Scrappy Little Nobody is a 2016 memoir by Anna Kendrick, comprising "a collection of autobiographical essays". An audiobook read by Kendrick was released along with the book. Kendrick said of the book: "My goals for this book were to make people laugh, to feel connected to people, and maybe get people to feel more connected to me." The book covers Kendrick's childhood in Maine, her Broadway career as a teenager, her film career, and performing and presenting at the Academy Awards.
So while I’ve enjoyed watching Anna Kendrick’s performances in films like Pitch Perfect and Into the Woods, she wasn’t a star in my telescope until her entertaining autobiography, Scrappy Little Nobody, made me sit up and take note. If good things come in small packages, Kendrick is it.
Kendrick is not only quite funny in her recount of growing up and making it in the industry, but you can almost imagine the smoke coming out of her fingers as they tried to keep up with her brain while writing this. Her tales are full of asides and the zany observations of someone who often feels out of place. Listening to a sample of the audiobook version on audible.com.au – which Kendrick reads herself – you get an even better sense of how easily distracted she can be.
Kendrick is utterly charming as she recounts her socially awkward youth and the path that led her to the stage and screen. Not one to hold back, she can be surprising honest where most people would not, but that simply adds to the enjoyment of her stories and her endearing nature. Kendrick writes as though she’s talking directly to you; she comes across as a gal pal catching up with you, and her life experiences are easily relate-able.
The social discomfort she talks about comes across clearly in Kendrick’s writing style, which is casual and easy to follow despite her entertaining footnotes and random thoughts which permeate each misadventure. She talks about family, friendships, her ‘first time’, growing up, and meeting celebrities. Each episode of her life is amusing, most often by the way she tells it more than what happened itself. Through it all however, Kendrick, most importantly, places herself as an inspiration for young women, showing a can-do attitude and touching on several important social issues along the way
LESSONS LEARNED
Being a young Broadway star isn’t as glamorous as it sounds.
At age 12, Anna Kendrick got a Tony nomination for her supporting role in High Society on Broadway and later went on to appear in A Little Night Music. Despite what you might’ve written in your childhood dream journal about having an artistic life in the city, Kendrick insists it wasn’t all that exciting. The pay wasn’t that great — Kendrick says she went home from High Society with about $250 after the run ended — and she had to spend a lot of time away from her friends at home. “When the show closed I was sad but relieved,” Kendrick writes. “I was ready to go home. Still, maybe because I’d seen my family struggle to pay the bills, even while my father was working two jobs, it was disconcerting to be unemployed. Sure, I could go home and go to school and see my friends and family, but at what cost? Was I a twelve-year-old has been?
“I’m still haunted by this fear,” Kendrick adds. “It has made me very cautious of feeling comfortable in my career—and turned me into a bit of a workaholic.” Perhaps there’s an explanation here as to why she was in six movies in 2016.
People still have no idea what to make of Camp.
The summer before her senior year of high school, Kendrick made her film debut as the scheming Fritzi in 2003’s theater-nerd comedy Camp. Though the film went on to success at Sundance and earned Kendrick an Independent Spirit Award nomination, nobody really knew if it was going to work. And it didn’t, really, in its theatrical release. “Many people who thought they were going to see a musical American Pie were turned off by the homosexuality, cross-dressing, and vintage synthesizers. They were also less forgiving of the uneven quality of the film,” she writes. “Being in that theater at Sundance was one of the great memories of my career, and maybe my life, so far. But when I met a guy in London the following year who said the movie was boring and weird, I couldn’t fault him. And when I met a girl six months ago who told me she named her car and her dog Fritzi, I made a mental note of her distinguishing features in case I had to describe her to the police.”
Scrappy Little Nobody is not only a very witty read, but it has given me new respect for a talent I have only casually enjoyed up until now. I look forward to following her path more closely in future and hopefully, enjoying future books by this multi-talented and inspiring entertainer.