Anna Kendrick candidly talked about her relationship with her father before he passed away during the Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, January 9, 2023.
The actress, 37, said her dad, William King Kendrick, died at 75 of end-stage liver cirrhosis. William and Kendrick’s mom Janice divorced when the actress was a teenager, and he later married his wife Judith, per People.
The actress shared that she began therapy three years ago and during the sessions, she discovered that there were “unspoken things” between her and her dad, however they “both understood.”
“I don’t mean to denigrate anyone that does this, but I didn’t need to have the Hallmark thing where I spelled it out because we both understand,” she explained.
The Oscar nominee also discussed difficulties in planning quality time with her dad amid his failing health and uncertainties about how long he had left.
“The cat with nine lives, this man, absolutely. I would be in the middle of production going, ‘If I need to come home tell me. It will probably blow up this movie because it’s a very small movie and they don’t have the funding, whatever, but if that’s what’s happening let me know, I’ll go.’ It was never clear,” said Kendrick.
The Pitch Perfect star added that she and her brother had “sort of been prepared” to get a call with the sad news for the past decade.
“Especially in the last couple of years, there were constantly these updates about his health, and we don’t talk about anything. So, you know, there were these very vague but somehow very serious updates happening all the time and we couldn’t really read between the lines and figure out what are we talking about,” she said. “I would just love a timeline, but we can’t really ask those questions.”
“We were always trying to interpret what was happening. And [my brother] and I were talking about how we’ve sort of been prepared for the call to come at anytime for the last 10 years,” continued Kendrick. “Because, again, my dad was larger, he had heart problems in the past, and just generally not a man who kept his health in good order. … It always was just, ‘It could happen at any time.’ “
