Fans broke out into song when the first trailer for “Pitch Perfect 2” debuted last week, and now Access Hollywood is taking you to the set of the sequel.
Access’ Shaun Robinson recently visited with the cast and director Elizabeth Banks on the Baton Rouge set, where she got the scoop on what to expect when the Bellas return.
“[The Bellas] have a new [rival]…they’re still rivals with the Treblemakers, of course, that’s lifelong, that never goes away! But, they do have a more worldly rival this time around,” she said of the movie’s very hush, hush plot.
The director/actress explained that in casting the first movie, they focused on getting great talent and worked on the singing and dancing in a boot camp.
“These actresses, they’re not natural singers and dancers. We didn’t pluck singers and dancers. We took great actresses,” she told Shaun.
Star Anna Kendrick, who was also on set with Shaun, chimed in upon hearing this!
“Sorry, not natural singers and dancers?!” Anna said with a laugh and a cough.
“My point is that they became these amazing singers and dancers through our a capella boot camp process in which we use this amazing music team and choreographers. They just like completely transformed themselves to totally kickass performers,” Elizabeth added.
Anna and co-star Brittany Snow told Shaun there’s a bit of a shift in power for the Bellas.
“[My character Beca,] she’s in something of a leadership role, but [Brittany’s character] Chloe’s still doing all the work… Chloe’s the one kind of doing all the grunt work,” she said.
Brittany explained that Chloe’s passion for the perfect pitch is still going strong.
“Chloe’s just, I think a little bit of a weirdo in the fact that she’s just extremely passionate about everything. So even if Beca was in the primary role of being the leader of the group, Chloe would just want to take over and make sure that everything was like going to be great, because she loves singing,” Brittany said.
Anna and Brittany loved having Hailee Steinfeld, who they said was a natural, join the cast.
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“The cool thing about Hailee is that she just, she doesn’t really need much like mentoring,” Brittany explained. “She’s just amazing, we haven’t had to like take care of her, if anything we’ve corrupted her I think.”
“She’s so good,” Anna added.
Hailee said she owes it all to the “Pitch Perfect 2” team.
“We have incredible choreographers… I owe it all to them. They make me look really good,” Hailee told Shaun.
“Pitch Perfect 2” will sing its way into theaters on May 15, 2015.
— Jesse Spero
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