Rebel Wilson Says Watching Elizabeth Banks Make ‘Gangbusters’ Pitch Perfect 2 Inspired Her to Direct (Exclusive)

Rebel Wilson credits Pitch Perfect costar Elizabeth Banks for inspiring her to direct her first movie.

As the actress, 44, premiered her directorial debut, The Deb, at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 14, she told PEOPLE seeing Banks, 50, take charge of 2015’s Pitch Perfect 2 was an aha moment for her as well as for costars Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow, who have all since directed their own films.

“Elizabeth Banks came as a first-time female director and directed Pitch 2, and that just went gangbusters. And I think we, all of us girls, kind of watched that and went, ‘Huh,’ ” Wilson says. 

“It was inspiring to us that we could get out there and do it,” she adds.

Wilson says the women all keep in touch on a Pitch Perfect text group and keep each other up to date on their latest projects. 

“We’re talking about what we are doing and are very, very, very supportive of each other,” says Wilson. “And we are pretty different girls and I am sure the movies we are all creating are all quite very, very different.”

After directing Pitch Perfect 2, Banks went on to tackle a big screen reboot of Charlie’s Angels in 2019 and the hit 2023 horror-comedy Cocaine Bear. 

Snow’s Parachute, a drama about a woman struggling with an eating disorder, premiered in 2022. She also cowrote the film. Next month, Netflix launches Kendrick’s true-crime drama Woman of the Hour, a gripping look at serial killer and rapist Rodney Alcala, who became a contestant on The Dating Game in the 1970s while still at large for his crimes.

“I’m shocked Kendrick didn’t do a musical because she is queen of musicals,” says Wilson. Not only has Kendrick starred in three Pitch Perfect films, but she also appeared in the musicals The Last Five Years, Into the Woods and Camp.

The Deb, Wilson’s new movie, is an Australia-set musical about a shy and unpopular high school student (played by newcomer Natalie Abbott) who hopes to redefine herself at her small town’s Debutante Ball, a.k.a. “the Deb,” as it’s known to the locals.

Wilson says her directorial debut had to be a musical: “Basically, it could only have been a musical, I think, because the amount of work and passion and love you have to put in, I think for me it could only be a musical.”