Anna Kendrick Tells AD How She Decorates Her Home for the Holidays
It has now been seven years since Anna Kendrick’s character in the movie Pitch Perfect, Beca, walked shyly into her Barden Bellas audition and performed the rhythmic earworm known as “Cups." But this holiday season, it’s the real-life Kendrick who is belting out a tune that’s sure to be hummed well into the new year. The actress appears in a new commercial (for Frito-Lay), in which she sings a rendition of the classic song “Favorite Things”—except her version is all about snacks.
The entire two-minute video is an ode to all the munchies that help us get through the last few weeks of the year, and it was filmed at a Los Angeles home completely decked out in festive lights, Christmas trees, and snow. It wasn't hard for Kendrick to get into character for the spot—the Noelle star is a self-professed holiday enthusiast, after all. Below, she tells Architectural Digest a bit more about her own holiday aesthetic, how she manages to keep her cool through the hectic hubbub, and more.
Architectural Digest: Did you have a favorite room in the house from the new commercial?
AK: I liked the outdoor scenes a lot. I liked the chaos of getting tangled in the lights and stuff. And I was actually hitting up the crew guys when I was seeing them changing the decorations, asking them, “So, what are the industry secrets for keeping those house lights up?” In the scene where I’m climbing up the ladder to do the lights, I was like, “Are these just binder clips from Home Depot?” And they said, “Yeah, industry secret. They’re the best.” And I was like, “Wait, how have I not thought of this before? That’s brilliant. Binder clips! They hold really, really well. Amazing.
AD: You’ve mentioned that you love holiday decorations, so what’s the first thing you put up every year and what’s the last thing you take down?
AK: The first thing I put up every year is these two snow globes that my best friend gave me. I put them on my coffee table and everything starts to feel Christmas-y and exciting. I guess the thing that stays up longest is usually my Christmas tree. If I’m in California, I’ll feel so guilty about abandoning my Maine roots that I’ll go somewhere and I’ll buy a little baby three-foot Christmas tree. My family would be like, “You have an artificial tree?” so I break down and I buy a little baby tree, a little Charlie Brown tree, the one that nobody wants. And then I totally anthropomorphize it, so I feel like I can’t get rid of it, because it’s really sad.
AD: What other items do you display during the holidays?
AK: I have some stuff that my mom gave me from my childhood, but I usually put those in the kitchen, because if I’m being perfectly honest, I kind of go all-out in the living room area. I do silver, gold, copper, white, and clear. It’s a very Scandinavian monochromatic palette, but it’s still warm and inviting. I put something on every surface—there’s lights and candles on every surface—and it’s like a full festival of lights in golds and silvers. A friend of mine came over once and she asked, “Did you have somebody come over and do this for you?” and I said, “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” It is! Decorating for the rest of the year, I’m a little insecure about, but decorating for Christmas, it’s one of those holidays where more is more. I just go for it, and I was very excited that somebody thought a professional service had helped me.
AD: And what about when you were growing up? How did your family decorate the house?
AK: We would just do the living room, and it was very colorful and I was so into that as a kid. It’s funny because the one thing my mom insisted was that we’re a clear-light family. But I was like, “But the colorful lights are the best!” When you're a kid, you just want all the colors. That is where she drew the line, and she let me and my brother do everything else. Really colorful, really eclectic.
AD: Do you have a favorite part of the holidays in general?
AK: Whatever the part of the holidays is that you drink all the mulled wine.
AD: Sometimes the holidays can be overwhelming. Do you find that to be true at all and how do you deal with it?
AK: The parties get a little stressful, and traveling and family always gets a little stressful, but I do feel like there’s usually some back room in every house that you can take off to, and luckily, most of my family’s the same. I feel like my mom’s the kind of person who will throw a big holiday party, and then she and I will find each other in the back room, and just be like, “Okay, we just need a break. Let's just stay here for a while."
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
