Anna Kendrick Gives Nods to Her Home State of Maine on ‘Call Her Daddy’

Even though actress and director Anna Kendrick has called Los Angeles, California home for two decades, she was born and raised in the great state of Maine! And you know what they say, you can take the girl out of Maine but you can't take the Maine out of the girl. They say that, don't they?

In various interviews over the years she has given nods to local local places and it's thrilling every single time. When she was on Hot Ones podcast she referenced Springers Jewelers in Portland and shared a fond memory she had of her late father who collected their Christmas ornaments:

Anna Kendrick is a bit of a hometown hero around these parts.

I'll never forget when she published her book in 2016 "Scrappy Little Nobody", she came back to her hometown bookstore Books-A-Million in South Portland and gave everyone a signed copy of her book. It still stands proudly on my bookshelf.

When I heard Anna was going to be a guest on the Call Her Daddy Podcast, I was over the moon. I already listen to Call Her Daddy on a weekly basis and now that my Scrappy Little Nobody was going to be a guest, I wouldn't miss it for the world.

I listened to the episode as soon as it dropped. A big highlight was learning the origin story of the Cups song and how genuinely shocked she was when the song started climbing the Billboard top 100 charts.

I remember playing that song at my first radio job when it came out!

She talks a lot about growing up in Maine and what it was like to shuttle from Portland to New York City for auditions on the Greyhound bus.

She talks about one time she went into NYC with her brother who was two years older than her, she was about 11 at the time. It was supposed to be just a day trip but she got a callback and had to stay another day.

Her parents were back in Maine and had to give her their credit card information so she and her brother could stay in a hotel for the night. I love that so much, two little kids taking on the big city! It was worth it because that is when she scored her role in the Broadway Musical "High Society" and was nominated for a Tony Award.

In the interview Alex Cooper asks Anna what her classmates in Maine thought when she was finding so much success in acting at such a young age. She said even her closest friends had a hard time grasping it because it didn't make sense. What would a kid from Maine be doing at the Sundance Film Festival the same year Britney Spears and Fred Durst attended? Well, she was there!

I really appreciated how eloquently Anna spoke about being in an abusive relationship. She mentioned how impossible it can be to identify "red flags" in a situation when the other person is doing everything in their power to make you believe that everything that is wrong with the relationship is your fault.

This conversation was heartfelt, honest, funny (at times) and genuine. If you are a fan of Anna, her movies, or just podcasts in general, this interview is absolutely worth a listen.