Actress Anna Kendrick was blown away by the huge success of Pitch Perfect, confessing she simply hoped a "couple nerds" would like the movie musical.

The Twilight star reveals she was a little apprehensive about the project when she was first sent the script, about an a cappella singing group called The Barden Bellas.

She fell in love with the movie and quickly signed on, but she never expected it to turn into the phenomenon it became upon its release in 2012, when it grossed $115 million (£91.3 million) worldwide and became the second highest-grossing musical comedy in box office history, behind School of Rock.

"When I read the script I was so expecting it to be something I'd seen before," she confessed on U.S. news show Sunday Today. "I was just hoping a couple nerds would really like it."

Anna, who portrayed Beca Mitchell, the leader of The Barden Bellas, even experienced pop success as Cups, one of her songs in the movie, climbed into the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

"It's so weird," she recalled. "I was just like, 'How is this just happening?' The other people on the charts were Miley Cyrus and Macklemore and they're out promoting and they must be like, 'What is this bulls**t?'"

She added, "I think it was a real testament to the nerdery (sic) that exists in the world."

Anna and her co-stars, including Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, and Brittany Snow, returned for a 2015 sequel, Pitch Perfect 2, which proved to be even more popular than the original, raking in $287 million (£228 million) to overtake School of Rock and take the title as the highest grossing musical comedy in history.

A third installment is set for release in December, 2017.

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