Anna Kendrick is sharing the reason why her performance in Alice, Darling "resonated" with her.
The Pitch Perfect actress shared that playing the character of Alice, a woman experiencing emotional abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, held a special significance for her.
"I was coming out of a personal experience with emotional abuse and psychological abuse," she said in an interview with People published Sept. 7. "I think my rep sent it to me, because he knew what I'd been dealing with and sent it along. Because he was like, 'This sort of speaks to everything that you've been talking to me about.'"
Kendrick shared more about the former relationship, but declined to name who she was referring to.
"I was in a situation where I loved and trusted this person more than I trusted myself," she explained. "So when that person is telling you that you have a distorted sense of reality and that you are impossible and that all the stuff that you think is going on is not going on, your life gets really confusing really quickly."
Kendrick continued, "And I was in a situation where, at the end, I had the unique experience of finding out that everything I thought was going on was in fact going on. So I had this kind of springboard for feeling and recovery that a lot of people don't get."
The Up In The Air star said that reassessing what had "really happened" in her relationship was "the hardest task of my adult life" and that her body still thinks it was her fault.
"So even with this concrete jumping off point for me, to walk out of that relationship knowing that I wasn't crazy," she added, "it's incredible the way that recovery has been so challenging."
Alice, Darling gave Kendrick an opportunity to reflect on her own experiences.
"It felt really distinct in that I had, frankly, seen a lot of movies about abusive or toxic relationships, and it didn't really look like what was happening to me," Kendrick said. "It kind of helped me normalize and minimize what was happening to me, because I thought, 'Well, if I was in an abusive relationship, it would look like that.'"
Alice, Darling will have its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11. The film, directed by Mary Nighy, co-stars Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku, Kaniehtiio Horn and Mark Winnick.
For more information on domestic abuse or to get help for yourself or someone you love, visit the website for The National Domestic Violence Hotline (http://www.thehotline.org/) or call 1-800-799-7233.