Anna Kendrick rose to fame partly thanks to the musical sensation Pitch Perfect. Looking back, the actress admits she never had such high expectations for the flick and thought only a small group of people would enjoy it.

Asked what she thought about the movie’s success, she told news program Sunday Today: “When I read the script I was so expecting it to be something I’d seen before. I was just hoping a couple nerds would really like it.”

Pitch Perfect went on to elevate the star’s recognition and finances, so much that she reprised her role for a second installment and there is a third one in the making.

And 31-year-old Anna has proven to be a multi-talented phenomenon. Her hit song, Cups (When I’m Gone) made it to number six in the Billboard music chart where it competed with other prominent tracks at the time.

The brunette beauty added: “It’s so weird. 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 b******t?’ I think it was a real testament to the nerdery that exists in the world.”

Despite her success, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the actress. She recalls playing the relatively small role of Jessica Stanley in Twilight and how that barely covered her bills.

“Twilight mostly paid the bills because there were four of them that I got to do. They just kept hiring me. People don’t realise that I get paid to make a movie and then a year goes by and then I promote it for six months.

I’ve only got the one paycheck, and that was a year and a half ago. So ‘Twilight’ saved me in the sense that it was this thing that kept going.”