Anna Kendrick tells Zurich how a goofy audition won her Up in the Air role

Anna Kendrick thinks she landed her Oscar-nominated role by assuming she had no chance.

She said so during a Zurich Film Festival masterclass on Sunday afternoon, held while she was on the festival circuit with Babies. The session was hosted by Max Loong, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Kendrick traced her path from early stage work to her Academy Award nomination for Up in the Air. In Jason Reitman’s film she played Natalie, the ambitious, no-nonsense newcomer opposite George Clooney. She said she went into the audition with an awkward, goofy read because she felt the job was already out of reach. The gamble worked.

Her memories of Clooney were warm and funny. She described him as charming, funny, mischievous, whiskey-drinking and gorgeous. She also recalled him telling her on their first day of filming Up in the Air that he still gets nervous starting a project, a kindness she later realised was an act to calm her own anxiety.

Twilight came up too. Kendrick played Jessica, a school friend, in the 2009 film. She said the part was written in the book and script as a tall, blonde, athletic, popular girl, which did not match her at all. She remembered running into Mae Whitman in the waiting room before the audition.

The conversation ranged across the jobs that made her widely known. Kendrick discussed Pitch Perfect, the musical comedy about college a cappella singing, plus A Simple Favor and her 2023 directorial debut Woman of the Hour, her first film as director.

Music was an accident that turned into a hit. Her Pitch Perfect song Cups earned a platinum record, a sales award for one million units in the United States, and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, the main US singles chart. After the film, Universal asked her to record a full-length version and make a music video.

Directing is next. Netflix has announced that Kendrick will direct The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film for Netflix is based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, according to Deadline and Netflix Tudum.

For fans, this means a rare unguarded tour through the parts that shaped her. No big reveal. Just a working actor explaining how nerves, long odds and a cup song added up to a lasting screen career.