hope that it helps in her own healing process. It also makes me want to watch Woman of the Hour even more. It’s already out on Netflix, so I’m adding it to my list now.

Anna isn’t the first actor to donate the money she’s made from a movie to a related charity. Al Pacino donated his pay from his 1980 movie, Cruising to different charities because he felt that it’d be “exploitative” to the LGBTQ community. Brendan Fraser donated the money he made from his movie Gimme Shelter to the shelter that the film was based on. Beyonce did the same with her salary from Cadillac Records, donating it to the drug rehab center where she worked while prepping to play Etta James.

Photos are production still and behind the scenes images from Woman of the Hour, credit: Leah Gallo/Netflix

Categories
anna kendrick

Anna Kendrick discusses gaslighting, trauma dumping & her abusive relationship

anna-kendrick-discusses-gaslighting,-trauma-dumping-&-her-abusive-relationship

Anna Kendrick is currently promoting the Netflix movie Woman of the Hour. It’s a film based on the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala, who appeared on The Dating Game in the 1970s at the height of his killing spree. Anna plays Cheryl, a contestant on The Dating Game, and Anna stepped in as director when the original director left the project. Anna is still feeling really raw – in 2022, she spoke about leaving a long-term relationship which had been emotionally and psychologically abusive. Because of that abuse, Anna basically can’t do comedies or anything lighthearted anymore, and she’s working through that years-long abuse through her art and her interviews. She recently spoke to the Independent about the past relationship and Woman of the Hour – some highlights:

Feeling unsafe is a universal experience for women: “Unfortunately, I do know that moment where you’re in a room with someone and wondering: ‘How is it that 10 seconds ago I thought everything was going fine, and now I’m not safe?’ And I think that’s something a lot of people know really well. Especially women.”

Her past relationship: In 2022, Kendrick began to speak publicly about her relationship with a man whom she has described as “for all intents and purposes my husband”. They were together for just over six years, during which – she has alleged – she experienced “emotional abuse and psychological abuse”…It’s hard to talk about Kendrick’s work without talking about her personal life, too. She agrees, even if a part of her hates it. “For a second, I did think that interviews for this film would just involve me being asked about every member of the cast and the crew, and I’d just gush about them and… But so far, no one’s asked me about the sound team.”

The misogyny within ‘Woman of the Hour’: “It does feel like the most revealing piece of work I’ve ever done. It created a window into my mind. Sometimes the most torturous thing isn’t just the disrespect or mistreatment, but the fact that everyone’s acting like it’s not happening. Which then convinces you that something’s not happening. It makes you question whether you’re making all of it up, or if you’re being paranoid or too sensitive.” She’s talking about gaslighting. “You sound crazy. You’re dismissed. ‘He brushed your hair off your shoulder – that’s nothing.’ And yet when you’re there, you can feel the threat that’s hanging in the room.”

Why she took a break from acting & can’t do comedies anymore: “I think I’d hit a point of critical mass, where it felt like…I think what was happening at that time was I was being forced into a place of performance and dishonesty in my private life. I just couldn’t spend another second breathing dishonest air.” She remembers a period of trauma-dumping on random strangers. “It’s a literal true story that, in the aftermath of this really traumatic relationship, my plumber came over and asked how I’d been, and I just told him everything. I physically couldn’t continue performing.”

Whether her recent roles have felt cathartic: “Ooh, I think catharsis is dangerous. For me, anyway. It brings me very welcome relief, but so far it’s always been a bit temporary. I was about to say that I need to forgive myself for ever feeling doubt or sadness, but that implies that I’m doing something wrong. When those feelings do creep back in, the worst thing I can do is go, ‘Goddammit, Anna! I thought we were over this,’ you know? I need to just experience it more as a neutral thing that’s happening. That it’s something out of my control. I certainly don’t enjoy it, but it’s not a character failing either.”

[From The Independent]

What she says about the gaslighting being worse is interesting, and obviously, that’s part of what she dealt with in her abusive relationship. That guy was gaslighting her like crazy, she didn’t feel safe in her own home and whenever she tried to address those feelings, he would gaslight her or she would gaslight herself and tell herself that it was nothing, she was making things up. It was absolutely worse in the 1970s, and make no mistake, it’s still really f–king horrific for women today, but I do feel like we, as a society, have gotten better at clocking the bullsh-t and calling it out? Incremental changes and more open conversations about sexism, obviously.

