Anna Kendrick has admitted she has always loved taking centre stage, even as a young child.

The 29-year-old, who is known for her roles in Pitch Perfect, Into The Woods and Twilight, said that her performing instincts had kicked in early in life.

She said: “As a child, you don’t stand in front of a mirror and perform Lady Macbeth’s monologue, so I guess I did more of the hairbrush singing than running around performing plays.

Anna Kendrick
Anna Kendrick (Richard Shotwell/AP)

“I was very dramatic. My brother and I liked to perform pranks on my parents. This mostly meant screaming from the next room, which we just thought was hilarious,” she added (her older brother Michael appeared in 2000 drama Looking For An Echo).

“Our parents would come in terrified, and we would say, ‘Drama!’, because that was our understanding of ‘just kidding’. Just acting, just pretending – just drama!”

But Anna added that not everyone was a fan of her talents: “My drama coach at school absolutely loathed me.

“She put me in our school production of 42nd Street, but that was it. And she only did that because I was the only person at school who knew how to tap dance, but truly, [it was] begrudgingly done.”

Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Anna, who starred alongside Meryl Streep in Into The Woods, said that the veteran star had shown her why she was still so popular on a film set.

She said: “There’s a reason. And it’s not just her talent – it could be actually, it could be just how good she is – but I think the reason is because she’s such a kind and warm person. She would have every right to be a cold diva of the highest order, and instead, she just wants to hang out and shoot the breeze.

“I think it’s amazing she’s maintained that in face of the gift she has inside her.”

Anna stars in The Last Five Years, which is in cinemas now.