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"She&amp;#x27;s a pop songwriting machine by day and an actress by night. The hilariously colorful Ester Dean, who plays Cynthia Rose in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect, is also responsible for co-writing some of this year&amp;#x27;s biggest pop hits (Um, hits like Katy Perry&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Firework&amp;amp;#8221; and Rihanna&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;What&amp;#x27;s My Name&amp;quot;!!!) She&amp;#x27;s even worked with Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, and Nicki Minaj to boot. I had a phone date with her earlier this week, and she entertained me all the way through it. Get ready to be obsessed. Glamour: So, you&amp;#x27;re known as a songwriter. How did you get your first acting gig as Cynthia Rose in Pitch Perfect? Ester: It was so random, I went in to see them about music, and they asked if I&amp;#x27;d ever done live action. I didn&amp;#x27;t even know what live action was. Then I auditioned, and they called a few days later and told me I got the part, and that I&amp;#x27;d have to be in Baton Rouge for three months. I was still working on Rihanna&amp;#x27;s album and Ice Age at the same time. So I wrote &amp;amp;#8220;Where Have You Been&amp;amp;#8221; while I was in Baton Rouge. Glamour: Talk me through your song writing process. What comes first&amp;amp;mdash;words or music? Ester: I write by myself and then deliver the song. Everybody knows, leave Ester alone when she&amp;#x27;s in her zone. Give me a studio and the tracks, and I&amp;#x27;ll call you when the doctor is done. Glamour: What&amp;#x27;s the songwriting process like for you? Ester: I&amp;#x27;m a very emotional writer. I always need to have a boyfriend. I always need to have some food. I always need to have a heater at my feet, and I drink this thing called Cool Brew, which I found in Louisiana. It&amp;#x27;s like condensed coffee. I normally work like a vampire. Around 8 to 9pm, what I call &amp;amp;#8220;the spirits&amp;amp;#8221; actually show up, and then I just go in the booth and scream on top of a track. I only sing on the mic. I don&amp;#x27;t sit down and write anything. Glamour: So you need a boyfriend to write songs, or will a love interest do? Ester: A love interest will do. I will make up a crush, you hear me?! I will look at a guy and say, for two months at least, &amp;quot;I think you&amp;#x27;re cute.&amp;quot; And then I can be psycho. I will go in my head and make a whole life with him, he don&amp;#x27;t even understand why I&amp;#x27;m mad at him. I&amp;#x27;m like&amp;amp;#133; &amp;amp;#8220;cause you came in late last night!&amp;amp;#8221; And he&amp;#x27;s like &amp;amp;#8220;I don&amp;#x27;t even know you.&amp;amp;#8221; Glamour: Nice&amp;amp;#133; Ester: I really think musicians are crazy. We go into a small little room that&amp;#x27;s padded (psycho!), you close the door, turn off the lights, you sit there, and you sing into a piece of metal. I don&amp;#x27;t like anybody to see me loose my mind. I jump up and down, and my hands are moving, like some kind of revival. If my engineer tries to say something, I&amp;#x27;m like&amp;amp;#133;&amp;quot;You are not here, I&amp;#x27;m not with you. I&amp;#x27;m in the club with some vampires or something.&amp;quot; You don&amp;#x27;t want anybody to come into your crazy. And that&amp;amp;#8217;s why you need artists like a Rihanna or a Nicki that allow you to be crazy. To say, &amp;quot;Hey, I&amp;#x27;m not going to mess with her process.&amp;quot; Glamour: Let&amp;#x27;s talk about Pitch Perfect. Had you ever sung a cappella before? What was that like? Ester: I can sing a cappella, I just didn&amp;#x27;t understand the idea of making music with your mouth. It&amp;#x27;s crazy to be able to break down a beat with your mouth. Glamour: Did everyone have to get training? Ester: We had classes that taught us how to sing together with the sounds and the words. I did the bass with my mouth. It was so hard, and then it was even harder to add dance to it. Glamour: The movie is so much fun. What was it like on set? Ester: I was new to it, and I really gravitated to Rebel and Hana Mae [Lee]. I knew of Anna Camp because I&amp;#x27;m in love with Cashmere Mafia, so when I met her, I was like, &amp;quot;You&amp;#x27;re the girl from Cashmere Mafia.&amp;quot; She was only in it for one minute, she was a babysitter, but I thought she was so good. She was supposed to be this bitch, and she played it so well. Glamour: How did she feel when you told her you were an uber fan from Cashmere Mafia? Ester: She was so embarrassed. I had also seen her again on Up All Night. I always see her, I love her actually. I think she&amp;#x27;s awesome. Glamour: So, what&amp;#x27;s next? Ester: I just like to grow and stay creative. I&amp;#x27;m doing my own animation film. I just finished a song for someone I love, and I know she&amp;#x27;s going to kill it. I&amp;#x27;m in the studio now. And I just talked to Nicki [Minaj], and we are doing something. There is so much going on in my life that if I complain, I should shoot myself. Or maybe it&amp;#x27;s just the lady&amp;#x27;s day of the month. Glamour: Well congrats on the everything, especially the movie. I can&amp;#x27;t wait to see it again. Ester: We&amp;#x27;ll talk again! And next time, I&amp;#x27;ll be like&amp;amp;#133; I just made a spaceship. And I&amp;#x27;m flying to Mars or something like that. Are you going to see Pitch Perfect this weekend? Photo Credit: Ester Dean and Woozy Collins"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2012/10/pitch-perfects-ester-dean-chat>