Anna Kendrick

As an actress, you're perpetually about to be unemployed. That fear - when you have two parents who worked 9-to-5 jobs and went through periods of being unemployed - is real. Those were not welcome times in my childhood.

My goal all along has just been to work and support myself. I've been really lucky to walk away from the 'Twilight' series unscathed. Somebody asked me recently what it's like to be a star. I thought that was the strangest question. If you saw my day-to-day life, the word 'star' just doesn't apply.

I do admit that I've never been one to fit in easily to any given pattern. It's not my choice. It's just the way I am. So if the characters I wind up playing are all a bit different, it must be because that's the way I like it. Anna Kendrick is different, and she's going to stay that way.

I started auditioning when I was about 10 and I didn't get my first job until I was 12, and two years at that age is really hard.

There's a difference between being an actress who can sing and being a Sally Song-and-Dance.

An actor should always let humility outweigh ambition.

I rarely get recognised. It's always a shock when someone notices me. I always think they must be confusing me with someone else.

After we shot the first 'Twilight,' we organized our own wrap party. We really didn't know what this was going to be. Something like that can come at you unexpectedly, and you just have to try your best to deal with it.

I think a gentleman is someone who holds the comfort of other people above their own. The instinct to do that is inside every good man, I believe. The rules about opening doors and buying dinner and all of that other 'gentleman' stuff is a chess game, especially these days.

I never have used a trainer. I'm slightly intimidated by the idea of somebody in my face.

My family has had to become quite understanding about me not returning phone calls when I'm filming.

If I'm on set and there's no other option, I get on a treadmill, but that's my most hated thing.

If I could play the ukulele like Zooey Deschanel, I would find my own personal M. Ward, and we would do a side album; but I don't, you know?

I don't usually drink caffeine so that when I need it, it actually does something.

The consummate gentleman on the planet today is George Clooney, who never fails to go the extra mile for people. Every person matters to George.

I was really overwhelmed by the amount of roles that I got offered that were carbon copies of what I did in 'Up in the Air.' I got every offer for every ambitious, unfeeling practically robotic character.

I want to do stage again, because there just aren't words for how great it is. People say that all the time, 'There's nothing like live theater, blah blah,' but it's really true. I see a show and I know how they feel, and it feels great.

I used to exercise an hour every day - no excuses. I live in absolutes: I either exercise every day, or I let myself off the hook. I'm trying to find that balance of working out three or four days a week and sticking to it.

I am neither such a great songwriter or such a great singer that the world must hear my album. There's just no point to make.

I think right after 'Up in the Air' everyone wanted me to play the girl from 'Up in the Air,' and it took a little while for people to think of me as an actress from a film that they liked instead of just that character.