Anna Kendrick is a self-proclaimed “bad bitch,” and behind her girly demeanor and perfectly pressed outfit at our press conference, she’s totally right. Kendrick owns the room at The Four Seasons Hotel where she sits alongside co-star Jeremy Jordan and director Richard LaGravenese, Granted, most of the questions are fielded her way, and she could not have been more humble and hilarious (and bad-ass) about it. Her newest movie, The Last Five Years, is not just another musical for Kendrick, or for Jordan and LaGravenese, for that matter. With its totally unique and unconventional structure, it is unlike any movie any have worked on before. As many of the songs were recorded live during the filming process, we certainly had a lot to talk about, such as the biggest challenges making the film, Kendrick’s worst audition, and those darn cicadas that nearly cost them a day of shooting. We begin:
CINEMACY: HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT TRANSLATING WHAT’S BASICALLY JUST A TWO PEOPLE ON STAGE, TO AN IMMERSIVE, FULL PERFORMANCE?
RICHARD LaGRAVENESE: Originally the show was done as monologues out to the audience and in listening to it I couldn’t help but imagine it as playable scenes, because the songs not only belong to the person singing but also to the person receiving it and it adds a whole other layer to relationships. We worked on backstories for the characters so that when they’re “listening,” their emotional story is being forwarded. [Anna and Jeremy] worked very hard on that.
ANNA KENDRICK: The director of the original production, Daisy Prince, came to set one day and she was having a sort of “out-of-body” experience because first of all she was like, “Cathy speaks!” That was new for her. Also she didn’t know that Cathy would be so artsy, and I forget sometimes that we weren’t working from material that dictated all of these things, because my first experience was reading Richard’s screenplay. For every high school, college, professional production of this, this isn’t the definitive version of Cathy and Jamie.
ANNA, YOUR CHARACTER GOES THROUGH A TERRIBLE AUDITION PROCESS IN THE FILM. WHAT WAS YOUR WORST AUDITION?
AK: So many terrible auditions… [Laughter]. I remember once for this movie that was mediocre at best, there were all these girls and boys for the two leads in this coming of age tale, and the director wanted us to dance together. The director brought us all into the room, how horrifying, and we had to dance with each other in front of everyone else and then we had to perform the scenes in front of everyone. Oh my god, I still think about it to this day, it’s the memory that pops up when I’m about to fall asleep and then I’m just like, up until 2:30am. Cold sweats. So certainly, I recognize myself very much in the song “Climbing Uphill.”
HOW DO YOU OVERCOME THAT REJECTION?
AK: Oh I’m just a bad bitch [Laughter]. That’s the thing though, clearly I don’t. I’m still thinking about it. It’s like any embarrassing experience that you have, I think it just makes you normal. I don’t feel the need to move past it because it’s a part of me and if I didn’t have those experiences, I would be unable to relate to other people because I would be like, “what do you mean you were embarrassed? Isn’t everything wonderful for you all the time?” It’s good to be humbled.
JEREMY JORDAN: Shame is good.
AK: Shame is good. Self-doubt is healthy [laughter].
RICHARD, HOW DID YOU APPROACH THIS FILM SO IT WOULD COME ACROSS AS INCLUSIVE TO THE PEOPLE THAT MAY NOT BE FAMILIAR WITH THE PLAY?
RL: I didn’t [Laughter]. My goal here was to make something for myself and people that I know love theater. I am a geek and I know that this score is a classic among us, and nowadays I realize that with the technology business changing so much from when I started, there are opportunities where I don’t have to appeal to a mass audience anymore, I can make something that’s different and risky and do it the way I want to do it. That’s why I didn’t want to [make this film] with any Hollywood involvement– I didn’t want people to impose on it, to make it more “accessible” to the general public. I’d like the general public to step up and say this is something different. People who will like it will like it, people who don’t get it will not get it at all. And that’s fine with me.
YOU BOTH ARE INCREDIBLE SINGERS, WHAT WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING SONG TO SING?
JJ: The most challenging song for me was probably the “The Schmuel Song.” We were in a 95 degree apartment in the middle of summer wearing Christmas sweaters…
AK: I was so smelly and he had to pretend to like me…
JJ: So smelly. I had to scream as an old Jewish man and at the same time, have 20 different props and dress [Anna] by putting bows on her head and use swords made out of umbrellas, Oh God. And she’s just sitting on the couch making fun of me the entire time. It was probably one of her favorite days, although it was a nightmare for me.
AK: I really enjoyed doing “Summer in Ohio” because it was a sort of fantasy and it’s one of the only pieces in the film that’s actually like a fantasy. I guess to most challenging was “See I’m Smiling” just by the nature of it, trying to be honest in that song and also trying to belt D’s and stuff.
JJ: There were some people across that lake [shooting location] that were like, what the hell is going on over there?
