Anna Kendrick praised her Up in the Air co-star George Clooney for the “complete fiction” he told her to calm her nerves ahead of filming the six-time Oscar-nominated dramedy film.
In a recent appearance on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, the Woman of the Hour helmer and star admitted it was “absolutely terrifying” to act alongside the Ocean’s Eleven vet. While Kendrick had already been awarded a Tony nomination a decade prior to the filming of the 2009 Jason Reitman movie, she was in her early 20s starring alongside heavyhitters like Clooney and Vera Farmiga.
“He is kind of capital G, George, and he works really hard to make you forget that and feel comfortable,” the Pitch Perfect star said. “The very, very first shot that he and I did together was my first shot in the movie. We were standing on this people mover, and we’re kind of waiting and the camera is pretty far away and he said, ‘God, do you get nervous on the first day? I get so nervous. Do you get insecure? I get really insecure.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I do, George, I do. I totally get nervous. I totally get insecure.’ And he was doing this whole thing about, like, ‘Yeah, I worry, like, did they even hire the right guy?’ Whatever.”
Kendrick continued, “It wasn’t for years that suddenly that memory popped into my brain, and I thought, ‘No, he does not. No, he does not get nervous and he does not get insecure or worry that they’ve hired the wrong guy.’ Maybe that’s something he dealt with earlier in his career, but it was such a gift for him to say that because it felt like, ‘Oh, OK, I can bring my anxiety into the moment and someone is gonna hold space for that and be cool with that.’ And it really, really set me at ease. And was a complete fiction.”
A box-office success and hit with critics and the Academy alike, both Kendrick and Clooney received Oscar nominations for their roles, for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Actor in a Leading Role (ultimately ceding to wins from Mo’Nique for Precious and Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart). The tonally deft film follows two downsizers, contracted by corporations to lay off workers amid the ongoing recession. When Kendrick’s overachieving new hire proposes a plan that would help fire people more cost-effectively over video conferencing, Clooney’s jaded bureaucrat enlists her to travel cross-country to show her why face-to-face interactions are crucial to the business.