Anna Kendrick is currently working on her directorial debut, The Dating Game (it’s darker than the title sounds), but she found time to stop by Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, where the two discussed Alice, Darling, Anna’s new movie that will arrive in AMC theaters on January 20.
That film involves some difficult subject matter, given that Anna portrays a woman who’s embroiled within an emotionally abusive relationship, and her friends stage an intervention during a weekend away. Anna previously admitted that the film speaks to her own “experience with emotional abuse and psychological abuse,” and she did elaborate more while speaking with Shepard, but also, he let it be known that his wife, Kristen Bell, nurtures a jealous streak that applies to Anna only.
Via PEOPLE, Shepard revealed, “I’ve known Kristen [Bell] for fifteen years, she has only had jealousy over a single human, and it’s been you. I’d never saw it. It blew my mind.” The former Punk’d prankster did mention that Bell had granted “permission” for what he’s revealing, and he had even more to offer:
“Kristen was like, ‘Who is this other short person? Oh, so she can sing like that too? I’m already here. We got another one.’ … She monitored you, recognized how brilliant you were, lost some roles to you, and slowly processed the whole thing, and has nothing but wonderful feelings for you. But you’re the only person who ever made her jealous that I witnessed.”
Kendrick gave a candid response, which is that “I never felt that she liked me.” However, all is apparently good between the two actresses.
Also during the episode, Kendrick let loose a bit on her abusive ex, who she did not reference by name. She explained that they were together for at least six years, and (via HuffPost) “[w]e had embryos together, this was my person.” Kendrick relayed how, at a certain point, she felt that she was “living with a stranger,” and he became “increasingly hostile” to the point where “I’m curled in a ball, [he’s] screaming at me, I don’t know how we got here.” The two eventually went their separate ways (he’d also been cheating on her with a woman 20 years younger than him), and while Kendrick was struggling to overcome the effects of emotional abuse, her agent sent a certain script her way.
Alice, Darling will arrive in theaters on January 20.