Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category
With “The Hunger Games” in the rear-view mirror, the ensemble comedy “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” just ahead and a 14-month-old at home, Elizabeth Banks is tired.
“I’ve signed on to being exhausted for the next 25 years,” the 38-year-old actress says, kicking off her studded stilettos and settling into a sofa at the Four Seasons Hotel.
That’s the price of being a working mom with a successful career that includes starring in three films this year, a recurring role on “30 Rock,” a burgeoning production company and various other projects in different stages of development and production.
“I do like to work,” she said. “I’m very much a sleep-when-you’re-dead person.”
Banks has a very personal connection to “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” She read the pregnancy manual while preparing to start her own family and said it kept her sane during the scary transition into first-time parenthood.
She and her husband, producer Max Handelman, welcomed son Felix last year, opting to use a gestational surrogate after facing infertility. Banks connected to the film adaptation of “What to Expect” because it’s less about pregnancy and more about parenting.
“When I was going through my battle with infertility, I got wonderful advice, which was: Why are you so worried about the pregnancy? Just get the baby whatever way you can get your baby,” she said. “Pregnant women would say, ‘Yeah, pregnancy is really great and lovely, but then you go to the hospital and they give you your baby and you have to mother it.’ That’s the part that’s important, mothering the baby, and at the end of the day, that’s what this movie is about.”
Banks plays Wendy Cooper, a perky lactation expert and pregnancy authority whose own expectant experience isn’t the glowy, blissful one she’d hoped for.
“All the not-so-wonderful things about pregnancy that are possible — like flatulence, acne, constipation, swollen ankles, fatigue and anxiety — happen to Wendy,” said director Kirk Jones. “Elizabeth Banks is just a genius comedian and she played everything so beautifully.”
Though Banks wore a fake tummy in the film, “a prosthetic belly is not the same as being pregnant.”
“It’s an approximation of the physicality you have as a pregnant person,” she said. “It makes you walk differently and sit differently, eat differently, and it provides a wonderful shelf for your coffee mug. And it’s heavy, so your back aches, so it’s a wonderful approximation.”
Though the part didn’t really make her feel pregnant, Banks admits she was “definitely moved at the end (of the film) when they all got a baby.”
The actress will be back on screen next month in “People Like Us,” which she describes as “a beautiful, wonderful story about people who find family.” Next up is “Pitch Perfect,” which she produced with her husband: A comedy set in the competitive world of collegiate acapella. Banks said it’s the hardest she has ever worked.
“It’s like birthing a baby almost!” she said. “Until it’s out to the world, there’s no end to worrying about it.”
The film is due in the fall, right when she returns to the world of “The Hunger Games” to film its second installment, “Catching Fire.”
Her turn as the super-coiffed Effie Trinket has won Banks younger fans and reinvigorated her passion for acting.
“I just love Effie so much,” the actress said. “She’s a really amazing character, a complicated, interesting, wild character to play — the type of character that when you’re a young actor you dream of getting to play, and I get to do it now.”
Even if it is all a little exhausting.
Elizabeth Banks plays a mom-to-be in What to Expect When You’re Expecting but for her, becoming a mother was nothing like what she goes through in the movie.
“I didn’t carry my own baby,” Banks told Celebuzz about becoming a mom via surrogate, last year.
“I made a baby cake and I baked it in an angel’s oven. That’s one of the few pregnancy experiences that his movie does not explore. It explores lots of other ones but not gestational surrogacy, which is how I had my son, Felix.”
Even though she wasn’t pregnant herself, Banks remembered having hormonal episodes leading up to the birth of her child.
“The Thursday before my son was born, I was just driving to coffee with my husband and I literally burst into tears,” she recalled.
“I was horrified that this was the last Thursday of my life before I was going to be responsible for another human being for the rest of my life! ”
Although she’s never been pregnant, Banks got a taste of the experience while working on the movie.
She and cast mates Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez were given prosthetic breasts and tummies to wear under their clothing.
“Mine had giant areolas like horrifyingly large salami slices,” laughed Banks. “I thought, ‘That’s the size of my face!’”
Next week Lionsgate will bring their live-action adaptation of the popular pregnancy guide “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” to AMC screens. The film takes a look at how four couples grapple with the challenges of impending parenthood.
We had the opportunity to speak with two of the film’s stars, Elizabeth Banks and Ben Falone recently about the research that Banks did into the world of Mommy bloggers in preparation for her role and how they themselves referenced the original book as parents.
Take a look at our video interview below:
Elizabeth Banks, who plays Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games, turned up at the Lucky FABB Conference, the mag’s first held in Santa Monica, on Monday afternoon.
The all-day event featured dozens of special guests from the worlds of blogging, fashion, retail and beauty to discuss the future of fashion and style on the web. Attendees networked and foraged in fabulous suites by Michael Stars, House of Zappos, JellyPop, Miss Me, Le SportSac, Samsung and P&G products, including Covergirl, Olay and Venus.
