Elizabeth Banks lives a charmed Hollywood life.
She’s stolen scenes outright (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin”), landed work in franchise blockbusters (“The Hunger Games”), anchored comedies (“Walk of Shame,” “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”) and earned the keys to a beloved IP (“Charlie’s Angels”).
Yet she perpetually casts herself as a victim.
Imagine being an out-of-work actor and reading her tales of woe. The anger might be visible from outer space.
Banks once blasted Steven Spielberg of all people for not doing enough to address Hollywood’s gender disparity. Banks used a 2017 appearance at the Women in Film’s Crystal + Lucy Awards to mock the Oscar winner’s resume.
“I went to Indiana Jones and Jaws and every movie Steven Spielberg ever made, and by the way, he’s never made a movie with a female lead. Sorry, Steven. I don’t mean to call your ass out, but it’s true.”
She later apologized.
“I framed my comments inaccurately. I want to be clear from the start that I take full responsibility for what I said and I’m sorry … When I made the comments, I was thinking of recent films Steven directed, it was not my intention to dismiss the import of the iconic #TheColorPurple.”
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Hollywood hired Banks to direct a “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, clearly hoping to revive the franchise and spark a series of sequels. Except the 2019 film earned mediore reviews and little consumer love. The would-be blockbuster limped to a tepid $17 million haul stateside.
She pre-loaded her defense if the film flopped, telling the Herald Sun it’s the culture’s fault.
“Look, people have to buy tickets to this movie, too. This movie has to make money. If this movie doesn’t make money it reinforces a stereotype in Hollywood that men don’t go see women do action movies.”
Plus, she aggressively promoted the film’s feminist bona fides during the marketing rollout for the film. Yet when it flopped, she pretended that push never happened. It was someone else’s fault.
“There was a story around Charlie’s Angels that I was creating some feminist manifesto. I was just making an action movie…I would’ve liked to have made Mission: Impossible, but women aren’t directing Mission: Impossible. I was able to direct an action movie, frankly, because it starred women and I’m a female director, and that is the confine right now in Hollywood. I wish that the movie had not been presented as just for girls, because I didn’t make it just for girls.”
She reversed her directorial curse with 2023’s “Cocaine Bear,” a modest hit. Now, she’s back in Victimhood Mode, telling “The Kelly Clarkson Show” audience about a demoralizing comment she faced about her directorial work.
“I was literally told because I direct films that, ‘You can’t direct men. They won’t follow you,’ … And then I directed Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in Goodfellas, and I think I nailed it. Check the list off. It’s all good.”
Let’s put aside the fact that her anecdote is hard to believe. Who would say such a daffy comment, especially since Banks previously directed “Pitch Perfect 2” before losing her way with “Charlie’s Angels?” We’ve enjoyed the work of great female directors for decades, even if their numbers remain far lower than their male peers.
Even if someone actually made those comments, it’s so ill-informed it should be instantly ignored. Yet Banks used the anecdote to get back on her soapbox.
“Despite me knowing that I’m in a great club, it’s a really small club, and it needs more representation. We need more storytellers from different perspectives, angles. And we need more audiences to watch. … I’m having a lot of fun making sure that women have a real sense of agency in whatever they’re doing, whatever stories I’m telling.”
Will she fight for more conservatives telling Hollywood stories, even though they’ve been facing an unofficial Blacklist for some time? Seems unlikely given her recent comments on the 2024 presidential election.
“I think in ‘Catching Fire’ when ‘Effie is’ like, ‘I want to be part of this team,’ and you really see her struggling and then by the end she’s like a revolutionary… I wish more of us were becoming revolutionaries!” she added. “Effie is the model, guys! I don’t understand the 53 percent of white ladies that didn’t vote for Kamala.”
Is Banks using her celebrity clout wisely, or is she biting the hand that feeds her?
The post Elizabeth Banks, Queen of the Hollywood Victims? appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
