Since becoming the second youngest nominee ever for a Tony Award (in 1998, at age 12, for the role of Daisy in the Broadway musical adaptation of
High Society), Anna Kendrick has been recurringly an "up and coming star."
She was next praised uniformly by critics as the standout performance in the 2003 film,
Camp, about a performing arts summer camp similar to (and filmed at) the famed
Stagedoor Manor. As Fritzi, Anna's (AK for short on this website)
scene leading to and including her singing of Sondheim's "The Ladies Who Lunch" is not to be missed! And her experience here blending naive innocence with lurking evil would become a tutorial for aspects of her next noteworthy role four years later.
That role was Ginny Ryerson in 2007's
Rocket Science, in which, as a champion debater, she recruits a stutterer to her high school forensics team. Again, her performance was oft mentioned as standout in reviews of this quirky and entertaining movie. See it if you want to understand why there's a fan site for AK.
With that success, the entertainment industry newspaper,
Variety, put her on its fall 2007 list of "Ten Actors to Watch." And when the vampire romance,
Twilight, opened in fall 2008, many reviewers especially glowed about her scenes-- playing Jessica Stanley, key human friend of main character, Bella Swan. With the fan base of that book series talking up the movie for many months on the Internet, then flocking to theaters as soon as it opened, we'd been predicting (or hoping, anyway) AK would finally get her deserved fame. And the day
Twilight opened, it was announced that AK has been chosen over other Hollywood stars to play the female lead (opposite George Clooney) in
Juno director Jason Reitman's next film,
Up in the Air.
A month later, Entertainment Weekly included her as one of its "Rising Stars: Nine to Watch in 2009." Within weeks of that, she was also signed for a role in the screen adaptation of the graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Finally, the tremendous "buzz" about Up in the Air turned into a roar of admiration (for the film, but more importantly for AK) from critics who saw it premiere at two festivals in September 2009. With some happy critics professing to have previously recognized her ability, and others only now declaring to have discovered her in this "breakout role," AK may have cameras trained on her at the Academy Awards next spring.
Before that, New Moon will open in November, Up in the Air will go mainstream shortly after that in December, and Scott Pilgrim will presumably follow in early 2010. Meanwhile, media coverage of the normally under-the-radar Kendrick is (and may continue to be) booming.
And as we faithfully chronicle all this action, AnnaKendrickOnline continues to be glad more and more people are finding out what we have known for quite a while: Anna Kendrick is terrific!