Anna Kendrick has 2 words for the ‘icky’ director who embarrassed her in front of 100 extras

During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz, Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick talked about the one time a film director needlessly gave her a passive-aggressive dressing down in front of dozens of extras, and she has a crisp if a bit unsubtle response for them.

Without naming the filmmaker in question who mistook their movie set for a place to go on a power trip, Kendrick explained (per Variety) how it basically went down between them.

“I remember a director once in a room full of 100 extras or something being like, ‘Hey, on this next one just try something. Just make something up. Just improv something,'” she said. “And I did it and then the director called cut and came over and, once again in front of 100 extras, was like, ‘Oof, let’s go back to the script!'”

Now if that’s not the definition of an ill-mannered dotard, we don’t know what is. It’s possible that Kendrick may have misread the situation, or that the director was simply in a foul mood that day, but according to the star herself, it was obvious that they were deliberately trying to embarrass her in front of the rest of the crew.

“It really felt like a very specific power move thing to embarrass me, to gain dominance. It was very icky,” she added.

And to that, Kendrick has a succinct, two-word response. “Then the thing that I improved ended up in the trailer. So f*ck you!”

Now people obviously want to know who this director was, but given the actress’ extensive filmography, it’s difficult to even entertain a guess, let alone narrow it down. It could be any film from the three Twilight flicks to Scott Pilgrim to Pitch Perfect or any one of the two dozen other standalone films that Kendrick has appeared in over the last twenty years.

“You do not mess with Anna,” wrote one user on X, perfectly encapsulating how her fans must be feeling right now.

Then again, since Anna refused to provide a name, many users are expressing doubt about the story’s legitimacy. After all, without further corroboration from anyone, there’s no telling if it really happened, and between all the crews Anna has worked with, it might be a wonder if any of them present at that moment could remember, let alone attest to it.

Of course, whether or not it really happened doesn’t change the fact that a lot of filmmakers cultivate a hostile and contentious environment on their sets. Anna’s account is one in a sea of other testimonies over the years about how some directors abused their authority to harass the actors in their crew.

Anna Kendrick has just made her own directorial debut with Woman of the Hour, a movie that has received a ton of critical acclaim and currently sits at a whopping 91% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. So, I guess all’s well that ends well, eh? Especially as far as dealing with blockhead directors is concerned.