Cheryl Bradshaw trusted her gut when she refused to go on a date with Rodney Alcala, and that decision might have saved her life.

In 1978, Bradshaw appeared on “The Dating Game,” a show in which three eligible bachelors competed for the affections of a bachelorette.

Bradshaw ultimately chose Bachelor No. 1, Rodney Alcala, who wooed her with raunchy jokes and innuendos during the episode.

However, as Bradshaw spent more time with Alcala after filming ended, she changed her mind about dating him.

“She said, ‘Ellen, I can’t date this guy. Strange vibrations are coming from him. He is very strange. I don't feel well. Is that going to be a problem?'” the show's former contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger said on “20/20” in 2021. “And of course I said, 'No.'

It was later revealed that Alcala was a violent serial killer and sexual predator. He has been linked to the murders of six women and a girl in the 1970s, and authorities believe he may have actually killed more than 100 people.

Bradshaw's experiences on “The Dating Game” inspired the new Netflix thriller “The Woman of the Hour,” starring and directed by Anna Kendrick.

Not much is known about Bradshaw in real life. On the show, she introduced herself as an acting teacher from Phoenix, Arizona.

Kendrick, who plays Bradshaw in the film, told TODAY that Bradshaw has since passed away.

The actress and director says there are “so many things” she wishes she could have asked Bradshaw.

“I would ask them how it feels for them to trust themselves,” she said.

Kendrick also said that while Bradshaw's intuition was admirable, she did not want to give the impression that Alcala's murder victims were less capable of sensing danger.

“I think it's difficult… because I want it to send the message that you should listen to your gut. But at the same time, sometimes it’s not that easy,” Kendrick said.

“I think there was a point where one of the producers asked if there should be a really clever way for my character to outwit or outwit Rodney and that's the reason she survives,” she continued. “And I thought, 'That's what I think.' That would be a disservice to the other women who were no less intelligent than her, and that sometimes it's a combination of trusting your gut, but sometimes it's too late for that.”

“Sometimes you have to trust your gut and then you just have luck on your side and you somehow manage to get out of situations that other people haven't been able to,” Kendrick added.

In 2010, criminal profiler Pat Brown suggested that Bradshaw's rejection may have angered Alcala and driven him to further crimes.

“You wonder what that did in his head,” Brown told CNN. “He wouldn’t take that well. They don't understand the rejection. They think there's something wrong with the girl: 'She played me.' She played hard to get.'”

Kendrick said she thinks that “certainly could be true, considering his pattern.”

“I also want to say that there are certainly a lot of murders that we don't know about, so it's hard to know for sure,” she added.

Alcala committed two well-known murders after his time on The Dating Game. He was convicted of the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1979 and later of the murder of 21-year-old Jill Parenteau that same year.

It later emerged that Alcala had already committed several murders before his appearance on “The Dating Game.”

He was convicted of the 1971 murder of Cornelia Crilley, the 1977 murder of Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted and Ellen Jane Hover, and the 1978 murder of Charlotte Lamb.

Although Alcala's criminal history is frightening, Kendrick said that on “Woman of the Hour” she was more interested in the stories of its survivors and victims than in exploring Alcala's psyche.

“I really don’t care why he is the way he is,” she said. “I don’t find it interesting or worth exploring.”

Alcala, who was sent to death row for his crimes, died in 2021 at the age of 77. He died of natural causes, according to California prison officials.