Anna Kendrick May Be a Princess But Shes No Damsel in Distress
Anna Kendrick might not strike you as a Disney princess The 29-year-old actress is known as much for tweeting about things like her post-Oscar hangovers as she is for playing feisty outsiders in Pitch Perfect and Happy Christmas. But Kendrick's Cinderella in the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, out Christmas Day, may surprise you. Kendrick, who was nominated for a Tony for her performance High Society at just 12 years old, will also sing in Pitch Perfect 2 and The Last 5 Years in 2015. TIME talked to her about singing with Meryl Streep, empowered princesses and how she fought for big changes in the Pitch Perfect script. TIME Were you a princess person growing up? , Anna Kendrick I won't lie to you I was a big fan of The Little Mermaid. I would do that thing in the pool, where I would flip my hair back because I wanted to be Ariel. But my older brother didn't want to have an embarrassing little sister, so he insisted that I be exposed to other things. In retrospect, someone two years older than you is not necessarily qualified to say, "I think you're old enough to watch Pulp Fiction now" because I definitely was not. He was responsible for making me a weird little kid. Wait, how old were you when you saw Pulp Fiction?, I was about 11? Maybe some kids are emotionally prepared to deal with Pulp Fiction at 11. I was not. And I think that's made me the person I am today. I'm not complaining, but I did have nightmares for a little while. It's all character building. Obviously the princesses in Into the Woods are very different than your traditional princesses. There seems to be a moment right now with Frozen princesses not waiting for their princes to save them, And Maleficent as well!, Totally. You're now among the growing list of princesses who can save themselves. What are your thoughts on that evolution?