Also: during this promo tour, Anna is talking again about her statement “Motherhood isn’t for me.” She still doesn’t want to have kids and she’s embraced the “childless cat lady” brand.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

Categories
anna kendrick aubrey plaza awards Awards Shows Christina Ricci Daniel Kwan Daniel Scheinert Michelle Williams

Which director took home the big prize at this weekend’s DGAs?

which-director-took-home-the-big-prize-at-this-weekend’s-dgas?

It’s pretty late in the awards season for so many categories to be so unsettled. Most people believed that the Best Actress race would be the biggest question mark, but Cate Blanchett keeps picking up all of these awards for Tar. Is there a consensus on Best Picture or Best Director? I don’t think so, although the Directors Guild Awards seemed to clarify some things. The DGAs were also held this weekend in LA. The big winners: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once. But… most of the talk at the event was about Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans and Top Gun: Maverick. I could totally see the Daniels feeling like the consensus pick for the directing Oscar, but then Spielberg ends up picking up his millionth Oscar. I really don’t know!

So, I’m including some photos from the DGAs. Lots of celebrities avoided the trip to London for the BAFTAs and just went to the DGAs. I’m including photos of Michelle Williams, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Bateman (and his wife Amanda), James Marsden, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, Anna Kendrick, Christina Ricci and the Daniels. It wasn’t a huge night for fashion – Michelle’s dress is meh (that is one sad peplum) and I thought Anna and Christina looked the most pulled-together.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Categories
Abusive anna kendrick Mental Health

Anna Kendrick stopped doing press junkets, needed to set boundaries

anna-kendrick-stopped-doing-press-junkets,-needed-to-set-boundaries

Anna Kendrick has been exceptionally open about how much of herself she’s put into her performance for Alice, Darling. The movie portrays a woman in an emotional and psychologically abusive relationship. During the press for the movie, Anna divulged that she’d experienced the same type of abuse with an ex and that family and friends helped her leave the relationship. Because she had some distance between the abuse and the filming, Anna was able to give her character the vulnerability she needed without retriggering her own trauma. However, what Anna didn’t anticipate was how much the promotional junket would weigh on her. She finally had to admit she couldn’t go through with all her obligations and she established boundaries.

Having a decades-long career, actor Anna Kendrick has experienced her share of promotional tours for the films she’s been in. Yet, with her most recent psychological thriller Alice, Darling, the Pitch Perfect star has revealed that her own emotional ties to the film have made the press junket situations “trickier to navigate” than ever before.


“People have asked me, ‘Was it challenging to shoot the movie?’ and I guess that question makes sense,” said the Oscar-nominated actor. “But I’m actually finding that the press is the thing that has been a little trickier to navigate, making sure that I’m OK and feeling safe in my body.”

Highlighting one specific situation of multiple, fast-paced interviews, Kendrick described feeling “shitty” at the end of the day and making a decision to not continue that type of press junkets for the rest of the promotional tour.

“There was a thing early on where I was doing like a junket-style day for Alice, Darling where it’s like six minutes per person and you kind of run through like 30 interviews really quickly, and I went home and was in the shower and was like, ‘Why do I feel so shitty right now?’” Kendrick said. “And I sort of told everyone, ‘I don’t think I can do another thing like that.’”

She added, “I totally get it’s no journalist’s job to show up for me in the same headspace that I’m in, but I’m trying really hard to go into these conversations really open and it feels kind of strange to be talking to somebody who clearly just has a million things to do that day… I was like, ‘Oh, I need to draw a boundary there. I can’t really be talking about this in that style of conversation.’”

[From The AV Club]

This makes perfect sense to me. As much as the script for Alice, Darling might have paralleled Anna’s experience, as an actress, she was probably able to lose herself in the character. That would have given her the layer of protection she needed to not fall back into that place emotionally. But on the press rounds, Anna’s speaking about her own experience and being asked repeatedly to relive it. She probably thought she was ready for the discussion but found out she had limits. Trauma rears its ugly head when we least expect it.

I also understand what Anna’s saying about having a deeply personal conversation with someone who isn’t on the same page as her. True, it’s not the journalists’ responsibility to place themselves in her shoes. But it does make it that much harder to discuss something like this, especially if she’s opened herself up and the journalist is just looking for a pull quote with one eye on the clock. So I’m glad Anna recognized she needed to draw those boundaries. They will do a lot of good putting this film out there. I hope those involved benefit from it as well.

Photo credit: Cover Images and Instagram