Up in the Air's Anna Kendrick on Getting Hired, Not Fired

Up in the Air (2009)

Jason Reitman has said that he wrote the role of Natalie in Up in the Air with you in mind, but when the Hollywood Reporter announced your casting, the article said that Ellen Page and Emily Blunt had been circling the part. Were you privy to any of that?

I certainly didn't know anything was going on. I mean, I'm not an idiot -- it's a George Clooney movie, it's a Jason Reitman movie, probably everyone in the world wanted this role -- but I specifically didn't know if they were leaning toward somebody else or who wanted it. To be perfectly honest, I don't know that those reports are true. They printed it, but I haven't talked to Jason about it. [Pause] You know, a bunch of agents from other companies have told me that they're really happy for me, but when they made that announcement, they wanted to kill me.

At what point did Jason tell you he wrote the part for you? Was it when you went in for your audition?

No, no. We had lunch after I was cast and he told me that. I was already trying to act like I wasn't completely out of my depth, so when he told me that, I was like, "Oh, OK. That makes total sense because I'm fabulous, so why wouldn't you." [Laughs]

Did you feel like there was a point where your conception of this character really changed?

Honestly, I think my biggest shift in attitude about who she was happened before my audition. When I first read it, I wanted to feel really bad for her and I wanted to make her seem sympathetic. I wanted to make all the silly things about her feel really real and really tragic. Then, when I was reading the scenes a few more times before the audition, I realized, "This isn't tragic, this is hilarious!" Because I'm playing someone who's around my age and finding out how disappointing it can be to grow up, I wanted to show how tragic that is, but really what I needed to show is how funny it was. That was the biggest shift for me, to be able to laugh at the foolish things about Natalie, and that essentially meant I had to laugh at the foolish things about myself.

It's interesting that you say that, because you always hear about how studio executives worry that their characters aren't sympathetic enough. Were there ever times when you thought, "Maybe I'm putting myself too far out there?"

There's definitely a sense for me that I want to protect her. I love Natalie, and I love that she's foolish and strong. I love everything about her, even the kind of screwed-up parts, so there were definitely times where I wanted her to hide more than would have been appropriate. There were days when Jason pushed me a little bit, and I'm certainly glad that he did. Ultimately, the parts that I wanted to hide are the parts the audience loves the most. She wants to maintain her dignity, but the audience loves it when she falls apart.

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