Elizabeth Banks is front and center during the promotion of Pitch Perfect 2, which is an interesting choice. Obviously, Banks is a big-name celebrity on her own, but PP2 is her directorial debut and I always worry about the lady directors coming out ahead of their films. Like, I still wonder if Angelina Jolie might have done a disservice to Unbroken by appearing on so many magazine covers and making the film so much about “La Jolie.” Anyway, Banks covers the new issue of Allure, and despite my misgivings, the interview is pretty great. I’m saying that because I love and admire her.
Elizabeth’s career theme: “If I had to pick a theme of the things I do, it would be: Girls win.”
The stress of directing: “Once you get offered a studio job, as a woman, it’s really hard to say no because they don’t let women do this very often. So I knew I needed to embrace it and I couldn’t mess it up. Because if you mess it up, they don’t let you do it again, and you become representative of female directors as a whole. Like, ‘See girls can’t do it.'”
She prefers comedy to drama: “Making people laugh is a very addictive thing… [At the Friars Club], all of these people absolutely get high off of killing a room. You can get that feeling of flying in drama as well, and I’ve had it many, many times. But I find making people laugh to be a really specially ability. It’s like having a superpower.”
Being married to Max Handelman since 2003:”I didn’t meet my husband and think, I’ve met the man I’m going to marry. I was like he’s cute. I’ll f–k him, because I’m 18 and in college.”
Their marriage works though: “Really, what happened was I’ve never met anyone I liked more. In the early years did I have crushes or little interests here and there? I know my husband did, and so did I, but we stayed together. We still to this day take the long view. We have always dreamed about our life together. And we work together every day, and we have a lot of respect for each other on every level. And then there’s love. And then there’s lust. So it’s great.”
[From Allure via E! News]
It’s always sad to hear that women directors just accept the biased system they’re working in, that if they aren’t all things to all people then they’ll never get another shot at directing again. It sucks. But I love Elizabeth’s theme: GIRLS WIN. She’s so cool. And her marriage sounds so… normal. Realistic. It’s not hearts and love at first sight and forcing a fairy tale on some random dude. It’s sticking with something and “taking the long view.” I love her.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I love her too, and I hope the film does really well.
She has another little movie coming out, starring her, Dakota Fanning, and Diane Lane- it was written and directed by women as well. Pajiba has a post about it.
The movie will do fine. And seriously – Angelina may have hurt Unbroken during award season, but PP2 is not going to be up for any awards. I doubt Banks will hurt its critical acclaim by being out front. It will be a funny popcorn movie and will make money.
How did Angelina hurt anything? The film was nominated for three Oscars and made a lot of money. I suppose if a man were directing it would have gotten nominated for more Oscars and made more money??? Maybe, but why make the bar so much higher for girls- shouldn’t it be celebrated that a woman was able to convince a studio to give her such a big budget (for a girl) and that the movie made money (and, IMO, a very moving and entertaining story)? NOBODY – and that includes men- was able to make this film until Angelina- a girl- for over 50 years of trying.
I’m not saying Angelina hurt anything. I don’t think she did. Unbroken was a good movie but not Best Picture caliber. I’m just saying of you go with Kaiser’s premise that some think she hurt the movie by making it about her, Banks won’t have the same issues with PP2. That’s all. I loved Unbroken.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree- I definitely think it was “Oscar caliber” based on others nominated, both this year and previous years. The biggest win is that it got made at all- I’m surely glad it did- both as a film lover and someone who thinks Louis’ was amazing. I also disagree that Angelina made the promotion about herself- if anything, she was too humble for what she accomplished. Even as an actor, she always gives credit to others and promotes the work and careers of other cast & crew- VERY rare in Hollywood.
A LOT of the publicity for Unbroken was centered on Angelina Jolie. Almost every photoshoot I saw was her and the lead actor, which doesn’t happen with most movies, and there was a lot of focus on her being the director. I don’t know if it helped or hurt – maybe a little of both, her being famous brought more attention to it, but also her being famous caused a lot of media coverage about her rather than the story? I don’t know. It was great that a female director got a lot of media attention though.
I haven’t seen it to comment on the film itself. I wanted to read the book first, and haven’t had a chance to dig into it yet.
I am a huge fan. She’s taking charge in the business and helming a movie that is about women and humor and friendships and excellent choreography. Girls definitely win. 🙂
I love you, Effie Trinket.
