Abstract
This first academic piece on Anna Kendrick examines her constructed and individualistic off-screen and on-screen persona, with particular emphasis on the prevailing issues of patriarchy within the film industry. This is achieved through a study of the representation of women within the melodrama, romantic comedy/chick flick, fantasy, and musical genres of film, whilst considering Kendrick’s own perspective on the subject from interviews and her observations in her memoir Scrappy Little Nobody. The aim of this article is to further discourse on the representation of women within the aforementioned genres, and interrogate the portrayal of the female performer more broadly, both on- and off-screen.
Chapter one of this dissertation analyzes Kendrick’s off-screen depiction in conjunction with her child star status, celebrity culture, and social media. The following chapter investigates her on-screen personality as Natalie Keener in Up in the Air and Beca Mitchell in Pitch Perfect, the films which brought her to international recognition as an actor. The final chapter of this work evaluates her more recent on-screen characterization as Cinderella in Into the Woods and Cathy Hiatt in The Last Five Years.
Author Biography
Luke Batten is a film and TV graduate from the UK. His approach to film criticism is focused on film’s sociological implications. His publications include: “(500) Days of Manipulation: Challenging the Romcom” (2015), Anna Kendrick: Acting Real in Tinseltown (2017), and “Groundhog Day: The Day Before Tomorrow” (2017).
