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Home / Entertainment

Pitch Perfect Bella back for round two

By Leena Tailor
Herald on Sunday·
3 May, 2015 04:00 AM4 mins to read

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The trailer for Pitch Perfect 2 starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Skylar Astin, directed by Elizabeth Banks.
Anna Kendrick is back with the Bellas in ‘Pitch Perfect 2’, and they have even grander ambitions this time.

Since shooting to fame opposite George Clooney in Up in the Air, Anna Kendrick's career has taken a musical turn - and for that, she's sorry.

"[I'm singing in] too many movies. My apologies," she tells Living.

"It's weird and I can't quite explain it. But they're making musical movies right now and
I keep getting offered jobs.

"If I'd known it was going to be such an issue maybe I would have done something else."

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Her sensitivity seems ironic given the subject of today's interview - Pitch Perfect 2, the sequel to 2012's smash hit musical comedy.

Kendrick, who plays Beca, has since exercised her vocal cords in Into the Woods and The Last Five Years, but it's solo number Cups from Pitch Perfect which continues to get heavy airplay - and which helped propel the film's success after a slow start at the box office.

"People remember it as a box-office smash, but it was a really slow burn," says 29-year-old Kendrick.

"Then with VOD, iTunes and when it was on HBO it got tons of play. But it wasn't like
I woke up one morning and went, 'Oh my God, I can't believe it's a huge hit.'

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"It was more like a year later thinking, 'How is this still happening?' It just didn't stop."

The arrival of Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick, left) complicates Ryan Bingham's (George Clooney, right) work life in Up in the Air. Photo / Supplied
The arrival of Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick, left) complicates Ryan Bingham's (George Clooney, right) work life in Up in the Air. Photo / Supplied

Adds co-star Brittany Snow, who plays Chloe, "It started to get really big when the Cups song was on Saturday Night Live. Suddenly all of my friends' little sisters knew how to do the cups thing and girls were dressing up as me for Halloween.

"It almost became a culture, where people were really paying attention to it. It's still really insane."

The sequel cashes in on that phenomenon. It picks up three years after the first movie and follows the Barden Bellas as they go up against German rivals Das Sound Machine in an international a cappella contest.

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Beca, meanwhile, clashes with her comrades as she starts to think about life beyond college and the Bellas.

The success of the first film meant producers had more money to play with in the sequel, which features musicthat includes Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Beyonce's Run the World (Girls) and an appearance from Grammy-winning a cappella quintet Pentatonix.

"The scope of the sets was different," says Kendrick. "It felt like it was just the 10 of us then somewhere in the distance there were camera and crew.

"It didn't have the intimacy of the first one, so it was like The Wizard of Oz with voices coming from somewhere.

"It felt like we were making a completely different kind of movie. I kept expecting a plane to explode or some amazing alien to pop up from the ground because the set was enormous and the production value was insane, so it was all an adjustment."

The film also brought a switch in director to Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks, who also plays judge Gail in the Pitch Perfect films.

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Off-set, the actresses also had to adjust to their new-found fame when filming in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect. Photo / Supplied
Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect. Photo / Supplied

Rebel Wilson, aka "Fat Amy", recalls feeling extra pressure from the locals.

"There was a huge obligation on us to deliver because so many people were fans
of the first one and we felt that in the second one.

"In Louisiana, we couldn't go anywhere as a group. Everyone knew us, everyone knew what we were doing and we felt a lot of pressure from fans saying things like, 'I hope you're doing this,' or 'I hope it's funny.'"

Wilson's popularity in the first film means she scores more screen-time in the sequel, including a skin-baring opening number inspired by Pink, which involved training with a Cirque du Soleil coach.

The Bellas are also joined by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who recently made headlines for hanging with Lorde at Paris Fashion Week. She plays Emily Junk, the daughter of an a capella legend played by Katey Sagal.

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Despite being part of such a large female ensemble, Kendrick says off-screen antics were mellow in comparison to Pitch Perfect.

"It was a lot more toned down this time because we knew how hard it was the first time and everybody was working more this time," says Kendrick.

"On the first movie there were a lot of days where it was just me, so the kids would go party and I would be the old lady going, 'I've got a call time in the morning.'

"In this one almost everybody was on-set almost every day, so we definitely switched from pints to smoothies."

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