Anna Kendrick shares similarities between her abusive relationship and Alice Darling role

Anna Kendrick says her past experience in an abusive relationship affected her 'Alice, Darling' role.

The 37-year-old actress - who stars in the movie about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship who is the subject of an intervention staged by her two closest friends - revealed she suffered psychological abuse in her previous relationship and said her former partner convinced her she was a "monster".

She told the Los Angeles Times: "That was a big part of my problem. ‘Well he never hit me, and I’m not really afraid that he’s going to hit me. How do I discern between normal conflict and abuse? Why is my body in so much fear all of the time? Why do I wake up feeling like he’s in bed next to me and wondering, ‘OK, do I have 30 seconds before I start performing or … ?’

"He’s so convinced that I am a monster that I can’t see how I am not.

"You don’t have to believe that it might get physical for you to feel like you’re allowed to leave, that you deserve to be treated better, deserve to feel safe."

Anna also praised an unnamed friend for helping her to gain a sense of perspective about her situation, just as Alice does on vacation with pals.

She said: "That was the first thing that made me drop back into my body in a year and a half; somebody just doing the one thing he couldn’t do, which was telling me, ‘You’re right, I’m sorry, you’re not crazy.’ I’m so grateful to that person and the gift [they] gave me.

"I don’t know how to describe it other than feeling like one of those dorky CGI ghosts in ’90s movies that suddenly enter back into your body, and you wake up, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I’m here. Oh! I’m hungry for the first time in forever.'"