Why Anna Kendrick Already Started Calling Herself 40 a Full Year Before Her Milestone Birthday

Anna Kendrick doesn’t turn the big four-oh until Aug. 9, 2025, but the Pitch Perfect star has already started referring to herself as a 40-year-old.

On The Drew Barrymore Show Oct. 30, the host inquired about Kendrick’s upcoming milestone birthday, prompting Kendrick to confess she has already aged herself a year.

“I feel really great about it,” said Kendrick. “Like I’m one of those people that as I approach, like, a milestone age I’ll start saying it anyway. So I just am saying, ‘Yeah, I’m 40,’ and I’m not. But I feel like I might as well just start saying it.”

“'Cause I also, like, I’ve kinda been obsessed with finally becoming a grownup ... since I was like a baby-baby,” she continued.

“Being a grownup is awesome,” said Barrymore, prompting the actress to agree: “It’s so awesome.”

“I remember being so excited to turn 30, and I turned 30 and it was awesome,” said Kendrick, “and I’m so excited to turn 40 because it just feels more and more like, ‘Dude, I’m a grownup!’ ”

“As scary as it is to be like, ‘Oh no, I’m the adult in the room,’ you’re also like, ‘I made it, I’m in control.’ I’m allowed to, like, exist and not kind of ask permission to grab a cookie at night.”

Kendrick expressed a similar sentiment about turning 40 when she talked to PEOPLE earlier in October.

“I guess it's a little bit like when I turned 30, there is a feeling of being able to ... I don't know, just let things fall away or something. I always looked little when I was a kid and I couldn't wait to grow up and get older,” she said. “There's something really nice that I'm looking forward to about being, ‘I'm an adult, you can't tell me s---.”

Kendrick clearly isn’t afraid to try new things as she gets older. Her directorial debut, the true-crime drama Woman of the Hour, debuted on Netflix in October, a proud moment for the star, who also has a lead role in the film.

The balancing act “was a little bit like directing with a blindfold on,” said Kendrick, who plays Cheryl Bradshaw, a contestant on The Dating Game in 1978. Unbeknownst to her, serial killer Rodney Alcala (played by Daniel Zovatto) was one of the men vying for her affection. 

Woman of the Hour is now streaming on Netflix.