Anna Kendrick knows when to walk away from a relationship ― and she doesn’t care if she gets labeled “crazy” in the process.

In a new interview with Elle, the “Pitch Perfect 3” actress talks about the time she dumped a boyfriend who refused to respect her boundaries.

“I was dating a guy. He tickled me playfully, and I said, ‘I know that’s cute and that people do it, but I really don’t like being tickled. It really makes me feel trapped and panicked. I know it’s silly and funny for most people, but I really hate it, so could you please not?’” she recalled.

The soon-to-be ex apparently thought Kendrick’s qualms were “really dumb” and tickled her anyway. Bad choice.

“I broke up with him,” she told the magazine. “And I knew that in the retelling of that story, I would be some crazy girl. You never want to be labeled ‘the crazy girl.’ ... That he would tell his friends, ‘Oh, she broke up with me because I tickled her. What a psycho.’ I just had to go, ‘No, I broke up with you because I told you something was important to me, and you didn’t respect that.’”

The actress lost a boyfriend, but she walked away with valuable lesson: If someone doesn’t respect your boundaries, you should keep your distance. Therapists say she had a pitch-perfect response to the situation. (See what we did there?)

“It all boils down to feeling like you are heard, understood and that you have a voice in the relationship that is respected and held in high regard,” said Marissa Nelson, a marriage and family therapist in Washington, D.C. “When there is a pattern of your partner dismissing or belittling your feelings, it begins to erode the foundation of the relationship.”

It’s important to be aware of a potential slippery slope, said Kimberly Resnick Anderson, a sex therapist and psychiatry instructor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine: A partner who laughs off your concerns about something as seemingly minor as tickling is very likely to shrug off weightier issues later on.

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“If the Tickler trivialized Anna’s feelings about being tickled, just imagine how he might have trivialized boundaries around money, kids, career, sex and family,” she said. “It’s a great reminder, especially for women, to ignore that little voice in your head that tells you to ‘keep the peace,’ or as a client told me yesterday, not ‘rock the boat.’”

Luckily, Kendrick had the self-esteem to say, “nope, not OK,” and went on to live a tickler-free existence. Even better, she wasn’t overly concerned if she got labeled a “crazy ex” in the process.

“If a woman sets a strong boundary, some men feel threatened or challenged and will call her crazy,” Resnick Anderson said. “Many of my clients worry about being labeled the ‘crazy-ex,’ but the truth is this: If you honored an important value or upheld a non-negotiable boundary, you should hold your head up high and let it go.”

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