Archive for Elizabeth Banks

What To Expect When You’re Expecting To Eat Until You Need Bigger Pants

What To Expect When You’re Expecting hyped its leading ladies and their respective prosthetic bellies today in a new series of character posters. We were just wondering why it isn’t acceptable to clutch your abdomen in public (sometimes you just need a clutch!) when it struck us: All these actresses with bulging bellies, including the lovely Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Banks, look a lot like us … after a gigantic, delicious meal. One that featured chili, perhaps? A hearty stew? A platter of assorted fudge?

Either way, everyone enjoys having something in their bellies, whether it’s a tiny human or a personal pan pizza. The movie is coming out May 11, so they’ve probably settled on a final script, but we couldn’t help but fantasize about what our poster taglines would say if we could fiddle with the film’s premise. And if we were really, really, really hungry:

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Hunger Games’ Elizabeth Banks Describes Her “Outrageous” Effie Trinket

I experienced a tiny bit of job envy when I was introduced to the CapitolCouture Tumblr this week. Can you imagine getting enough access to those movie stills to write blogs about Effie’s gold McQueen peep-toe shoes? I’ll have to settle for having met Effie Trinket herself last week. Oops, #humblebrag. After Elizabeth Banks and I shared a little lament over having given away all our copies of The Hunger Games, I asked her if she minds that we ask her more about playing Effie than, say about her movie that’s out this week, Man on a Ledge.

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“I’m really happy to talk about The Hunger Games, especially with fellow fans,” she said. (You see that? We are “fellow fans” now!) “It’s going to be a great movie. Anytime you make something that you know is going to be highly entertaining and is about something, it’s a really special experience and something that I’m really looking forward to sharing.”

Twitter fans asked us to ask her about Effie costumes, naturally. But despite our newfound bond, she was pretty vague on the matter.
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Katniss Aims For Your Heart In The New Hunger Games Poster

Jennifer Lawrence is just killing it here, isn’t she? What teenage girl doesn’t want the determination and upper arm strength needed to fire a arrow directly into our faces? We wouldn’t even flinch, that’s how much we love the newest Hunger Games poster from Lionsgate. We would probably have to be rushed to the hospital though. The main similarity between the Hunger Games character posters and this latest one? Flawless skin, aka the other thing every teenage girl wants. We’re positive die-hard Hunger Games fan Elizabeth Banks is beyond squeeing right now…

[Photo: Lionsgate/Getty Images]

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Elizabeth Banks Is An OG Hunger Games, Maze Runner Fan

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We keep hearing how all the people involved in The Hunger Games movie were fans of Suzanne Collins’ books long before they were actually hired. Well, as fellow fans, we love to hear about how others discovered Katniss and her world. And that’s what we asked Elizabeth Banks yesterday, when she was in town to promote her latest movie, Man on a Ledge.

“I first got the book from a publishing friend,” said the actress, who plays District 12′s tribute handler Effie Trinket. “I had read a similarly themed book called The Maze Runner, also a great book, and someone said, ‘If you liked that, you’ll really like this upcoming book called The Hunger Games.’ ”

*Pause.* So, it sounds like she was a fan before the book was even out, back in September 2008. The Maze Runner, incidentally, is the first in a trilogy by James Dashner about a boy who wakes up in a box with no memory of his past and realizes he’s one of a group of boys forced to try to escape an ever-changing life-size maze. Catherine Hardwicke was attached to direct that movie, but we haven’t heard any news on it since January 2011. (Update: James Dashner just tweeted us that he doesn’t think Hardwicke is attached anymore. Boo!) OK, back to Banks and her Games obsession. *Unpause*
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Elizabeth Banks Defends Bloodthirsty Masses Of Hunger Games, Man On A Ledge

While Hunger Games fans await our next glimpse of Elizabeth Banks as tribute handler Effie Trinket, the actress is busy promoting another role: She plays a police negotiator responsible for talking down the title character in Man on a Ledge, out next Friday (January 27). It’s a tense heist movie, also starring Sam Worthington and Jamie Bell, but we noticed a very big similarity between this movie and the upcoming Games. As Worthington decides whether to jump, 21 stories down an antagonistic crowd forms, eager for gruesome action, just the way we imagine the folks in Panem’s Capitol watching children kill each other on live TV.

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“It’s probably a direct line from this audience going ‘Jump, jump, jump,’ to the audience who watches the Hunger Games on those television screens in Panem,” Banks told TheFABlife. “Yeah, ’cause they’re definitely blood thirsty as well.”

