Anna Kendrick isn’t here for your attempts to unnecessarily sexualize her and the rest of the Barden Bellas. Not only did she have to remind wardrobe designers working on Pitch Perfect 3 that people don’t, in fact, watch the Pitch Perfect movies for their sexy costumes, but she also says she shut down a “problematic” romantic storyline between her and another character.
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actress says the movie was originally written so that Guy Burnet’s character, Theo the music producer in the film, would become her love interest — they were even supposed to kiss at the end. Understandably, because the characters are supposed to have a professional relationship throughout the film and a romantic storyline would have blurred those lines, Kendrick was not about this idea.
“I thought that would be kind of f*cking problematic,” she told Harper’s Bazaar, referencing the professional relationship between the characters. “I was like, ‘Can no one else [see it]? Once I said it, everybody was like, ‘I guess so.’ And they still wanted to have a version at the end when we kissed, and I still said no.”
I probably don’t need to remind you of all the recent discussion of the problematic power imbalances that happen when bosses try to make romantic advances toward their subordinates — but especially in a post-Harvey Weinstein world, it was probably a smart move for Anna to speak up about this scene.