Rest and relaxation? As if!

The type of spa treatments Elizabeth Banks goes for aren’t quiet as and calm and laid-back as some spa-goers might prefer.

“The most ridiculous [spa] experience I’ve had was in Budapest. It’s known for its bathhouses, and I’d never been to one of those. I had some giant Hungarian smack me with palm fronds,” the actress told Time Out New York about her first platza treatment. “It was so painful [Laughs], but I was too embarrassed to say, “Please stop!”

Like Banks describes, platza treatments are when a massage specialist continuously smacks a broom made of oak leaves soaked in warm water over your entire body. The procedure is said to be a natural way of removing toxins and skin-dulling residue from your body.

For a less rough-and-tumble service, Banks prefers to get wrapped up like a caterpillar.

“I recently had an amazing mud wrap [in Park City, Utah]. The aesthetician asked if I was claustrophobic, which made me wonder if I really knew what a wrap entailed,” the Man on a Ledge actress continued to the weekly regional mag. “She said she was going to wrap me with foil and cover my eyes, which makes some people feel like they’re in a coffin. [Laughs] I told her I thought I’d be okay, and I was.”

UsMagazine.com

Elizabeth Banks eked out some rare down time from shooting scenes from her latest movie, Man on a Ledge.

Of course, this came as she and co-star Sam Worthington were sitting on a 14-inch ledge, 250 feet above the ground atop New York’s Roosevelt Hotel, waiting for cameras to roll.

“The ledge was a few inches bigger than the size of a man’s shoe,” says Banks. “And then it was a straight sheer drop to the street, down 22 floors. You don’t want to pull your BlackBerry out there. I focused on Sam and we hung out.”

“It was just us and the pigeons,” Worthington concurs. “When you’re up there you do get to enjoy the view.”

It was a rare moment of inactivity during one of the most jam-packed schedules in the business. Banks has three major films coming out in the next five months, starting with the crime thriller Man on a Ledge (out Friday) and the hugely anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games (March 23). She’s also part of the all-star cast in the pregnancy comedy What to Expect When You’re Expecting (May 11).

Adding to the intensity, Banks and husband Max Handelman are parents to seven-month-old son Felix and are also co-producing the comedy Pitch Perfect, about a singing competition.

“It’s a really exciting year and it’s essentially planned through August,” says Banks, 37. “I just have to go one foot through the other day by day and get through it.”

The first step is Ledge, in which Banks, in her first leading action role, plays a police negotiator trying to talk down a potential jumper.

The high emotions during the scene that has Banks joining Worthington on the ledge are authentic simply because the ledge itself was real.

“You can feel Elizabeth’s fear when she’s stepping out there,” says producer Lorenzo di Bonaventua. “If you were on a set, you’re not going to have that. There’s a purity to that fear that you cannot escape.”

Real-life daredevil

Such treacherous moments were hardly deterrents for Banks, who swings on trapezes for a hobby and admits to being a roller coaster fanatic.

“My take on it is, life is worth living,” she says. “It’s much more dangerous getting in my car in Los Angeles than doing these stunts. However, there was a 2% chance of death the entire time.”

Banks had a harness even for scenes shot inside the hotel room with an open window looking out to the ledge. And when the action moved outside, the security system was even more elaborate to keep the stars from danger. Still, as Banks says, errors happen.

“I’m not afraid of heights, I’m afraid of human failure,” she says. “That scares me. I was constantly checking that everything was working.”

“But,” she adds, “it was a pretty great rush.”

Banks has had to get used to a fast-paced acting schedule since breaking out in 2008, playing Laura Bush in Oliver Stone’s W as well as alongside Seth Rogen in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Her widespread appeal has only increased with juicy characters such as 30 Rock’s brash political commentator Avery Jessup — the Emmy-nominated role she has played during four seasons.

But her past workload hasn’t required the current level of power days until now. During an interview at a sparse editing studio, Banks adroitly juggles planning for an upcoming trip to New York and Europe with her family to promote Ledge (“I need to find the right hotel for my son,” she says), an interview, and overseeing the editing of a webisode promoting Pitch Perfect.

