While we tend to talk about the differences between the Twilight movies and books quite a bit, we don’t talk about enough of the variety of experiences the Twilight cast had on the popular films. While its leads Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner were thrown into a whirlwind of fame, the experience wasn’t quite as extreme for everyone else in those films – including Anna Kendrick.
Kendrick played the supporting role of Jessica in every Twilight film. While she says she gets recognized a lot for being in the vampire movies lately, she shared why she feels like a “bystander” to the phenomenon, telling Business Insider:
I guess I don’t really view it that differently, because my experience was really unique in that cast. Almost everyone else in the cast had to treat every moment like life and death, good versus evil, our eternal souls are on the line — and all I had to do was show up and make a snarky comment as I kind of pass through the frame.
In the Twilight franchise, Anna Kendrick plays a human classmate and friend of Bella who never gets immersed in the inner turmoil of the protagonist’s life as she meets the vampires and werewolves of Forks, Washington. Her part oftentimes serves as comic relief to break the tension, and she has tons of memorable scenes. However, her experience on the films just wasn’t as heightened as her cast mates. As she continued:
So I really felt like such a bystander to it in a way that I was very grateful to be privy to this kind of cultural phenomenon without it really impacting me in the ways that I think would’ve felt really challenging and overwhelming. The fans of those books are so invested that even if you came into the franchise really late and you had one line but you were playing a vampire or a werewolf, they’re obsessed with you. They’re picking apart every detail of your costume and your gestures and whatever, and I just didn’t have that level of responsibility.
It sounds like the Pitch Perfect actress kind of got the best of both worlds when it comes to being in these movies. She got to be part of a massive piece of pop culture and share scenes with its talented cast without getting picked apart for how she was playing the character or being followed around by the paparazzi. Kendrick also said this:
I could imagine people saying, ‘Oh, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to the whole ‘Twilight’ set,’ and I’m like, oh, I kind of got to be that. I just really wasn’t in the thick of it.
The Trolls star has commented before about how the Twilight stars went from heartthrobs to “the butt of every joke.” She called the tone shift “very funny” and “very wild” to her.
The main stars have spoken extensively over the years about their different experience starring in the films too. For example, Kristen Stewart once recalled the first time she was photographed by the paparazzi while “smoking a bowl” with her ex-boyfriend and her dog on her parent’s porch. It was that moment when she realized Twilight was going to be a huge deal. Kendrick, conversely, doesn’t have those stories to tell about being in the franchise.
Now, years removed from the vampire flicks, Anna Kendrick has made quite the name for herself. Her latest movie, Woman of the Hour, is a true crime thriller that is also her directorial debut. It’s about serial killer Rodney Alcala appearing on The Dating Game in the midst of a murder spree. It’s receiving high praise from critics, and it is available to stream now with a Netflix subscription.