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Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, has landed on Netflix.
It tells the shocking true story of how a serial killer managed to become a contestant on a dating show in the late 1970s, which has naturally piqued the interest of true crime fans.
The film, which Kendrick told The Independent is the “most revealing piece of work I’ve ever done”, focuses on Rodney Alcala, who appeared on The Dating Game, a Blind Date style show, in 1978.
Alcala was 35 years old when he appeared on the show and had reportedly already murdered at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a child.
Alcala’s exact death toll is unknown but investigators believe the man dubbed “The Dating Game Killer” may have killed at least 100 people.
He was ultimately convicted of his crimes in 1980 and would die in prison in 2021. This was not before he’d managed to woo contestant Cheryl Bradshaw on live TV, played in the film by Kendrick herself.
It Follows and Don’t Breathe star Daniel Zovatto plays Alcala in the adaptation.
Cheryl would pick Alcala to go on a date with her but their date never actually happened. Bradshaw backed out of the agreement because she reportedly found Alcala “creepy”.
Clips from the real The Dating Game episode are available online but when speaking to the YouTube channel Jake’s Takes, Kendrick revealed that they had to improvise parts of the film.
“The clips that are online are fascinating but the episode in its entirety appears to have been lost to time,” says Kendrick.
The 39-year-old actor added: “It was really fun to take that vacuum and use it as an opportunity to have Cheryl go off the rails, because in the lost footage that probably didn’t happen.“
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Meanwhile, The Pitch Perfect star has reflected on her time filming the beloved vampire franchise Twilight – based on the fantasy book series by Stephenie Meyer – in an interview with Business Insider published on October 18.
When asked whether she views her experience differently looking back on the Twilight films, Kendrick admitted that her contribution to the series “was really unique” compared to others in the cast.
“Almost everyone else in the cast had to treat every moment like life and death, good versus evil, our eternal souls are on the line – and all I had to do was show up and make a snarky comment as I kind of pass through the frame,” she said.
“So I really felt like such a bystander to it in a way that I was very grateful to be privy to this kind of cultural phenomenon without it really impacting me in the ways that I think would’ve felt really challenging and overwhelming,” Kendrick continued.