“As producer, it’s so important to shape the movie’s message,” she says. “Marketing is so important.”

She’s focused but isn’t immune to laughing at the ad-libbed performances by the actors on screen. The webisodes are due the next week, though, “so there’s a little pressure,” she adds with a tight smile.

The March release of The Hunger Games is more kindling on her career and hectic schedule with Banks playing the pivotal role of Effie Trinket.

A villain to remember

In both the film adaptation and the best-selling book series, fan favorite Trinket is a wildly dressed representative from an authoritarian regime based in a futuristic center called the Capitol. Banks wanted to make sure her outrageous character had some depth.

“She’s a great villain,” says Banks. “But I wanted to make sure people didn’t dismiss her as comic relief. I wanted to make a three-dimensional character.”

Banks reveled in Effie’s outrageous outfits, images of which have been released in advance of the March release. They were so intricate, right down to the flamboyant fake nails, that she couldn’t do anything on her own on set without assistance — something that further helped her transformation into the character.

“People had to do everything from dress me and take me to the bathroom and unzip. I literally couldn’t even go to the bathroom,” she says. “But that’s totally Effie Trinket.”

In her mind, the clothes represent the everyday strain of Capitol life. “She lives in an oppressive society, so everything she wears is tight and constricting,” Banks says. “The shoes are torturous.”

Though her casting has been accepted by the protective fans of the book series, there will always be detractors. (“There are some haters,” admits Banks. “But you can’t please everyone.”) The mania around the movie is poised to propel Banks into another stratum of recognizability.

“We’ll see,” Banks says. “(The hype) is all online right now and all sort of fake. We won’t know until people actually see it. But I’m also totally unrecognizable in this film.”

She is on full display in What to Expect When You’re Expecting, which boasts an A-list cast including Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker and Chris Rock.

Banks plays a know-it-all pregnancy author who finds out the real thing is far harder than theory as she transforms during the pregnancy. For Banks, the physical manifestation of that was a prosthetic stomach and a comically bulky bra.

“The stomach wasn’t that bad, it was the boobs,” Banks says with a laugh. “It’s Pamela Anderson times 10. They just weighed so much and totally outpaced the stomach.”

Her hormonal scenes, however, set the stage for high comedy.

“It allowed me to be a little show-offy,” says Banks. “I feel I have frankly the funniest role in the movie.”

Open-ended story line

It’s the kind of out-there comedy fans have come to expect of Banks, whose anything-goes attitude gained a weekly mainstream audience thanks to her hilarious run as Jessup on 30 Rock. At the end of last season, Jessup was being held in North Korea as a slave-bride to leader Kim Jong Il’s son. Now that the dictator has died in real life, Jessup is game to close the fictional loop.

“I know the writers want to address all of this, but I don’t know how or when,” she says. “No one has contacted me about specifics.”

Banks has enough on her plate right now and will soon start looking ahead to new projects, including playing Tinker Bell in the live-action romantic-comedy film Tink. There will always be more flamboyant portrayals, as well.

As the Pitch Perfect editing session resumes, Banks looks up at the screen and sees herself in a webisode as an absurdly loud talk show host called Gail Abernathy.

“You might have noticed,” she says with a smile. “I do love my outrageous characters.”

USAToday.com

Elizabeth Banks was a guest on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last night and you can now watch her interview below!

PopSugar sat down to chat with Elizabeth Banks at the Man on a Ledge junket in Beverly Hills over the weekend. She had a lot to say about playing a cop in the intense film and what it was like actually filming on a building ledge high over New York City. Up next is The Hunger Games mania for Elizabeth, who transformed into Effie for the highly anticipated big-screen adaptation. Having been a Hunger Games fan from the beginning, Elizabeth wasn’t even aware it had become such a sensation until she signed on for the part. As for the finished product, Elizabeth revealed she’s seen enough to know it’s great. Check out our interview with Elizabeth and watch for Man on a Ledge in theaters Jan. 27.

