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Q&A: Writer-Director Kay Cannon Can Do Anything (So Back Off, World!)
The ‘Pitch Perfect’, ‘Blockers’, and ‘Cinderella’ filmmaker discusses her creative origins, storytelling craft, and making films/TV in an age of such profound adversity
Kay Cannon set out to make people laugh onstage doing improv and sketch, but when Tina Fey asked her to join the writers’ room of 30 Rock back in 2006, she did what any sane actor would do — she said, “Are you kidding me, Tina? Absofuckinglutely!” Okay, I don’t know if those were her exact words, I didn’t ask. But let’s go with it all the same. Nearly 20 years later, Kay has racked up an epic amount of TV experience (including Girlboss, a series she created), wrote all three Pitch Perfect (2012 to 17), and wrote and/or directed three more feature films Blockers (2018) as director, Let It Snow (2019) as writer, and Cinderella (2021) as both). Her work is notable for being hilarious, charming, and heartwarming (the Pitch Perfect trilogy helped keep me sane during the first Covid lockdown, for example). But as impressive as all this sounds and is, I have to say that after chatting with Kay for my latest artist-on-artist conversation, I’m most envious of her family — which sounds amazing, as you’re about to find out for yourself.
