Hollywood has a way of making everything look like a choreographed dance. You see the red carpet photos, the curated Instagram posts, and the perfectly timed "insider" leaks to People magazine. But then there’s Anna Kendrick. For a solid chunk of the last decade, she managed to pull off something nearly impossible in the age of 24-hour paparazzi: a long-term, high-profile relationship that most people barely knew existed.
I’m talking about Anna Kendrick and Ben Richardson.
It wasn't a flash-in-the-pan summer fling. It wasn't a PR stunt to sell a movie. This was a partnership that spanned roughly six or seven years—a lifetime by Los Angeles standards. Richardson isn't a movie star, which probably helped them fly under the radar. He's a British cinematographer, the guy behind the camera on massive hits like Beasts of the Southern Wild, Mare of Easttown, and Yellowstone.
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How It All Actually Started
They didn't meet at a glitzy Oscar party. Honestly, it was much more mundane. The year was 2013, and they were both working on a tiny, improv-heavy indie movie called Drinking Buddies.
If you’ve seen the film, you know it feels raw and lived-in. Maybe that's because the sparks were actually real. Richardson was the Director of Photography; Kendrick was playing Jill. While the characters on screen were dealing with messy, drunken romantic entanglements, the two people behind the scenes were quietly hitting it off.
They didn't go public immediately. In fact, they didn't "go public" in the traditional sense ever. The timeline roughly looks like this:
- 2013: Met on the set of Drinking Buddies.
- 2014: Rumors began to swirl as they were spotted together in Hawaii and later New York.
- 2015: Photos surfaced of them looking very domestic on coffee runs.
- 2017: They worked together again on Table 19.
- 2020: Reports of their breakup began to circulate.
Basically, they were the couple that everyone forgot was a couple until they weren't anymore.
The Ring Incident and the Privacy Shield
You’ve probably seen the "engagement" photos from 2015. Kendrick was spotted walking around New York with a massive rock on her finger. The internet, predictably, lost its mind. People were ready to plan the wedding.
But Kendrick shut it down with her trademark dry humor. She told Marie Claire that it wasn't even a real diamond—it was costume jewelry. She wasn't being coy; she was being honest. That was the thing about Anna Kendrick and Ben Richardson: they lived their lives in the "in-between" spaces. They weren't hiding, but they weren't performing.
Kendrick has been very vocal about why she keeps her mouth shut. She once told The Guardian that seeing paparazzi photos of herself felt like "someone emailing a picture of you sleeping." It’s invasive. It’s scary. So, she and Richardson just... lived. They walked the dog. They got coffee. They worked on sets together.
Working Together Without Killing Each Other
Mixing business with pleasure is usually a recipe for disaster. Ask anyone who's tried to start a business with their spouse. But Kendrick and Richardson did it multiple times.
After Drinking Buddies, they teamed up for Happy Christmas and later Table 19. There is a specific kind of trust required for an actress to work with a cinematographer who is also her partner. He’s literally the person responsible for how she looks on screen—not just "pretty," but how the light hits her face to convey the right emotion.
It’s an intimate professional bond that mirrored their private one.
The Complicated Aftermath and the "Toxic" Ex Conversation
Here is where things get a bit heavy. In recent years, Kendrick has opened up about surviving a "toxic" and emotionally abusive seven-year relationship. She hasn't named names. She has been very careful about that.
During her 2023 interview on the Armchair Expert podcast and later on Call Her Daddy, she described a partner who changed overnight. She talked about making embryos with this person, only to have the relationship turn into a nightmare where she felt she was "living with a stranger."
Because the timeline of her relationship with Ben Richardson (roughly 2014 to 2020) aligns with the seven-year window she mentioned, many fans have jumped to conclusions.
Is Ben Richardson the toxic ex?
We don't know. Honestly, it’s important to be careful here. Kendrick has intentionally withheld the name of the person she’s talking about. She also dated director Edgar Wright for several years and was later linked to Bill Hader. While the math leads many people to point fingers at Richardson, there has never been a formal confirmation.
What we do know is that Kendrick used that pain to fuel her performance in Alice, Darling, a movie specifically about emotional coercion. She’s said that making that film was cathartic. Whether the "stranger" in her house was Richardson or someone else, that chapter of her life clearly reshaped her.
Why Their Story Still Matters
The fascination with Anna Kendrick and Ben Richardson isn't just about gossip. It’s about the reality of long-term relationships in the spotlight. They lasted longer than most marriages in Hollywood. They built a life that didn't rely on being "The It Couple."
They proved that you can be famous and still have a private world.
Today, Richardson continues to be one of the most sought-after cinematographers in the business. Kendrick has moved into directing with Woman of the Hour. They’ve both moved on, but their years together remain a fascinating case study in how to maintain a semblance of normalcy when the whole world is watching.
What You Can Learn From Their Dynamic
If you're looking for the "actionable" takeaway from the Kendrick-Richardson era, it's about boundaries.
- Privacy is a choice, not an accident. You don't have to share everything on social media to have a "real" relationship. In fact, keeping things offline often preserves the intimacy.
- Professional respect matters. If you work with a partner, establish clear roles. Richardson and Kendrick succeeded because they respected each other's crafts independently of their romance.
- Healing isn't linear. Kendrick’s recent openness about her past struggles shows that even the most "perfect-looking" relationships on a coffee run can have deep, painful layers beneath the surface.
If you’re revisiting their work together, start with Drinking Buddies. It’s where it all began, and you can see that raw, unscripted chemistry in every frame. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most significant chapters of our lives start with a simple day at work.