The Real Reason Anna Kendrick Hated Filming Twilight

Let's never forget that Anna Kendrick was in Twilight once upon a time. She appeared alongside Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan as her pal Jessica Stanley starting in 2008. Although Kendrick's role was fairly small, the filming process left a lasting impression on the actress, to say the least. She told Vanity Fair in June 2020 that filming in Portland, Ore. was definitely not easy.

"I just remember being so cold and miserable, and I just remember my Converse being completely soaked through, and feeling like, 'You know, this is a really great group of people, and I'm sure that we would be friends in a different time, but I want to murder everyone,'" Kendrick said.

She even went on to compare filming the ultra popular movie to a hostage situation. "Although, it was also kind of bonding. There was something about it, that was like, you know, like you go through some trauma event. Like, you imagine people who survive a hostage situation, and you're kind of bonded for life."

Since filming Twilight, Anna Kendrick has moved on to bigger things, even earning herself an Oscar nomination for her role in 2009's Up in the Air alongside George Clooney. Perhaps one of her most well-known roles, however, is as Beca in the Pitch Perfect films, where audiences found out just how talented Kendrick truly is. 

Kendrick started her career in musical theater before making the pivot to Hollywood, which she expanded on during an interview with Collider in 2012. "One of the things I was really insistent on was that whenever I'm singing alone in [Pitch Perfect], I'm singing live on set." She added, "I think I'm just, I'm used to singing in front of people and singing in a recording booth was a little isolating and sterile."

No matter where Kendrick goes from here — as of this writing, she has a couple projects in various stages of production — she'll always have a little bit of Jessica Stanley inside her, and she'll clearly always have fond memories of being in Twilight, too.

In June 2020, she told Vanity Fair that she was surprised she even got the role, because she went to the audition thinking it was a "blow-off" audition that would convince director Catherine Hardwicke to cast her in something in the future. But, alas, she landed the role and added that the filming situation was much better during The Twilight Saga: New Moon, so the cast enjoyed themselves a lot more.