Elizabeth Banks directs Rebel Wilson and Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect 2

THE original Pitch Perfect found fans in the most unlikely of places. So what does first-time director Elizabeth Banks have in mind for the sequel?

ELIZABETH Banks admits she was stunned by the success of Pitch Perfect.

The movie, a passion project for the actor best known as Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games series, was released to little fanfare in 2012 but became a sleeper hit, earning more than $120 million at the box office to become the second highest grossing musical comedy film, behind School Of Rock.

More than that, driven by the online phenomenon of Anna Kendrick’s Cups song, which inspired thousands of copycats around the world, Pitch Perfect found a second wind on home entertainment. Audiences of all ages and walks of life warmed to its themes of friendship and underdogs overcoming the odds, sly humour, flashy dance numbers as well as its insanely catchy soundtrack.

The movie’s producers, of which Banks was one, heard that the tale of a group of college misfits transforming into a crack a cappella singing outfit was being embraced in the most unlikely of places, including screening night after night on US Navy ships.

Scene from Pitch Perfect 2.

“We knew we made a funny movie but it’s always a surprise when people fall in love with anything in the way they did with Pitch Perfect,” says Banks. “There were so many great discoveries in the movie whether it was (Aussie Rebel Wilson’s) Fat Amy or Anna Kendrick singing or all these funny women together, the underdog story, girls versus boys — there were a lot of universal themes in the first one.”

The movie was loosely based on a non-fiction book called Pitch Perfect: The Quest For Collegiate A Cappella Glory, but it particularly struck a chord with Banks because she’d had her own insight in to the rather odd world in her own college years studying communications and theatre arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I think there were six groups at the college I went to with my husband and producing partner,” she says. “We had always gone to see their performances on campus and really knew how seriously they took it. I personally knew a capella people who were real dorks in their everyday lives but when they sang they were rock stars. The whole concept really just speaks to everybody’s secret desire to be a rock star.”

John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks in a scene from Pitch Perfect 2.

Having produced Pitch Perfect, as well as appearing as the vain and none-too-bright a cappella commentator and administrator Gail Abernathy-McKadden, Banks was well placed to shepherd the sequel to the big screen once the box office and the outpouring of fan love made it an inevitability. But despite having directed some short films, as well as a segment of the eminently forgettable (read downright awful) skit film, Movie 43, she had no intention of taking the reins of Pitch Perfect 2 herself.

“We had hoped for a long time that Jason Moore, who had directed the first movie, would do the second one but scheduling became an issue. He had a long-gestating project called The Nest, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and they green-lit that movie in the same window that we were green-lit,” she says.

Banks always imagined her feature directorial debut would be a low-budget, low-expectation indie film rather than one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the season. She admits she’s feeling the pressure to meet the expectations of both the fans and the studio but also feels like she is in safe territory.

“I knew all the elements,” she says. “I brought back a lot of the same people, especially all the actresses, so there is a good level of comfort here for sure.”

US actress Elizabeth Banks poses with her husband US film producer Max Handelman during a photocall of the film "Pitch Perfect 2" in Rome on April 27, 2015. AFP PHOTO / TIZIANA FABI

Conveniently, for the long days and constant demands of being in charge of a major production, she just happens to be married to one of her co-producers, Max Hendelman, who is also father of her two children, four-year-old Felix and two-year-old Max.

“It’s great,” she says of their working relationship. “I am really grateful for his support on a daily basis. It’s nice that a lot of work can happen after hours — we have a lot of important conversations when we are brushing our teeth. I don’t have to waste valuable time sitting around talking to people I don’t go home with.”

Banks is in fact pulling triple duties this time around — in addition to producing and directing, she’s also back as Gail, hilariously hurling barbs and generally being inappropriate with her co-star John Michael Higgins. Impressively though, she takes the multiskilling in her stride.

“It was no problem,” she says with a laugh. “I am not very vain so I didn’t look at the monitor and I barely watched the playback. We set the shot, we shot it — I am very practical and just want to get through it.”

Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine in a scene from Pitch Perfect 2.

Part of the charm of Pitch Perfect came from its one-liners, many of which came from Wilson in her starmaking turn as Fat Amy and many of which were improvised. Banks, who admits to being blown away by Wilson’s audition, promises more of the same for the sequel. One of Banks’ early successes was opposite Steve Carell in Judd Apatow’s The 40-Year-Old-Virgin and as someone who is adept in the art of improvisation herself, like to foster it in her actors.

“I do have to rein it in sometimes,” she says. “But it is encouraged by me as well. It’s a tradition that I come from in comedy from my very first movie Wet Hot American Summer, to Judd’s movies, to Role Models and Zack and Miri (Make a Porno) — I live in that world. And I know that when you have really good partners to improv with some really great gold can come out of it.”

Despite joining the absurdly thin ranks of female directors helming major studio movies, Banks isn’t turning her back on her first love of acting any time soon. Already in the can for release this year is the acclaimed Love and Mercy, in which she plays Melinda Leadbetter, the now-wife of tortured Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson, who saved him from the clutches of a dodgy therapist. She also has a part opposite Channing Tatum and his stripper pals in the coming sequel Magic Mike XXL.

Effie Trinket (played by Elizabeth Banks) with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) in a scene from film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

And at the end of the year she will farewell Effie, when Mockingjay Part 2 is released. Even though her character barely features in the final book of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, when the author saw her performance the second movie, Catching Fire, she called director Francis Lawrence to insist Effie be in the final two as well. For Banks, it will be a sad farewell.

“I could cry talking to you about it right now,” she says. “It really overwhelmed me actually to give up Effie — she is very special to me and a really iconic character and I really cherished my time playing her.”

Pitch Perfect 2 opens on Thursday.

Originally published as Elizabeth Banks directs Rebel Wilson and Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect 2