Anna Kendrick couldn't stop crying while directing “Woman of the Hour.”

Woman of the hourThe dark subject matter took a toll on its star and debut director.

Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with the Netflix true crime thriller, which centers on the appearance of real-life serial killer Rodney Alcala in a 1978 episode The dating game. In addition to directing and producing the project, Kendrick plays Cheryl Bradshaw, the woman who chose Alcala as her date over the other bachelors at the end of the series.

While Kendrick wasn't overly concerned with the film's historical accuracy, she still invested a lot of research into learning more about Alcala and his many victims, which could number up to 130 people. Some of the details she uncovered ended up informing the way she directed the film, which doesn't shy away from depicting the brutality of Alcala's sadistic crimes.

“I don’t think I went a week without bursting into tears,” she says Weekly entertainment. “I did all this research that wasn't so much about trying to capture every little detail, because no one wants to see a movie that's practically a visual encyclopedia. But I remember, for example, looking for one of the women who was killed and this newspaper article from the '70s listed her address and I thought, 'I know exactly where that is.'”

When Kendrick recognized the Los Angeles location, he knew the woman's home was near the beach. “I had this horrible feeling and thought, 'Oh my God, she could have heard the sea. He broke in through her window and she was at sea. She would have heard the sea.' And something about it just ruined me.

The aftermath of the murder is depicted in the film, and after reading the newspaper article at the time, Kendrick called her screenwriter Ian MacAllister McDonald and asked him to start the scene on the water. The detail also fits with a larger theme of the film: violence in nature. The fact that Alcala's crimes are often depicted as taking place in a fascinating natural setting was a conscious thematic decision on Kendrick's part.

“I ended up really focusing on nature in the film because something like the desert, a lonely hill or the sea feels like something that in one moment is the safest, most invigorating, most healing place, but in one moment it becomes the ultimate “Danger.”

The image also reflects the film's themes about the dangers and benefits of intimacy. “This is what we risk when we physically or mentally open ourselves up to other people: This could be the most beautiful and rewarding part of my life, but in one moment it can be the most terrifying and dangerous moment of my life,” she explains.

For me as a director, working on such difficult and serious subjects meant finding a balance on set between the playful, creative energy required to make a film and respect for Alcala's real-life victims. “I think everyone in the film industry is very used to going from one high to the next on a daily basis and having your best friend as your nemesis and then going back to being your best friend at the end of the movie, let alone the whole day.” says Kendrick. “So everyone had a lot of respect for having fun and making jokes, but the second we got into anything about the material, whether it was filming the actual scenes and performances or talking to my cameraman… (were we) I take it so seriously and treat it with so much reverence.

Woman of the hour comes to Netflix on Friday.