Anna Kendrick donated all her Woman of the Hour money to anti-sexual violence charities

Anna Kendrick took her first massive step into the world of being a film director with her debut picture Woman of the Hour, streaming now on Netflix. Already a hugely successful and very bankable star as a performer, her first major film bagged a Netflix release and high critical acclaim and tells the true story of a woman who got matched with serial killer Rodney Alcala on a dating show in 1970s America. Anna Kendrick has now shared that the money she made from Woman of the Hour she actually donated to anti-sexual violence charities – namely RAINN and The National Centre for Victims of Crime.

Speaking in an interview for SiriusXM, Anna Kendrick explained how it was at a film festival where distributors buy movies. “Eventually, Netflix bought the movie. But it wasn’t until til the week before TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival] I thought, ‘oh, the movie’s going to make money.’ I went from being like ‘let me know when the movie happens’ to being responsible for this. I was just making the movie and making the movie, and we barely made the deadline to get into TIFF.

“And then it was like, ‘oh, there’s gonna be money that’s exchanging hands’ and I sort of asked myself the question ‘do you feel gross about this’? And I did.” Because of the true crime nature of Woman of the Hour and the general discourse surrounding the ethics of true crime, it’s clear Anna Kendrick was questioning how she felt about pocketing a massive salary off the back of the film when the issues are serious and affected real lives and victims.

Anna continued “I’m not making money off the movie. The money has gone to RAINN and The National Centre for the Victims of Violent Crime.” RAINN stands for Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

Props to Anna Kendrick – truly a woman of principle and a great director and those the profit donated from Woman of the Hour to those charities will have immeasurable impact . I am so happy for the success of this film and can’t wait to see what she does next.

Woman of the Hour is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• An uncanny side by side comparison of the Woman of the Hour cast versus the real people

• The Dating Game episode with the real Rodney Alcala has resurfaced and it’s terrifying

• Anna Kendrick says the ‘weird remark’ about nudity scenes in Woman of the Hour was real