Weddings can be great parties with good friends, unlimited champagne, and free dispensation to dance to all the cheesy singalongs you'd never hear at the club. But they can also be swirling nightmare whirlpools of social awkwardness, obligation, and unhealthy competition. In the new romantic comedy Table 19, Anna Kendrick plays a guest who's been downgraded from Maid Of Honor status after a humiliating text breakup with the Best Man. Instead of taking the loss and skipping her best friend's nuptials, Eloise arrives at the wedding, only to be sat at the table clearly meant for extraneous guests the bride and groom never thought would actually come. Meet Eloise's wedding compatriots in the exclusive Table 19 featurette below.
Eloise's companions in wedding no-man's-land are Walter (Stephan Merchant of Single Ladies), Rezno (Tony Revolori from The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jo (Oscar nominee June Squibb), and Bina and Jerry Kepp (Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson). If they're going to get through this thing, they're going to get through this thing together. "This is one of the most unique experiences I've had working with an ensemble cast," Kendrick says of her Table 19 co-stars in the featurette. "Like 18-year-old Tony...and kicking ass in her '80s, June Squibb."
Table 19 is all about making the best of an uncomfortable situation. (And it certainly helps if there are other handsome wedding guests besides your jerky ex-boyfriend, as there are in this movie. That's what puts the "rom" in the "com.") So it's perhaps in the spirit of the movie that Kendrick doesn't even let it phase her that Merchant confuses with Twilight's Kristen Stewart. ("Kristen Stewart's a bigger name.")
As you might expect would happen when you put a linen on a table and fill it with funny people, sometimes the cast of Table 19 struggled to get through takes without cracking up. Kendrick blames Merchant, who in turn blames Kudrow. "She laughs, and then I laugh, and then we're done for," he says in the clip. But Kudrow refuses to take the fall for her co-star. "Maybe his commitment should be a little better," she deadpans.
Clearly, only those way out of the loop are confusing Kendrick for anyone these days. Out Mar. 3, Table 19 is her first movie role of 2017 and the follow-up to a 2016 that included roles in The Accountant, Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates, Trolls, Get A Job, and The Hollars. On top of all her film work, Kendrick somehow found time to write her first comedic memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody. Next up, she's returning to the Bellas for Pitch Perfect 3. So while it's nothing short of a compliment to be mixed up with Kristen Stewart, Merchant's joke works because Table 19's Anna Kendrick is one of film's funniest and most relatable stars.