But Banks doesn’t necessarily blame the crowds for wanting a good story.
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Elizabeth Banks Instructs Hunger Games Haters To Please Bring It On

It’s a veritable law of the universe that haters are going to hate; it’s in their awful blood. If they’re planning to hate on Elizabeth Banks for being cast as Effie Trinket in the upcoming Hunger Games film, however, said haters can take their complaints to the book’s author Suzanne Collins. “I worked with amazing Academy Award–nominated people in figuring out who Effie is, and most importantly, [author] Suzanne Collins blessed everything we did,” the 30 Rock actress told New York mag when asked about some haterade she recently received on Twitter. “So as long as Suzanne Collins is happy … I would say if fans wanna fight about it, they can fight with her.” Say … in some kind of specially-designed murder arena? While the rest of us watch, our deadened souls stirred by the unfolding homicidal drama? Pweeeeease?

The fact that Banks sounds so confident in her acting ability is encouraging, seeing as how as the actress is personally a devotee of the book series. “It was really a bunch of fans sitting around discussing what our visions were for everything,” Banks said of working on the Hunger Games set. “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.” Ugh, seriously, how can you hate on this woman? Her wigs alone make us want to get emotionally invested in this film.

[Photo: Lionsgate]

Sort-Of New Hunger Games Stills Released

Lionsgate has done all of us a heavy and released a mostly fresh batch of The Hunger Games stills to ogle. While the countdown to March 23 continues, we’re pretty much champing at the bit to get out hands on it, so we’re excited about the “new” photos Lionsgate released this week, even if we’re pretty sure we’ve seen them all before. There are some photos that were previously exclusives with other magazines and sites, like the one of Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket with Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen in a scene that we know is going to make us bawl — when Katniss volunteers herself instead of Rue — as well as one of Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson and Josh Hutcherson as Cinna, Haymitch and Peeta discussing strategy, and a behind-the-scenes shot of Jennifer in the forest. There are also stills of what we’ve seen in the trailer, such as the one of Amandla Stenberg as Rue, warrior Katniss holding a bow, and Katniss and Liam Hemsworth‘s Gale in the meadow and the one we included above, of Katniss being led to the arena. But yeah, so what if it’s all familiar territory? We don’t want the whole darn movie spoiled for us!

[Photos via Lionsgate]

Effie Trinket Is The Hot Pink Face Of Hunger Games Nail Polish

Whether you’re preparing teenagers for a government-sponsored battle royale or just getting torn apart by a pack of mutant wolves who look like your fallen opponents, you always want to be as fabulous as possible. Luckily Lionsgate is releasing twelve official Hunger Games nail polish colors, one for each district, paired in their new ad with escort Effie Trinket herself. The line being entitled “Capitol Colours,” the spot asks the all-important question: “What will you be wearing to the opening ceremonies?” Other than the steely-yet-resigned expression of a heartless warrior, of course.

On one hand…doesn’t seem a little weird to be buying a product named after the decadence of the book’s corrupt Capitol City? On the other hand, we’ll wear anything if it’ll help us look as fierce as Elizabeth Banks. Or even Mr. Stanley Tucci! What do you think? Will the odds be ever in your favor of looking like a total diva in these hues, or does representing District 12 with tribute nail polish strike you as a little grim?

[Photo: Cinemablend/ WENN]

What To Expect When You’re Expecting Expects Pregnancy To Make You Insane

While you might think pregnancy is just an awesome nine-month-long vacation during which you can eat pickles and peanut butter and whatever other gross combination of foods you want without people giving you the side-eye, the What To Expect When You’re Expecting trailer teaches us a very different lesson: namely, that having a baby in your uterus makes you lose your damn mind. Of course, Elizabeth Banks‘ prenatal crack up isn’t the only topic covered by what appears to be a very informative film. From Dad-sthma to spontaneous dance routines to magical pregnancy unicorns, we broke down the important baby times lessons offered in the trailer for you. Because if you’re already pregnant, you know there is no way your ravaged mind can make sense of it on it’s own!

New Hunger Games Photos Offer Up Even More Effie Trinket Goodness

Just when your hands stopped shaking and you could stop pretending you had something in your eye, the Hunger Games trailer released Monday gets quickly followed up by another dose of cinematic awesomeness. People has new pics of the already-excellent looking film, including Jennifer Lawrence‘s heart-breaking expression as Katniss volunteers to save her sister’s life and a quiet moment between Katniss and Liam Hemsworth‘s Peeta. Also? Effie Trinket. We cannot even. “Katniss is so strong, so courageous, and when faced with this overly positive, super-enthusiastic Effie, [Jennifer] and I definitely had some great moments of conflict,” Elizabeth Banks, who looks as grotesquely fabulous as we would have hoped, told the magazine in their upcoming issue, out on Friday. No, we are not crying again! We seriously have something in our eye again! We need to get a pair of goggles or something so this would stop happening!