With her girl-next-door looks and Barbie doll figure, Elizabeth Banks could have landed in typecasting purgatory, a go-nowhere loop of girlfriend and rom-com roles. Instead, she’s parlayed her natural spunk into a diverse career that includes comedies, bromances, blockbusters, horror movies, plum TV guest roles, and, more recently, thrillers. In her new movie, Man on a Ledge (in theaters January 27), she plays a negotiator trying to talk a cop on the lam (Sam Worthington) off a (you guessed it) ledge. We spoke to Banks about performing scenes 200 feet above Madison Avenue, becoming the First Lady of North Korea on 30 Rock, and costuming Effie Trinket in the upcoming Hunger Games.

When you heard the news about Kim Jong Il, did you immediately think about Avery, your character on 30 Rock?
No, I didn’t, actually. I thought about the freedom of the North Korean people and how hopefully they would stop nuclear proliferation and open themselves up to trade. But I got a lot of concerned tweets about Avery and then realized, Oh yeah, everybody else is concerned about her. And it was really funny to read.

How’s this going to be addressed in the show?
I hope I was an assassin. But I probably wasn’t. I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve spoken to the writers. I have not gone back and shot anything, and they’re trying to figure it out. I feel like everyone wants a concrete answer about whether Avery is doing X, Y, Z, but I have no idea.

Your next movie is Man on a Ledge. I love how unambiguous the title is.
When I read it, it read like a really tight thriller. But it was also really character-based. It was a super-contained movie: This guy’s gonna be out there on the ledge and at some point we’re gonna figure out why. I love the simplicity of the storytelling. Basically, my character is almost like in a play. There’s all this crazy action going on around us, but I’m on a windowsill and he’s on a ledge, and it’s all about us trying to connect and figure things out with each other and keep it interesting for 90 minutes.

I’ve heard that Sam Worthington had to overcome a fear of heights for this film. What about you?
I like to say that I’m not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of human error. I actually don’t have a fear of heights — I’m cool being up there. But I did probably check the harness 50 times. I constantly had anxiety, like, Is a bird gonna fly into me? Is my coat gonna get caught in the window? Is the camera guy gonna bump me? Things like that. It’s a very anxiety-filled situation, whether you have a fear of heights or not.

What kind of safety measures were taken to ensure you or Sam didn’t plummet to your death?
There’s no nets — we were 200 feet above Madison Avenue in New York City. We were attached with harnesses underneath us. That was basically like a seat that you sit in, and then that’s attached to essentially shoestring-sized wires that are attached to some rigging. But the whole time you’re like, The rigging’s gonna fall apart, the bolts are not gonna work. And then the very last thing that’s attached to you is a seven-foot-tall, 300-pound stunt guy. My guy really weighed a lot more than me, so I felt pretty secure that he was not gonna let me fall off the ledge.

Do you get many offers to star in thrillers?
The sad fact is that they don’t make that many thrillers in general. There’s three thrillers coming out in the next couple of weeks: Contraband, Man on a Ledge, and The Grey. And no, I didn’t get offered the one with the wolves. Kate Beckinsale, good for her, got the other one — I’ve already been in a movie with Mark Wahlberg. And I did this one. You know what I mean? There aren’t that many. But I was really excited to run around with a gun and chase bad guys and do stunts.

And most thrillers cast men in the leads.
Yeah, they’re almost always about men. Then the girls you’re either older, like Dame Judi Dench, and you’re the bad guy. Or you’re the wife or the girlfriend. So I was really happy that I’m no one’s wife or girlfriend.

You’ve starred in a really wide range of movies, but people know you especially for your comedies. Judging from the scripts that come your way, how do you think people in the industry tend to see you?
It’s so director-driven. Just recently, in the last couple of years, it really just depends on does the director watch comedies or does he watch dramas? And I get a decent amount of respect for being able to do everything.

About Hunger Games … is your work totally done, except for promotion?
Yeah, we’re done. We’re getting ready to put it out in the world.

