Pitch Perfect 3 is a musical comedy film directed by Trish Sie and written by Kay Cannon and Mike White.
The third and final installment in the Pitch Perfect trilogy, Pitch Perfect 3 stars Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Hailee Steinfeld, Alexis Knapp, Ester Dean, Hana Mae Lee, Chrissie Fit, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Elizabeth Banks, and John Michael Higgins. The film is scheduled to be released on December 22, 2017.
We caught up with the hilarious and scene-stealing Hana Mae Lee to talk the last and final Pitch Perfect.
The Knockturnal: How did you like watching the final cut of the final installment? Was it emotional for you?
Hana Mae Lee: It was! It’s just like a really cool – have you seen it yet? The third one?
The Knockturnal: Yeah!
Hana Mae Lee: So you know, in the end, they do that montage of all of the movies in black-and-white and it’s almost like a yearbook of everything that’s happened in the past 6 years. So I thought that was like really beautiful and nostalgic. Like, it was a little emotional. We were all so young and our budgets were so much smaller and it was a whole journey because it’s this perfect series that goes chronologically. So, It was great to see us as freshman to graduates, from graduates to what happens after. It all just came around together. I thought it was really lovely how they did that.
The Knockturnal: Was there any special celebrations to celebrate the wrap of this whole period together in your time of life?
Hana Mae Lee: So the girls have always hung out and we’ve always kept in touch. So movie-wise, I don’t know. Every movie always feels the same and it’s like, “Oh my God, it’s ending” when we do our last shoot day but it doesn’t quite feel like it the end. Like, I know we are all busy and have schedules but it never feels like, “whelp, see you later.” So there wasn’t any sense of being done. Except, in the film when we sing that “Freedom” song together with Anna, that kind of felt like closure there and almost like this is it. But yeah ,maybe it hasn’t hit and set in yet
The Knockturnal: I was talking to Shelley Regner [Ash, in the film], she’s hoping for a Broadway reunion.
Hana Mae Lee: [Laughter] Broadway reunion! Oh, girl! That would be like a one-woman show. Hello! [Laughter] But, I think I want to do something like that. Like a couple of years ago, I heard they were going to do a Pitch Perfect Broadway thing, but I don’t know. It could have been a rumor.
The Knockturnal: How much has production changed? I know you talked a little bit about the budget but how much has the process changed since the first movie?
Hana Mae Lee: Oh wow, tremendously. The first movie, I think the budget was 14 or 17 million which is a lot, but not a huge movie budget. And a lot of that went to music so we literally had one light and like a bounce board. Nobody visited the set because nobody really cared about the film yet, but Jason [Moore, who directed the first Pitch Perfect] was great. He was said we didn’t even have time to do big takes for each actor. It was like, “Okay, the camera is going to be on you this time,” then, moving on. I was like, “Oh shit”. It was almost like live TV, where you just get one take. But he also knew what he wanted and just got it. But, it was really one take and that was it. There was a lot of heart to the first one too because it was just a group of the crew and us. It was pretty intimate. The second one, it was like, wow we have so many lights and so many sponsors. We had people visiting set all the time from, like, People Magazine and The Ellen Show, and everyone would just visit while we’re shooting and doing our makeup and hair. It was top notch. We had 5,000 extras for 5 days and all the extras and background actors were amazing and fluent in moving and being told. We would do, like, thirty takes. The boot camp was pretty much the same for all three movies. We were there for months just practicing all of our vocals and the new songs and the new dance routines and getting it all down. Then a week into it, we have to change the music because they didn’t approve the song or they approved another one that we’d been waiting for. Then we have to change all the dance moves, rework all the vocals. Then, we shoot the next day. So that’s been pretty consistent throughout this whole thing. It’s so funny because every movie we’re like, “Oh, we have more time” and we feel so prepared. Then it’s like, “Oh shit”. The music industry, they’re always keeping us on our toes.
The Knockturnal: You mentioned a little bit earlier, have the dance numbers gotten easier as time goes by or do they get more intense?
Hana Mae Lee: I wish! I know that I’m getting older when I see all these crazy dance moves and I’m like, “Wow, that is really not good for your lower back.” I just knowing I’m old because when you’re young, you’re like, “Oh shit, that’s fucking rad! I can’t wait to do it.” Because for the first one, the last number we were really doing all this hip-hop and these cool moves. Then the second one, the stakes were higher because we were already champions, so the dance moves were so insane. The first movie, after we had rehearsal, all the boys and all the girls ate dinner and would go out to the bar for three straight months. Then for the second movie, we went out twice? We just had so much rehearsal and so much to learn and wer so tired. It was a lot of dancing for the second one, like a tremendous amount. That’s the one where the music kept changing. I think it’s all because we were trying to get that Beyoncé song in there and we weren’t sure if we were going to get it, and we had two different versions. By the time we got it, that last finale number with the hands clapping, it was like geometry and very confusing for everyone to learn. But, the second movie, the numbers went pretty quickly compared to the first movie. Even though the dances weren’t simple, it’s just muscle memory. Then by the third movie, AJ, our choreographer just took it to the next level. It’s been pretty challenging. Also, I think it looks really good with all the outfits and the music. It was worth my backaches and my neck turns. It was good.
The Knockturnal: Your character has been such a scene-stealer but in this film, we get some interesting background information about her. Before reading that stuff in the script, did you have your own theories on what Lilly’s deal was?
Hana Mae Lee: For me, I always felt like it could go either way with her. Was she just like a normal ditzy party girl who got possessed? Or was she, is she, like, time travelled here? It’s just so funny with her character because she’s the only character in the whole cast that’s just in her own world. It’s like “what?” It’s random, it’s funny and just odd. I guess I was really excited when I read the ending of the script because that was like, “oh, that’s so funny.” I wonder if people are going to love it or hate it because they love that quiet whispering, crazy, cuckoo lines that Lilly has. For this one, I was like, “Aww are they going to hate it?” because that Lilly part is still there but it’s kind of gone, you know? But people really enjoyed it. I guess we’ll really find out in the next couple of weeks. But I think that with her life, who knows, maybe we can do a series. Like Lilly what? I like a Machete-style series.
The Knockturnal: Lastly, what are you going to miss most about playing Lilly?
Hana Mae Lee: I really liked playing Lilly. People have always asked me, do I really have to get into character to play Lilly. And I do. She’s always meditative. Personally, I do talk a lot but I’m not as direct as I wish I was. So I’m really going to miss that about playing her. I’m really going to miss her big eyes and cockiness in a sense, but her evil background. Yeah, I’m going to miss her a lot. It was really fun playing her and it was enjoyable from the beginning to the end. I love that full circle of the audience knowing she’s kind of an oddball and then, in the end, it’s still a surprise. I’ve always talked about playing Lilly so I’m going to definitely miss that. It has a place in my heart. It’s been six years. It’s so crazy that when we go and shoot, I know exactly how to play it and exactly what I want to do. I don’t know it’s just that familiarity and that kind of person. I think she’s much cooler than me because she’s super confident and kooky and doesn’t care what people think and is very direct and you just don’t know what is going on in her mind. Which, I think is very great. So, I will miss that about Lilly.
The Knockturnal: And we’re going to miss you playing her. Thank you so much Hana!
Hana Mae Lee: Aww so nice talking to you!
