September cover star Anna Kendrick talks Twitter, girl squads and her Pitch Perfect 'family'

'On social media, a lot of people say, "I feel like I know you," but if anything, that's beneficial to me, because when I interact with people and end up saying something awkward - which I am wont to do - they get it.'

We love Anna Kendrick. We love her movies, we love her Twitter musings, we love her cool, sarcastic wit.

So we were pretty happy when she agreed to be Marie Claire's September issue cover star and joined writer Martha Hayes on a (slightly broken) sofa for a tête-à-tête that covered off everything from awkward Hollywood auditions to pithy email exchanges with her brother.

In the interview Kendrick - who is about to star with Aubrey Plaza, Zac Efron and Adam DeVine in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - talks about her Hollywood career so far, including learning to toughen up at auditions. 'My family was very into open communication' she says, 'Weirdly it had the side effect of making me unprepared for navigating the more political aspects of the adult world.' Until, she tell us, an audition where she walked in and told the casting directors "I don't really think that I'm right for this but I'll read for you and if you want to bring me back on something else..." I had such a great response, I wish I'd done it from the beginning, instead of being like, [puts on a meek voice], "Thanks so much" [then deadpans] it was fun wasting both of our time.'

Describing her Pitch Perfect co-stars as 'like family', Kendrick explained that it's 'not [family] in the cheesy sense. In the truest sense. We didn’t choose each other, but if anyone tried to say anything against one of us, none of us would stand for it. We have a group text, everyone texts, “Love you guys, miss you so much, etc”, while I’m trying to think of a joke to text, because I’m not so great with sincerity. I’m like, “Get away from me.” It’s not that I don’t love them, it’s just that’s not in my personality.’

More from Marie Claire: 15 times Anna Kendrick made us LOL

Describing it as 'some of the stuff in my head that doesn't fit on Twitter', Kendrick also discussed her new book of short stories - Scrappy Little Nobody

Read the full article in the new issue of Marie Claire, on sale now for a special cut-price of just £1.99

Photographs by David Roemer / Styling by Jayne Pickering