Have you seen any of it yet?
I’ve seen enough to know that the movie is amazing, but I haven’t seen any finished cuts.

I saw that you responded to a Twitter skeptic who hoped you wouldn’t “ruin The Hunger Games.” Are you ready to take on criticism from fans who might second-guess your portrayal of Effie?
I absolutely am, because here’s my answer: I worked with amazing Academy Award–nominated people in figuring out who Effie is, and most importantly, [author] Suzanne Collins blessed everything we did. So as long as Suzanne Collins is happy … I would say if fans wanna fight about it, they can fight with her.

I loved your response to the tweet: “I know, right?”
Oh yeah, well I love those kinds of things.

Did you yourself feel some trepidation about playing a character in a book you adore so much?
I didn’t. I was just so excited. I’m really excited about my portrayal. I like the voice — I worked really hard on the voice. The hair and makeup didn’t happen immediately. It was a couple days of playing and tweaking, and she really kind of suddenly appeared to us. If I could remove myself from the situation, I would be really excited by my portrayal of Effie.

As a fan, did you make any specific contributions to her character?
All the makeup was very collaborative. It was like, “Hey, when I read the book, I always imagined she was like this.” Everybody was like, “Yeah, I always thought she was this,” or “I thought she was this,” or “This would look better.” It was really a bunch of fans sitting around discussing what our visions were for everything. And then of course there are practical things, like I imagined District 12 — and they pretty much nailed it — like it was in the south in an old mining town. And that’s what we shot. And the Games actually blew me away. What I was imagining was too small.

Did you go as far as designing undergarments for Effie?
Judianna Makovsky is an Academy Award–nominated costume designer and she thinks of everything. We talked a lot about restriction. Even though Effie is sort of a free person, she is still contained and restrained and controlled by her life, so all my clothes are very cinched waists. There’s no full corset in anything, but they’re pretty corseted. And there was a lot of talk about making the shape of her look as good as possible. And despite the fact that I’m asked repeatedly if I’m wearing a butt pad, that was all me underneath the behind. My director was like, “Wow, you guys padded the butt?” I was like, “No, that’s my butt. That is 100 percent my behind.”

How dark does the movie get? Is it darker than Harry Potter at its darkest?
I think it’s appropriately toned for a PG-13 movie. You have to remember this isn’t a G. It’s not Disney. The book had a lot of adult themes, but we were very cognizant of making sure that what you’re connected to are the characters, that you understand it’s life or death for this girl. She wants to go back to her family and she wants to take this boy with her. And it’s also the message that you matter, that the act of a single person can set off a revolution. I think we’re seeing that all over the world right now. It’s very timely, and I think it’s such a great message to give.

NYMag.com

Elizabeth Banks interview for “Man on a Ledge” by Clevver Movies.

Fame is fleeting, but it is safe to say that you’ve made it in Hollywood when, immediately following the death of a brutal dictator, the Internet begins to show deep concern about the fate of a fictional character you once played on a sitcom. But for Elizabeth Banks, that’s just the beginning.

Banks, whose character Avery Jessup ended up the hostage bride of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il on the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” has become one of Hollywood’s go-to actresses. And, after starring over the past few years in “Our Idiot Brother,” “W,” “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” and “Scrubs,” she’s got a slate in 2012 that should launch her to new heights. Banks co-stars with Sam Worthington in the upcoming police thriller “Man On a Ledge,” and in March she’ll play a major role in the rabidly-anticipated adaptation of the YA novel “The Hunger Games.” She’ll also feature in the big screen adaptation of “What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” and make her presence known on the other side of the camera as well.

She spoke with The Huffington Post over the weekend about her big plans, both on-screen and off.

The night Kim Jong Il died, you tweeted about it. Was it surprising that so many people thought about Avery Jessup right after the news broke?
It was surprising that so many Americans thought about that. I tweeted that in response to so many people tweeting me about it. I’m hoping North Korea of course becomes a more tolerant society, that [it] stops nuclear proliferation, opens itself up to trade with the rest of the world, and of course that Avery Jessup gets set free and comes out of there as the assassin.

