What To Expect When You're Expecting - Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford interview

ANNA Kendrick and Chace Crawford talk about some of what appealed to them about making What To Expect When You’re Expecting and being part of such a large ensemble. Anna also talks about some of the challenges she enjoyed in the script, while Chace reveals some of his cooking secrets – or rather what he’s good at preparing and what you shouldn’t expect from him. They were speaking at a UK press conference for the film…

Q. This must be the first time that a best-selling self-help manual has been made into a feature film. What was it that attracted you to the script and in what ways did it deliver?

Chace Crawford: I read it and I thought my storyline was with Matt [Morrison]. But it turned out my storyline wasn’t with Matt, so I was very disappointed.

Anna Kendrick: Weren’t we all! That you weren’t working with Matt [laughs]!

Chace Crawford: Exactly, I had to work with this one over here! No, I’m kidding! I kind of read the script and we [Anna and I] had a more heartfelt storyline. She was cast and I went and did a chemistry read and that was it… I needed a job! It was great. It really was great. We also shot for two or three weeks and that was it.

Q. And Anna?

Anna Kendrick: I guess I was a little bit surprised. I thought I knew what the script was going to be when I started reading it and I was pleasantly surprised that they went some of the places that they did, particularly with our storyline. I thought it was very candid and very brave to discuss some of the things that come up in such an unexpected situation and feelings of guilt… I just thought it was surprising that what is essentially a light film would go those places. I thought it was very interesting.

Q. You have amazing chemistry. Did you get to hang out beforehand? And did you spend time with any of the rest of the cast?

Anna Kendrick: We didn’t hang out…

Chace Crawford: We hated each other! I can’t even stand her. It’s like, get me out of here now! She’s terrible [laughs]!

Anna Kendrick: Yeah, we hung out. We hung out with the dude group. We didn’t really film scenes with them until the very end but they were there. It was really just a matter of who was in town.

Chace Crawford: I hung out with Rodrigo [Santoro] too before we started. We went to dinner…

Anna Kendrick: They had a little bro-mance going on!

Chace Crawford: That’s right! It was nice. Everyone knew who he was in the Italian place. He speaks three languages.

Q. The material is obviously universal but what do you think that director Kirk Jones brought to it as a Brit?

Chace Crawford: I love Kirk. He was very easy to work with and on day one he let us do our thing. We had a nice little rehearsal process. I’ve told this story before, actually, but rehearsal was fine and then he said [puts on a British accent] would we like to get the logistics of the car scene…

Anna Kendrick: Don’t do the accent!

Chace Crawford: I’m pretty good at it! So, he said: “OK, you’re doing this and then put her on the bonnet.”

Anna Kendrick: No, no, no, he said: “Pop her on the bonnet!” And that was a good two minutes of staring at each other and asking: “What does he mean? Is it a sexual thing?”

Chace Crawford: Do you want me to put her inside the bonnet [laughs]? But once we figured it out, it was great [laughs]!

Q. As the two chefs in the ensemble, do you have signature dishes that you like to cook at home?

Chace Craawford: I’m good at oatmeal! Right? That’s complicated. I can scramble some eggs.

Anna Kendrick: I can’t cook to save my life but I can bake a flour-less chocolate-hazelnut tort with a spicy caramel sauce! Oh yeah! But I can’t cook!

Q. So, it’s just a few eggs for you then Chace?

Chace Crawford: Yeah, I can cook a little breakfast, a little pancakes here and there! Impressive! Some flipping! The complicated ones… with just the box and powder and water and you mix it real quick but it’s really good.