Anna Kendrick is an abused woman living in denial in “Alice, Darling.” The abuse isn’t physical, which makes it harder to see — and even harder for people to believe.
The film opens this weekend. Deco caught up with Anna because, you know, we like to keep in touch.
Anna Kendrick (as Alice): “Hey, baby. Is everything OK?”
Kaniehtiio Horn (as Tess): “What’s going on?”
That’s the question at the center of “Alice, Darling.”
Anna Kendrick stars as someone who’s cracking under the strain of her lover’s controlling ways.
Wunmi Mosaku (as Sophie): “How did Simon know you were here?”
Anna Kendrick (as Alice): “He looked at my email.”
The film handles an abusive relationship differently from most other movies.
Anna Kendrick: “There would always be a moment I would just sort of feel like the message from the TV show or the movie was, if it was abuse, it would look like that, or if it was abuse, you would know it, it would be obvious.”
That difference was crucial to Anna.
Anna Kendrick: “It was important to be in a kind of more challenging gray area.”
If some of you think Alice is being overly dramatic about her situation, that’s fine, because Anna says it’s better than showing something really obvious.
Anna Kendrick: “I would rather sort of risk that than to like have him shove her against the wall or something, just so that the audience could all agree, ‘OK, this guy is an abusive [expletive], because sometimes things are not that black and white.”
Charlie Carrick plays Simon, the obvious bad guy of the story.
Charlie Carrick (as Simon): “Are you sorry for what you did? How are we supposed to be happy together if we can’t trust each other?”
If you really hate this character, it means Charlie did his job.
Anna Kendrick: “But I think he did a really great job of really believing that he was the victim.”
Anna wants you to take something important from the movie: anybody can end up being Alice.
Anna Kendrick: “You can be the Alice in any combination of gender, sexual orientation. This is not a gendered issue.”
Charlie Carrick (as Simon): “Nobody loves you like I love you, my beautiful girl.”
“Alice, Darling” is now showing in theaters. It will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video at a later date.
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