Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour, a Netflix true-crime thriller about real-life serial killer Rodney Alcala, who shockingly appeared on a 1978 episode of The Dating Game. In addition to directing and producing, Kendrick stars as Cheryl Bradshaw, the contestant who unknowingly picked Alcala as her date on the show.
Though Kendrick wasn’t overly focused on the film’s historical accuracy, she dove deep into research to understand Alcala and his victims, who may have numbered up to 130. Some of the dark details she uncovered influenced how she directed the film, which doesn’t shy away from showing the brutality of Alcala’s crimes.
“I don’t think I made it through a week without bursting into tears,” Kendrick shared. While doing research, she came across an article about one of Alcala’s victims and realized she knew the location where the woman had lived. The chilling realization that the woman would have heard the ocean as Alcala attacked her deeply affected Kendrick. It even inspired her to ask the screenwriter to start a scene on the water to capture the eerie contrast between the beauty of nature and the horror of violence.
This theme of nature as both peaceful and dangerous became central to the film. Kendrick deliberately placed some of Alcala’s crimes in stunning natural settings, like deserts or oceans, to emphasize the unpredictability of life. As she explains, “A place that feels safe and healing one moment can suddenly become the ultimate danger.”
The movie also explores the risks of intimacy, both physical and emotional. “When we open ourselves up to others, it can be the most beautiful part of life, but also the most terrifying,” Kendrick explains.
Balancing the heavy subject matter with the lighthearted energy required on a film set wasn’t easy. Kendrick said the cast and crew were good at keeping things respectful when dealing with the material, switching from fun and creative to serious and reverent when necessary.
Woman of the Hour debuts on Netflix this Friday.