Anna Kendrick shares 'goofy and off-center' life in new book

NEW YORK -- After a recent signing session to promote her new book, "Scrappy Little Nobody," Anna Kendrick joked about having a hand cramp.

"It's going to be OK. It's going to release from its claw-like shape any second," she joked by phone.

It's that kind of sharp wit and self-deprecating humor for which Kendrick is known, especially on social media and in interviews, which she swears she's not good at.

Kendrick, 31, describes in her book how a number of female celebrities have launched a campaign called #AskHerMore to be asked smarter questions on red carpets, rather than just what they're wearing.

Kendrick writes she wishes journalists would "ask her less" instead because she finds the situation to be so awkward.

The Oscar-nominee for the 2009 film "Up in the Air" shares anecdotes and musings from her life thus far in the new book.

She told The Associated Press what she learned from writing it and how Hollywood compares to Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar."

AP: You recently wrote on social media that you felt conflicted about launching a book tour right after the presidential election. How are you feeling a week later?

Kendrick: I feel better about it, and I felt immediately better even the day after the election. I felt better knowing I wasn't doing a traditional media tour. I'm interacting with groups of people who want to come out and hang out with me, but you know that it wasn't like a press junket where we're all just going through the motions and doing our jobs. ... It made me feel like it was maybe about connection, and that's probably a really good thing.

AP: Did you learn anything about yourself while writing this book?

Kendrick: I think the thing that surprised me was when I tried to write about money and growing up with two working parents who sometimes struggled ... it kind of spiraled. I was like, 'Oh, maybe this is something I should work on and maybe not do it in a book for other people.' I just realized, 'I have these issues around money and I should probably get over it.' There are bigger fish to fry in the world than me having money issues because of growing up with a very -- in the grand scheme of things -- a very privileged situation, but letting those insecurities eat at me in spite of the fact that I grew up white, middle class. I really just need to get over it, and that was definitely really interesting. It wouldn't have been something I assumed I would have to work on.

AP: You really seem to have managed to stay grounded through fame. Why do you think that is?

Kendrick: I'm me all the time. It's like a less depressing version of "The Bell Jar." You're still you, wherever you go. It would be really tricky to try to normalize it and to feel like (fame) is all natural. ... In fact, trying to do that made me a little bonkers for a while. I'm very happy I'm allowed to be goofy and off-center.

AP: And being an insider in Hollywood, do you find most people are pretty normal?

Kendrick: I think everybody's a little more normal than when they're doing their red-carpet face, but I have met a handful of people who seem to always be in red-carpet face. Maybe that's always who they were? Maybe if they were working in a toll booth, they'd be living in their really glamorous "Bell Jar"?