I do, too.
Ditto.. She is awesome
It sucks that if Michael Bay directs a shitty movie (which is every single one) it’s on him but when a woman does it, it’s suddenly a general female issue. When I think about one of those super popular blockbuster movies directed by women in recent years, Catherine Hardwicke comes to mind. She made an awful Twilight movie back in 2008 and I can only imagine all those following conversations between studio executives on how women suck at directing and shouldn’t be hired, because a woman made a bad movie out of an even worse script, based on one of the worst books of all times. Because of course all women think the same, act the same, have the same ideas and abilities. I wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure if I was in Elizabeth’s or Sam Taylor-Johnson’s place. They are brave.
It reminds me also of Karyn Kusama. An awesome debut with Girlfight (I still have a fondness for Michelle Rodriguez because of that one),and then a failure with a high profile feature, Aeon Flux, in which she didn’t have the final cut.
I can’t help but think that a male director would have been given another chance but he career seemed to never have recovered.
Great comment. It definitely sucks that Michael Bay can afford to put 3 hours of cgi explosions on film and not even bother to give it a plot line, and no one says “well see? Those damn men, they just can’t direct.”
Excellent point. And the same goes for film types too- The Sony hack revealed that because Catwoman and Elektra didn’t do well they don’t want to do female superhero movies. Well, the Green Lantern was a huge flop and much more costly- yet no one stop making male superhero movies, or offering Ryan Reynolds roles. And the two earlier hulk films struggled to make a profit.
Michael Bay’s shitty movies make billions of dollars. Studios don’t care about quality, they care about money.
First Twilight movie was a hit as well and it made a lot of profit. They are comparable as box office hits that are also laughing stocks for critics and serious movie watchers at the same time. The difference is that Catherine Hardwicke got publicly fired (official version – artistic differences) and it damaged her career, while the next 3 movies were made by male directors only, even though the story was written by a woman and the main character is a woman, but Bay still gets hired. The quality is not important only when male directors are concerned. Women are held to much higher standards and if they fail to deliver in any way – it has consequences for the entire gender.
Norman, you’re right that there was a single mistake that held her back, but have the wrong movie. Twilight was successful and she was doing well. It was the low performing a Red Riding Hood that she directed that killed her momentum. twilight was good for her, it made money.
Norman:
Hardwicke got fired from the Twilight series because the studio wanted to rush out the second film and Hardwicke did not want to work that quickly. The studio wanted fast, easy cash and Hardwicke stood in their way. So of course they fired her. If she had been on board to rush out the second one like the studio wanted, she would not have gotten fired.
Um the rock was awesome but then yes his movies suck but the rock was amazing
Is she a big celebrity? I mean, she’s been in a lot of huge movies, but I don’t know how many people around me would know her name.
She’s okay but I wish she’d said “Women win.” I am sick of the infantilization of women. Haven’t the Kardashians damaged what women should look, act like and strive for enough?
I hear exactly what you’re saying, but in this particular case it ready like a quick, off the cuff remark (to me). There is definitely a great case for this particular issue in today’s world, but here I don’t think she was intentionally trying to infantilize women. Just kind of a quick “girls rule” comment is how I read it.
I agree… When I am speaking off-the-cuff I use the terms “girls” and “boys” or “guys” instead of women and men… Nothing meant by it, I am an outspoken feminist, so not sure if it is a Texas/southern thing or just the way I talk.
Yes, I came on to say, “can we be women yet? Or are we to be “girls” our whole lives?”
I love her. 🙂
Pitch Perfect two is getting terrible reviews 🙁
It’s at 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, that’s not too bad.
Don’t worry about them! They are few, fewer than it may seem.
I won’t watch pitch perfect for several reasons chief among them I HATE musicals/musical number/ thin reedy white chick singing voices BUT I might buy a ticket to support and then go catch Mad Max or something, I just hope the movie does well for them
I have hated her since she was annoying in my beloved scrubs (don’t mess with my scrubs) and often still find her annoying but I really liked her in this interview. She is obviously a realist. She makes no illusions of the world we live in and she doesn’t whine she just says ok this is the situation I’m going to kill it because I have to. You have to respect that.
I also liked what she said about her marriage and liking her husband. She is obviously very smart- she still totally sucked on scrubs.
I LOVED something about this cover: they didn’t erase her wrinkles. She looks real and beautiful.