"Something about that just ruined me," Kendrick says of her research for the true-crime thriller. Woman of the Hour's dark subject matter took a toll on its star and first-time director. Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with the Netflix true-crime thriller,

Actor Anna Kendrick is a well-known star from her roles in Pitch Perfect and Twilight, plus many more. Yet for all her years in Hollywood, she's never been at the helm. That is changing with her directorial debut in Woman of the Hour.

At the film's L.A. premiere, Kendrick recalled giving "perhaps the most ambivalent pitch in the history of Hollywood" to nab the job and explained why Paul Feig was the first person she called after getting it.