As dystopian and fantastic as “The Hunger Games” is, it also seems fitting for our volatile world right now. Still, how do you make a movie for kids about kids killing kids?
“The Hunger Games” is so timely because it’s about the overthrow of a totalitarian society and I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening worldwide right now. To me the message of “The Hunger Games” is that revolution can come from one person, an act of kindness by one person. I think it’s really important to tell kids that they matter, that individuals matter, and that everyone counts, and that to me is the message of “The Hunger Games.” That’s what I hope kids take away from it.

You transformed yourself completely to play Laura Bush in 2008′s “W,” and now you’re doing that again for Effie.
A fun part of being an actor and a chameleon is taking on those looks. Effie has a really theatrical, over-the-top, completely not me look to her. I’m very excited for people to see my portrayal. I have no idea if people are going to be into it. I hope they are. I know the filmmakers are and [the book's author] Suzanne Collins blessed everything we did. It was a really fun collaboration between myself and Academy Award-nominated hair and makeup and costume people.

I’m excited to see your interaction with Woody Harrelson as Haymitch.
I’m excited for people to see that too. Because we worked really hard — there was not a lot in the script interaction-wise and we made a lot out of that relationship. Our characters really don’t like each other. But we also have to work together, so it’s that push-pull. It’s like any great sort of love affair — there’s a lot of love-hate between us.

So many fans are so excited about it; do you feel pressure?
I really don’t. You just can’t. I really don’t want people to be disappointed — I’m a fan of the books myself, so of course I just want to be faithful and do right by her. But I loved Effie. I loved playing it, I loved how it came out, I’m really proud of it, so any of the haters, I’m just going to ignore.

What’s your dream role for the next couple of years?
My dream role is to play Tinker Bell in a live-action movie for Disney. I’m trying to make that a reality. I’m producing that movie right now and we are at the script stage. We have an amazing writer and we’re just waiting for the script to come in and hoping that Disney stays on board and is as excited about it as we are.

What, exactly, would it be about?
It would be a live-action Tinker Bell, sort of in the vein of “Elf.” Instead of an elf, a fairy. It would be a comedy — a rom-com. Peter Pan does not really make an appearance in the movie. It’s really Tinker Bell’s story. It’s the story about what would happen if she got thrown out of Never Never Land. Where would she go, what would she do, who would she meet? Her personality is based on the Tinker Bell you know and love, so she’s very feisty and mischievous.

You’re also producing another movie, “Pitch Perfect.”
We just got back from Baton Rogue where we finished principal photography. It’s a movie for Universal — a comedy set in the world of competitive collegiate a capella singing. It stars an amazing group of hilarious young people.

Were you involved in a capella when you were in school?
I went to the University of Pennsylvania, and the Ivy League and the Northeast is sort of ground zero for a capella, so I knew a lot of people in a capella. I never did it myself. I’m horrible at harmonizing, so I’d probably be terrible at a capella. But I love comedies about subcultures. Any of these comedies that look at a slice of the population that normally doesn’t get paid attention to. These guys are truly dorks at a certain level, but then they get up and sing and dance and they’re rock stars, and I think it’s so aspirational and it’s something that so many young people think about and right now we’re at a really accepting time for the arts in the world. It’s not always like that; the jocks used to rule, and I feel like the arts are making a comeback now.

Was that your experience — an arts dork in a jock’s world?
I sort of had one foot in both camps. I was a theater geek but I dated the captain of the hockey team. And we were state champions, so draw your own conclusions. It was pretty awesome.

You’re also directing. You did a segment on “Movie 43″ for the Farrelly Brothers.
I got to direct Chloe Grace Moretz, who is one of my favorite up-and-coming actresses and she’s going to be a giant star. My short is about what happens on an after-school middle-school date. So the things that go wrong when two 12-year-olds start making out on a couch after school. It was a lot of fun.

HuffingtonPost.com