The Movie Anna Kendrick Refuses to Finish Watching – Here’s Why She Can’t Stomach It

While many actors look back on their earliest projects with a mix of nostalgia and embarrassment, Anna Kendrick seems to harbor particular unease toward a certain franchise that helped kickstart her career: The Twilight Saga. Despite the series’ massive cultural impact, Kendrick’s experience on set and her reflections over the years suggest it’s a project she’d prefer not to revisit.

A “Miserable” Start

Kendrick’s big break came with her Oscar-nominated role in Up in the Air, but before that, she appeared as Jessica Stanley, a chatty high school friend of Bella Swan, in the Twilight films. Far from glamorous, Kendrick’s recollections of filming the first Twilight movie in Portland, Oregon, are strikingly unenthusiastic. In a 2020 Vanity Fair interview, she described the on-set conditions as “cold and miserable,” going so far as to compare it to a “hostage situation.” She recalled trudging through the rain in soaked Converse shoes, a far cry from the glitzy image associated with the franchise’s vampire romance. “I just remember wanting to murder everyone,” she joked, summing up the challenging environment.

Forgetting She Was Even In It

Perhaps more telling than her complaints about the production is Kendrick’s frequent forgetfulness about even being part of the Twilight series. In a 2018 social media post, she exclaimed, “Holy shit. I just remembered I was in Twilight.” More recently, in a 2024 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she admitted that she often completely forgets her involvement. This lapse isn’t because her role was minor—Jessica Stanley appeared in multiple films—but rather because she felt like a “bystander” to the franchise’s pop-culture explosion. Kendrick has said she never quite connected with the Twilight fandom and wasn’t swept up in the phenomenon that followed its release.

A Changed Perspective on Watching Movies

Adding to her reluctance, Kendrick has expressed how her acting career has affected her ability to enjoy films. “When you start making movies, there’s a period where they’re kind of ruined for you,” she shared in a 2023 interview on The Hot Ones. Her critical eye often focuses on “how the sausage gets made,” making it harder to simply sit back and enjoy a movie—especially one tied to memories of harsh filming conditions and a project she never fully embraced.

Is Twilight the One She Can’t Finish?

While Kendrick hasn’t explicitly stated she refuses to finish watching Twilight, the breadcrumbs are there. From her “hostage situation” analogy to her repeated forgetfulness and the emotional disconnect she described, it’s clear she isn’t eager to revisit the series. For an actor who starred in one of the biggest franchises of the late 2000s, Kendrick’s ambivalence toward Twilight is unique—and, for fans, a bit surprising.

An Outlier in an Otherwise Celebrated Career

Despite her complicated relationship with Twilight, Kendrick’s career has soared. From her charming lead in Pitch Perfect to her acclaimed dramatic turns in films like Alice, Darling and her directorial debut Woman of the Hour, Kendrick has moved far beyond her early vampire saga days. Her reflections on Twilight serve as a reminder that even actors who’ve starred in blockbuster hits sometimes find themselves at odds with their own work—and, in Kendrick’s case, a particular set of rainy Portland days might remain best left in the past.a