Anna Kendrick reveals she once called Barack Obama an 'a**hole' to his face

'I got an email saying, ‘Hey, do you want to meet the president?' Naturally, I said, ‘Of what?’'

Anna Kendrick has finally explained how she made Barack Obama double over with laughter, as captured by a popular series of photographs on Instagram six years ago.

Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss her latest film, A Simple Favour, the actor revealed that her meeting with Obama in 2012, during his presidency, was unusual: she managed to insult the president twice, calling him an “asshole” in the process.

According to Kendrick, the story begins with an unexpected invitation from the White House. She said: “I got an email saying, ‘Hey, do you want to meet the president?’ Naturally, I said, ‘Of what?’ and they were like, ‘The country, you idiot.’”

The actor was the first to arrive at the LA event (”I’m the loser of the group,” she joked) and fell into conversation with a Secret Service agent, discovering that they were both from Maine.

Later, while Obama discussed the economy with attendees, he drew attention to Kendrick and mentioned her film Up in the Air, which touched upon several relevant subjects. When the two finally had a chance to talk, the president said he hoped he hadn’t embarrassed her by singling her out. Her (joking) response? “Yeah, you’re such an asshole,” Kendrick blurted out.

Obama then mentioned her Maine roots. "Thinking about my conversation with the Secret Service agent, I said, ‘Yes, and actually I was the first person here,'" she said. "And I start to talk about his Secret Service agent and he goes, ‘Are people from Maine really punctual?’ And I was like, ‘You didn’t know that? You’re the president.'”

“So, I called him an asshole and scolded him for not knowing enough about the 50 states, so that was what made him double over with laughter,” she concluded.

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