While all of the Hollywood insiders are busy declaring this The Year of Alicia Vikander, I have to say that I think 2015 is really The Year of Elizabeth Banks. She directed, produced and starred in the mega-hit Pitch Perfect 2. PP2 was so successful that a third Pitch Perfect has been greenlighted and Banks might direct it too. She’s getting Oscar buzz for Love & Mercy. She’s got a fun supporting part in Magic Mike XXL. She’s in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. And she’s filming Wet Hot American Summer: First Day At Camp. It really is The Year of Banks. Bless her. So it’s no surprise that Banks has gotten another magazine cover, this time with Flaunt Mag. Elizabeth joked on Instagram that it looks “like I was dipped in Vaseline and loved every second of it.” Some highlights from the interview:
Whether the industry is less fair to women over 40: “I am 41. That’s true…Not for Sandra Bullock! Not for Meryl Streep! Not for Naomi Watts! I got plenty to do!”
On-screen May-December romances: “The men get all older and all the women stay the same age…that’s true… My male peers in this business would rather be in a romantic relationship in a film with a 28-year-old. I’ll give you that. But it’s for the exact same reason I would prefer to be in a movie with Zac Efron! Because they’re beautiful! They’re sexy! They keep you feeling young, fresh! I guess my point is that I understand the impulse. It’s a bummer, but I think it’s important to remember.”
Inequality in the industry: “Women want to work because what we realized is that when you take that time to go away for six years and get your kids into first grade, people don’t hire you. They f–king forget about you… It’s bad for you, if you actually want to work and make money. Men want us to make money because they like having boats. They like going on vacations. They like motorcycles. And they’re not getting them on their salary alone.”
Elizabeth Banks pretty much falls consistently into the feminist category of “if men can be ballers, so can I.” She approaches her career with that gung-ho, “let’s throw everything at the problem and just fight to the death” attitude. But no, she shouldn’t do a movie with Zac Efron. That would be bad for her career, just because Zac’s “movie star” attempt isn’t really happening. But I would be all for seeing Banks with a younger love interest, like Channing Tatum or… Kit Harington. Or something.
Photos courtesy of Flaunt.
I now have a girl crush on Elizabeth Banks.
Just came here to say she is very good in a new film, love and mercy, a biopic of Brian Wilson of the beach boys, with Paul Dano as young Brian and John Cusack as older Brian. Great performances, very moving, see if you get the chance.
I love her! She manages to pull off sexy and desireable without looking ridiculous and try hard, a la Demi Moore. I hope I can slay the way she does 10 years from now.
Her confidence is attractive. None of that mindy poor pitiful me no one loves me for me stuff. Kind of love EB.
When does Mindy Kaling give off a woe-is-me vibe? I would argue that she’s just as much of a badass- she runs, writes, and stars in her own show after steadily working her way up on The Office, writes smart and hilarious books, and she’s one of the voices of a hit Pixar film. Mindy is super confident, and her point is usually that people are surprised by her confidence- as if she has every reason to NOT feel confident in Hollywood (not a size 00, she’s a woman of color). But she says eff it and continues on her boss way.
I’m a big fan of Mindy, and of Elizabeth, and of any lady who is carving her own path as an entertainer.
Yeah, Mindy seems pretty confident to me.
She really gets it about human nature. Not many people do.
‘She’s getting Oscar buzz for Love & Mercy’ Is she? Alicia has more oscar than her
And Zac Efron movie stardom is looking better than Kit, Neighbours did better than Pompeii
I have read wonderful things about Love & Mercy, the story of the Beach Boy’s Brian Wilson. We’re going to see it.
I’ve always loved Elizabeth Banks.
As above, the wonderful things are all true…
I have a always said that and I’m mystified by men who disagree. Feminism gives men more freedom too. Some men are ballers, but historically most have struggled to be providers. And they’ve suffered more health problems and died younger.
Agreed. Feminism gives people the freedom to find their niche.
I just heard someone talking about that too, how feminism and women having careers has also given men the freedom to not be locked into a 9-5, sole bread winner kind of existence.
Patriarchy hurts everyone, including the men. Feminism means everyone gets more choices.
Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean people are willing to change the status quo.
I want to be her.
i’m conflicted about her statement on may-december. i have no issues with this sort of relationships in real life at all, HOWEVER, on screen it bothers me that 1- women are considered too old whenever they’re the same age as their male counterparts and 2- that women need to be love interests in the first place. it’s boring. write female characters as you write male characters. we don’t really solve anything by saying “oh well it’s a bummer”.
As you so rightly point out, more needs to be done than just saying it’s a bummer and Banks is actually doing more
Nope. She is not doing more. That’s an illusion. I can understand that everything she says is great because she’s so pretty and it blinding…but….
Is she pairing a very young man with a woman over forty? Nope. She says she desires it but that is just normative Cool Girl talk.
I think she gets a pass with young women because she is thin, blonde and models. It’s sad that young women are so vain.
Her answer about the casting of older men/half age women is pure Uncle Tom. “you have to understand it, har, har…” “I would like a younger one too.”
Well, hey, now that she directs, why doesn’t she cast an extremely young man to an older woman? Well, no…that would be too confronty and wouldn’t suit her Uncle Tom feminism.
