Elizabeth Banks, best known for her onscreen work in films like Pitch Perfect and The Hunger Games series, opens up about her life behind the camera as a writer, director and producer in Hollywood in a new interview with Porter.
The 45-year-old actress shares that she came up in the industry with actors like Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, but her frustrations with seeing how sparse film opportunities were for her compared to her male peers ultimately led her to carve out her own path.
“I had to work the system for myself, because it was not going to give me what I wanted,” she told the magazine of what ultimately led to her decision to form her own production company in 2002 with her husband Max Handelman.
Banks says she was initially underestimated, but she proved there was a demand for more female-led film. Her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2 broke records, earning $69 million at the box office during its opening weekend.
The Pitch Perfect producer took on the roles of writer, producer, director and actor in the recent reboot of Charlie’s Angels. She acknowledged in the interview that taking on multiple behind-the-scenes roles is quite rare saying, “Women are often not allowed to have that kind of ambition.”
“I told the studio and my collaborators: ‘I want to make a movie about women working, and I do not want to tell a story about the boyfriend they don’t see enough, or the mother they don’t call enough or the cat they don’t feed.’ Those are ridiculous tropes in women’s movies.” the actress told Porter.
Her goal was for women to feel represented. “I’m not here to re-teach feminism to young women,” she says to the magazine. “I am here to empower them and to have them see themselves in a movie, which happens far too infrequently, especially in the action genre.”
To see the full interview with Elizabeth Banks read Porter online, and/or download the NET-A-PORTER app for iPhone, iPad and Android.
