Anna Kendrick on the true life events in Woman of the Hour
We spoke with director & actor Anna Kendrick and writer Ian McDonald on creating their movie Woman of the Hour. Ian immediately found himself intrigued in the real life events of a man who was perpetrating several crimes against women over the course of several years, and how the systems in place to protect actually allowed him to evade consequences for an extended period of time, to the point where he ended up as a contestant on a dating show.
It was important to both of them to focus on the victims and the systems around him instead of trying to understand the why of his violent actions. They discovered a constant natural tension in telling the story given that it captures several moments that feel very familiar, particularly to female audiences where on the surface there might not appear to be something wrong but a gut instinct and feeling of being unsafe takes over.
Anna Kendrick was stepping behind the camera as a first time filmmaker in directing the movie, and yet had an immediately keen eye for detail. She came up with the idea of using mirrors and glass as reflective surfaces to show women at times were they weren’t being fully seen by other characters and people on screen. Equally she put a lot of thought into a sequence which sees her character walking across an empty parking lot, in thinking about the way this would feel in the moment to look at where the nearest point of safety might be and the choices she could make in sound design.
They both felt an enormous amount of responsibility in telling the story and found that focusing in on the smaller details throughout the process was just as important as exploring the larger themes and topics of the film.
Watch the full conversation below:
Q&A on the Netflix film Woman of the Hour with director & actor Anna Kendrick and writer Ian McDonald. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.
Cheryl Bradshaw, a single woman looking for a suitor on a hit 1970s TV show, chooses charming bachelor Rodney Alcala, unaware that, behind the man's gentle facade, he hides a deadly secret.