She conforms, doesn’t confront, and is a Cool Girl about it.
Your comment is inappropriate, you should not use the term “Uncle Tom” and certainly not in this context. I also feel you are the one conforming, since you’ve judged based solely on hair color and gender. Nothing sadder than that, no matter how hard you try to gussy it up.
@sal
+1 I agree!!
i was never a fan of this kind of feminism and it seems to spread more and more. instead of actually creating a better world and fairer society so many women want to become like 1950s men. being a corporate soldier above all else and be with people only because of their physical attractiveness. what would it matter how your film partner looks? you are an actress you should be able to seem attracted to a cardboard box. (which Efron is in terms of acting skills) instead of giving talented people a place to show their skills its only for terrible actors who look good. i guess its a personal opinion because she benefits greatly from being an attractive white woman.
it seems that “men are pigs” was never about the actual behaviour it was way more about wanting to treat other human beings like that too.
thats not the kind of “equality” i want.
She’s not your kind of woman, okay, but I don’t think we don’t get to cherry pick freedom and equality, and we don’t get to decide what we do or don’t want from that equality. She’s too masculine, too strong, too bitchy; it’s gender stereotyping and it’s part of the problem. Let her speak, agree or not; but don’t fault her for her career skills.
Mila never said she was too masculine, too bitchy or too strong.
@Mila
Congrats! You’ve discovered what (white female) mainstream feminism is about!
It was never about equality for ALL women. It’s about having the same privileges as white men. Think about it.
And think about how ALL can have the same privileges as white men…it doesn’t work! Something’s gotta give. In order to have privilege, someone has to be on the bottom, always.
Don’t let this be you. Don’t offer your back for them to step on.
I appreciate her accomplishments, but I don’t think she’s that articulate. I don’t get the praise for her in that regard.
Do older ladies really want to act opposite Zac Efron? I just thought that choice of young man in her statement was funny/weird.
The boat thing – my God she just described my ex husband. I did all the work and he did all the playing. Hence the ex.
Yeah, the boat comment kind of made me wonder. That doesn’t necessarily sound ideal…
I don’t necessarily want to make money so the future significant other can take it to waste the dollars on boats.
She sort of drifted from one comment to another, but the connection between them wasn’t really clear.
Nope. The commenter below is wrong. She is referring to husbands, not executives in Hollywood wanting you to make money. It’s your husband she is talking about:
“Men want us to make money because they like having boats. They like going on vacations. They like motorcycles. And they’re not getting them on their salary alone.”
“on their salary alone…” She is talking about husbands, not producers, executives you work with.
I think she’s referring to the men who are producing, managing, etc. They still need to make money off these women in Hollywood so they can have their boats, etc.
Oh, that makes so much more sense!
Because she is so pretty you might have been blinded. She is referring to husbands when she says “not on their salary alone.” She is not referring to the industry, but the partner that wants more money in the household “not on their salary alone.”
Husbands want wives to bring home money so they can have their boats.
The comment is around husbands being Homer Simpsons, not the industry execs wanting women to make money in hollywood.
I hope Pitch Perfect 3 will be better than the second..I was so hyped up, I had watched the first and loved it, and the 2nd was just disappointing. Something was missing, maybe the songs were wrong or it lacked more of a love story.. dunno, but it kind of sucked.
All through PP2 I waited and waited for a great finale number to save the whole movie…and then the Bellas’ finale completely sucked. I can’t believe they didn’t put together a fantastic finish for this type of movie. What were they thinking? NO ONE SINGS ORIGINAL SONGS IN ANY FILM OR TV SHOW ABOUT ACAPELLA, didn’t Glee teach the world that? Anyway, I wish Banks all the best as an actress and as a producer, but I am crossing my fingers that she turns the director’s chair over to someone else for PP3 because she did not do a good job on PP2.
She has really hit a great spot in her career, and I think she’s worked hard for it and earned it. I recently watched her in a little on demand drama with Dakota Fanning and Diane Lane, and she was very good in it.
I truly don’t understand what she is trying to say. It sounds stupid and illogical to me.
So, when men make more money than us by their only virtue of being men and bread-winners, like in Patriarchy, it’s bad because we are not allowed to win our own independence and bread.
But when we finally can have/ gain our own bread and independence, it’s still bad because we have to pay half of our boats, vacations, whatever.
So, if I understand well, men are supposed to feel guilty when they pay for the entirety of our boats, because that’s a patriarchal privilege, but they should feel equally guilty when we are in the position to earn and pay for half of our boats, because we have to work for paying our share of the boats.
Well, my personal opinion is that Elisabeth Banks is very dumb and illogical, objectively speaking, and I don’t understand the praise she receives here. Anyway, far dumber than Kendall Jenner, who at least had the decency to say that she can’t have an opinion on feminism because she doesn’t have too much information on this topic. It’s far more tragic and dumber when you have an exaggerated, self-deceptive opinion about your own intelligence.
She’s pretty. That is why she gets the praise. In fact, people will spin things that you say to the most favored interpretation if you are attractive and people can fantasize. They will look right past you saying sexist things and even supporting the crony old men in half their age casting.
It’s kinda like those actresses that supported Woody Allen. If they are pretty you give them a pass.
I don’t think she’s ugly, but I don’t get the praise for her beauty either.