- Star and director of Woman of the Hour has donated her fee
- The film is about a serial killer who appeared on a TV dating show in the 1970s
- Woman of the Hour has been a hit for Netflix since it was released
Anna Kendrick has confirmed that she has given her fee from her new film Woman of the Hour to charities as she felt profiting from it would have been “gross”.
Killer appearance
Kendrick, who made her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour, as well as starring in it, said that the subject of the film made her decide to donate her fee.
Woman of the Hour focuses on the story of a serial killer, Rodney Alcala who appeared on US TV dating show The Dating Game in 1978 while in the midst of a murder spree. Kendrick plays Cheryl Bradshaw, a contestant who appeared on the same show with Alcala.
Alcala was later arrested and found guilty of murdering eight women between 1971 and 1979. However, he is suspected of murdering many more women and young girls, possibly more than 100.
Since debuting on Netflix, it has been watched the equivalent of 23 million times.
Not about making money
During a recent appearance on Ashley Flowers’ podcast Crime Junkie, Kendrick explained why she donated her fee to Rainn (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and the National Centre for Victims of Crime.
“This was never a money-making venture for me, because all the resources went into actually making the movie,” Kendrick said. “But it wasn’t until the week before TIFF [Toronto Film Festival, where Woman of the Hour premiered] that I thought, oh, the movie’s going to make money.
“And I asked myself the question of, do you feel gross about this? And I did. And so, yeah, I’m not making money off the movie.”
Kendrick went on to explain the movie is not about Alcala but the impact he had on the people who came across him. Her aim was to focus on the women’s stories.
