We recently had the chance to participate in a round table interview with the cast of “Pitch Perfect.” Enjoy the highlights from the event and be sure to read out review of the film.
Elizabeth Banks and Jason Moore
Jason, did you have a particular actress in mind before casting for the movie?
Moore: “I did. The script had been around for awhile and I had just have lunch with Anna Kendrick right after she was nominated for the academy award and we both loved the script and the character of Becca but the movie hadn’t been green lit and as soon as it was we all felt the same way about it; great actress who can ground the role and set the tone…(Elizabeth Banks interjects) “She was nominated for a Tony for singing so we knew she could do it.” (Moore) “She is a real leader and she has great wit about her so she was the first and in a way a very important choice to get all the other great actors that we got.”
Elizabeth, what was it like producing with your husband?
Banks: “My husband and I work really well together, I think…(laughs) we are really glad this movie came out the way we wanted it to. We set about to make a certain type of movie, a really fun, funny, sort of culturally iconic movie with some great characters…we just felt like we kept getting great, great, great, partners who saw the movie we wanted to make.”
Skylar Astin and Anna Camp:
Anna, your character has a problem in this film. How was it shooting the puke scenes?
Camp: “The puke scenes were crazy to shoot. I had read it in the script and didn’t know how they were going to do it, if I would be puking or if it would be CGI’d or what. But they actually had a hose that they attached to the side of my face and also one that would be attached under my chin and a stunt guy with a little button and it was so powerful and they had warned me how strong it would be so I was actually scared like the first time it went off and it literally knocked me off my feet a little bit. And it was disgusting, it smelled, it was cold, it was pineapples and tomatoes and rice and it got like everywhere, all over the audience but it was fun…”
Skylar, you are well known for your turn in Tony award winning musical Spring Awakening, did that experience help you prepare for your role in Pitch Perfect?
Astin: “Yea of course, it definitely made it easier for me to shoot the scenes where I had to be performing in front of hundreds of people, I kind of did that nightly at Spring Awakening. When you do a Broadway show it teaches you so much about yourself, not just as an actor, but as a person, ‘cause you have to churn this product out 8 times a week and you have to connect. But you learn so much about yourself when you do it for so long, like how to perform when maybe you are not feeling so well, or your foot hurts, or maybe you are upset about something so it gave me this work ethic that I apply to everything but this movie in particular I really got to dig into that because this combines all the elements of genres I have done before.”
Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow
Kendrick: “I actually wanted to sing live as much as I could in the film. I found the recording studio to be a difficult environment, or just it wasn’t conducive to a good performance for me. So anytime I’m singing on my own in the movie, I try to sing live, or I am singing live. I actually found that to be easier to be singing in front of the cast and the crew. It feels like there’s something at stake and it was just an environment that I was more confortable in. I had no idea how to function in a recording studio. It took me a couple sessions to learn how to sing, you know, for that microphone.”
Was it hard to shoot the shower scene?
Kendrick: “We started that day genuinely pretty uncomfortable. And I really, truly didn’t want to have to do it and felt uncomfortable. And then by the end of the day, the environment ended up being just really hot and humid and horribly uncomfortable. So by the time the end of the day rolled around they kept asking if we wanted our modesty robes back and we were just like ‘No, forget it. It’s hot in here. And we’ve seen everything at this point, so it’s fine. We’re fine.’”
Ester Dean and Hanna Mae Lee
Hanna, how did you come up with the voice for your character?
Lee: “I didn’t speak very loud. The break down of Lily, she didn’t speak very loudly, but I wanted to bring a backing towards her character because she speaks quietly and she’s seemingly shy. I try to take the word shy out because she speaks her mind, she thinks outside of the box. I wanted to bring that innocence to her, vulnerability and lovability.”
Ester, what did you think of the treatment of your character’s sexuality?
Dean: “I loved the treatment! Lesbi-honest, it was awesome. I got to grab boobs, I got to touch on sexy girls. I got to be free. I loved it and I’ll try it next year. It’s in my agenda to turn lesbian.”
Adam Devine
How was it playing a douche?
Devine: “Well, I’m a douche in real life, so it really hit home for me. No, it was kind of fun to play the total, just maniac. On “Workaholics” I’m a maniac, but a fun loving maniac that’s kinda everybody’s friend. … With the character Bumper in Pitch Perfect, uh, no friends. I don’t think he has any friends beside himself. He spends a lot of time in the mirror that guy.