RL: We also had the luck of the cicadas– apparently they make their migration to Staten Island once every 16 years, and that Wednesday they decided to come. This is going to sound like a made up story but it’s not because I was freaking out. On the sound man’s chair there was a cicada, and just for a joke I knelt down and said “please tell your people to just be quiet” [Laughter]. We ended up not having too bad a time with them.
BEING THAT THIS IS NOT YOUR FIRST TIME DOING A MUSICAL, HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS ONE IN COMPARISON TO THE OTHERS LIKE PITCH PERFECT & INTO THE WOODS. THEY’RE ALL MUSICALS, BUT COULDN’T BE MORE DIFFERENT.
AK: You’re absolutely right, I think that it’s a cute tagline for people to say I’m doing these musicals all in a row but they’re such different movies, they don’t feel the same at all. Especially because Into The Woods was this enormous production and we had the time and resources to be perfectionists and I was very, very grateful for that and this was more a situation that was held together with love and duct tape, and that’s exhilarating, actually. If anything, I found the waiting on Into The Woods one of the many challenges. To be on a time budget [with The Last Five Years] and be that focused was incredibly helpful. If I’m honest, I prefer this way of working, but it’s just not conducive to telling a story like Into The Woods so very different experiences but equally rewarding.
Well, if I knew the secret there wouldn’t have been so many takes where I sounded like a f*cking dying chipmunk.
I HEARD YOU SANG “STILL HURTING” 17 TIMES.
AK: Sure… [Laughter].
RL: It wasn’t because of her voice, most of it was because of the camera hitting the table…
AK: That’s the real problem with movies, the camera.
HOW DID YOU KEEP THAT SONG FRESH AFTER SINGING IT SO MANY TIMES?
AK: I feel like I drew a lot of energy from the support of the crew who were unbelievably compassionate and understanding. Nothing gave me greater inspiration than seeing the 40-year-old dolly operator in his classic Hawaiian t-shirt, he had the same earpiece in his ear that I had and watching his face and all these people are honoring the thing that you’re trying to do, that gives you an unbelievable reserve of energy.
HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO DEVELOP CHEMISTRY WITH JUST 21 DAYS OF SHOOTING?
JJ: We didn’t [Laughter]. Haha no, you know like anybody getting to know somebody, we went and had drinks and got drunk. And told some fun stories about each other. And then you go to work and then you mind that experience when you have to get intimate, and then you learn to laugh sh*t off too. You learn to just have fun and not take it too seriously… until Richard makes you do seven takes in a row of yelling at Anna Kendrick and then you’re like, “I need a hug.”
DID YOU FIND YOURSELF SIDING WITH ONE CHARACTER OVER THE OTHER AT THE END OF THE FILM?
JJ: Naturally when you’re shooting it you’re going to side with your own character because you have to get into the headspace of that person, you understand them.
RL: My approach was: everybody has their reasons. Love is this poor thing, we put so much pressure on it, it has to be forever, it has to look like this, it has to feel like this, and I think you have to fall in love with certain people to evolve personally. It doesn’t mean that the love that was lost is a regret, it means it was necessary for you at that time. I believe [Cathy and Jamie] really loved each other, but it wasn’t just about that. She had an identity that was being subsumed by his, he was in a new place in his life; they loved each other but it didn’t work out, and how often does that happen to all of us?
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO CRYING AND SINGING WITHOUT MESSING UP THE MAKEUP?
RL: Haha, what’s the secret!?
AK: Well, if I knew the secret there wouldn’t have been so many takes where I sounded like a f*cking dying chipmunk. The thing was, we were open to the idea of sacrificing a certain amount of vocal quality for performance. In “Still Hurting,” that was sort of fine. But then in something like “See I’m Smiling,” at the end of that day I screeched. I was absolutely undone.
RL: She had to, emotionally that’s where she was.
AK: We just had to go through it and hope for the best because in that scene she is powerful and she is expressing herself and we just had to go for it. By the end of that day there was nothing going on in the old throat center.
THIS IS COMING OUT RIGHT BEFORE VALENTINE’S DAY, DO YOU SEE THIS AS A DATE MOVIE?
RL: Well this weekend you can have the real hard sex with 50 Shades of Grey and then come and see us and see what happens after the hard sex and you have to deal with reality.
JJ: I’m pretty sure our sex in the movie was PG-13.
RL: I know that when people come to see this, the movie is reflective of where you are at that time. I showed it to a young friend of mine who hated [Jamie] and I didn’t understand why until realized she had just broken up with her boyfriend. You project whatever you’re feeling onto it, and that way if you’re thinking about love on Valentine’s Day weekend it’s a great movie…
AK: Yeah, it’s also a great movie to say, “aww, I’m so glad our relationship is so healthy.”
Check out our review of The Last Five Years here.