Naturally, Banks looked appropriately chic for her appearance in a dark, shiny frock by British designer Matthew Williamson, and a pair of highly-coveted black shiny heels by Jean-Charles du Castelbajac, which she described as “a hot Mary Jane.”
The disarmingly frank and funny actress — think Chelsea Handler without the profanity and the vodka – talked with Lucky Editor-in-Chief Brandon Holley, wearing a FABB-ulous outfit by Kelly Wearstler — before a room packed with young, enthusiastic female bloggers. The main topic at hand: her own blog, ElizabethBanks.com.
Banks explained why she got into blogging, what her criterion is for blog items, and how she’s big into aggregating and would love to showcase other bloggers’ work. She’s mostly interested in bloggers with a point of view, a voice, curiosity, a sense of humor and “a little bit of girl power.” No negativity, please. Life’s too short.
Her blog has fun categories like Work Stuff, Geeky Stuff, Yummy Stuff, Pretty Stuff, Silly Stuff, Good Stuff. She even has a Book Club and is currently reading The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty.
To our knowledge, Banks is definitely the first actress in the history of the Hollywood who posts photos of herself on red carpets and actually asks you to critique her looks. “Be honest. I can take it,” she tells her viewers.
Ok, so many readers did not care for those floral golf pants she wore on The Ellen DeGeneres talk show. But eveyone love-loved her bright yellow Bill Blass gown and Judith Leiber bag at the London Games premiere.
Her hair and makeup artist, Karen Adler, also writes on Banks’ blog about creating her looks for special events, even detailing the products she uses on the actress; such as Kevin Murphy’s Fresh Hair, Powder Puff, Ardell individual lashes, Bare Minerals blush and Buxom gloss in a shade called “leslie.”
Predictably, the topic turned to Hunger Games when one blogger asked Banks what she’d steal from Effie Trinket’s eccentric wardrobe.The actress ‘fessed up that she has her eye on a pair of Effie’s flashy footwear. “Effie had some amazing gold Alexander McQueen booties that I am deservately trying to get. They’re probably going to be worth money some day and that’s why they don’t want to give them to me. I’ll wear them. They probably just preserve them!”
As for the new director of the sequel Catching Fire, Frances Lawrence, Banks observed: “I’ve never met Francis but he seems lovely. I like his movies and I’m excited for a new voice to be involved. It’s gonna be great for the franchise and that’s really all I know.”
Watch video of Banks’ FABB appearance below.
Elizabeth Banks may be closely identified with a new breed of comedy, having made her mark in films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
But she’s got an old-school streak in her that includes family roots in Pittsfield, Mass., and a deep appreciation for Rosalind Russell.
As her latest film, The Hunger Games, hit theaters, Banks sat down with Jacob Weisberg to answer his and Slate readers’ questions, including why she isn’t holding her breath for a sequel to Role Models and why she’s mistaken for Parker Posey.
In Part 1 of our interview with Elizabeth Banks, she discusses the joys of working with Judd Apatow. And in Part 2, she explains how the best-selling parenting manual What to Expect When You’re Expecting was turned into a comedy. In the final segment, Banks talks about her future and how a Hollywood actress can age gracefully.
OK! chatted with Elizabeth Banks at Reebok’s crossfit event in NYC recently and got all her diet confessions. The Hunger Games star shares what she’d like to eat for her last feast on earth.
My Eating Habits in One Word
“Moderation.”
Healthiest Thing I’ve Eaten All Week
“I eat a lot of healthy food. I just ate some kale. I eat a lot of super foods like kale.”
Last Time I Felt Guilty About Something I Ate
“I try not to feel guilty about anything. To be honest, I work out, and it allows you to enjoy food and drink as fuel.”
Last Time I Skipped a Meal
“I don’t even know what that means. I eat lots of food, but nothing unhealthy.”
Least Healthy Thing I’ve Eaten All Week
“This week, I’ve been good. No, what am I saying? Ricotta pancakes.”
My Last Feast on Earth
“I know it would definitely involve cupcakes, and probably involve some sort of steak.”
Elizabeth Banks has told Hunger Games fanatics to put an end to their hate campaign against her and her costars.
Some die-hard fans of the Hunger Games books have hit out at the casting of their favorite characters in the newly released movie adaptation.
But actress Elizabeth says she and rest of the cast have come to terms with the criticism.
“People ask me all the time if I’m worried about the haters but I’m really not,” she says.
“The haters are always going to hate something so what are you going to do? Suzanne Collins wrote the books and she’s happy with the cast and to me, that’s all that counts.”
Banks recently revealed that she fell into acting.
“I broke my leg sliding into third base playing baseball when I was a kid and it’s because of that that I am an actor,” she said.
“So I literally fell into acting! I needed something else to do after school. I couldn’t really imagine going home from three to five because both my parents worked so I signed up for acting class instead.”
