Pitch Perfect 2 director Elizabeth Banks has revealed that she was turned down for the role of Spider-Man’s girlfriend Mary-Jane Watson for the 2002 superhero movie for being “too old” – despite being at 28 only 16 months older than the film’s male lead Tobey Maguire.
Speaking to Glamour magazine, Banks said: “I screen-tested for the role of Mary-Jane Watson in the first Spider-Man movie, opposite Tobey Maguire ... Tobey and I are basically the same age and I was told I was too old to play her. I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, that’s what I’ve signed up for’.”
The role eventually went to Kirsten Dunst, who was 18 when filming began in 2001. Banks was cast in all three of the Spider-Man trilogy as Betty Brant, the secretary of Daily Bugle publisher J Jonah Jameson (played by JK Simmons). Banks went on to a well-regarded acting career specialising in comedy, including roles in Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Jesse Peretz’s Our Idiot Brother and the Kirk Jones-directed What to Expect When You’re Expecting.
Banks turned to producing with the first Pitch Perfect movie, a surprise hit, before signing up to direct its sequel. However, she recently dropped out of directing Pitch Perfect 3 citing an overcrowded schedule.
