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46ILLUSTRATION JAN | FEB 2010 BY THEJOSH PENNSYLVANIA COCHRAN GAZETTE HOW TO SUCCEED IN SHOW BUSINESS BY REALLY, REALLY TRYING She’s played an amateur porn actress and a president’s wife, produces movies with her (fellow alum) husband, and is now poised to direct her own first film. Elizabeth Banks C’96 is working almost as hard as she did at Penn. By Caroline Tiger THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE JAN | FEB 2010 47 year is 1993. The setting is a hosts, but she’s still working around the Her first role was Pontius Pilate in Jesus THEdouble in the Tri-Delt soror- clock and taking little time off between Christ Superstar—the robe handily cov- ity house on Penn’s campus. An alarm projects. “I like being busy,” she says. “I ered her cast. Banks’ high school theater clock sounds around 6:00 a.m., rousing do better when I’m juggling a lot of teacher, Ralph Hamann, told their home- two sophomores. The one named Liz things. When I have down time, I get town paper, the Berkshire Eagle, “There gets out of bed and makes her way to the bored and lackluster, and I don’t really were depths she revealed at an early age. I bathroom to start her day. The one feel like myself.” It’s not the most unusu- could say to her, ‘Liz, take the stage,’ named Rebecca falls back to sleep. After al sentiment from a Penn grad, but meaning, the space is yours. She would getting dressed, Liz slinks through the according to Stewart, “In a sea of over- know what to do, instinctively.” He recalled silent house and out the door to her achievers, Liz was a standout.” her star turn as Aldonza/Dulcinea in Man Faculty Club work-study job at an hour Three years ago, Banks added pro- of La Mancha. During one performance, that, in college time, may as well be the ducer to her resume when she and her when an unfortunate combination of a dead of night. husband, Max Handelman C’95, found- thunderstorm and the opening of the Liz Mitchell C’96, who changed her ed Brownstone Productions. She’s also auditorium’s air vents led to puddles on name to Elizabeth Banks when she occupied being the face of Loréal cos- stage, she didn’t miss a beat. became an actress to avoid confusion metics, preparing for her first directing Banks’ husband, Max Handelman, with Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost fame, gig, and doing speaking engagements claims the critical moment occurred remembers Penn as a time of constant in support of A Woman is Not a Pre-existing later, during her freshman year and his work. “I think I slept an average of three Condition, a National Women’s Law Center sophomore year at Penn. Soon after to four hours a night all four years I was initiative to persuade Congress to pass they met at an AEPi party and started there,” she says over the phone one health-care reform legislation that includes dating, she was trying to choose between November afternoon during a lunch affordable coverage and benefits for trying out for cheerleading or trying out break on the Pittsburgh shoot of The reproductive health. for a play. Says Handelman, “I told her, ‘I Next Three Days, the movie she’s film- can’t imagine dating a cheerleader so I ing with Russell Crowe. Her sophomore- hen Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell think you should go for the play.’” He’s year roommate and good friend, Rebecca Wfirst arrived in Philadelphia from sort of kidding. Max and Elizabeth’s Stewart C’96, now an anchor for Fox her hometown of Pittsfield in western fateful meeting happened on her very News in Hartford, Connecticut, remem- Massachusetts, she was well acquaint- first day of school. (Liz remembers the bers Banks left most days at 7 a.m. and ed with hard work but not so much exact date: September 6, 1992.) didn’t return until 11:30 that night. with city living. The small-town girl Handelman, on campus for Homecom- By sophomore year, Banks was run- had never ridden in a taxi. Still, Banks ing Weekend in November to screen Sur- ning the work-study program at the wasn’t easily cowed. Stewart remem- rogates, a sci-fi thriller starring Bruce Faculty Club—a choice gig that allowed bers befriending her one day early into Willis and one of the first films he and her to keep up with the pulse of the freshman year when a group of hall- Banks co-produced, recalls that long-ago school by dining with professors. Even mates in the Lower Quad was hanging moment. “The house had run out of beer better, the free lunches meant she out in someone’s room, and Banks so the party was pretty much over,” he didn’t have to spring for a full meal- started belting out Grease tunes. says. “The brothers were kicking people plan. Banks also did catering and acted Though she was theatrical on arrival, out.” He spotted Liz in the sea of people in a children’s theater group that per- she didn’t plan on becoming an actor. gathered outside and noticed she was formed for local schools. It was her She didn’t know exactly what she wanted standing with a friend’s little sister. He first foray into extracurricular theater to be, but Banks knew what she wanted grabbed that friend and said, “Let’s go at Penn. Her first Penn role: playing to make: plenty of money. “I was itching talk to your sister.” The two started dat- Aunt Polly in a production of Tom to study theater, but I knew I didn’t want ing immediately. They married in 2003. Sawyer. Between rehearsal every night, to be a starving artist,” she recalls. “That There was no talk of Hollywood when work-study every day, going to classes, was not on the agenda for me.” they were undergrads. “Liz is one of those being in Delta Delta Delta, trying to So how did someone so determined people who could be good at so many dif- have a social life, and doing all the not to be an actor end up producing ferent things,” Handelman says. “I had no class work necessary to graduate movies starring Bruce Willis and star- idea she’d go on to become a celebrity, but magna cum laude, it’s easy to see how ring in movies opposite Russell Crowe? it doesn’t surprise me that it happened.” Banks didn’t have much free time. Growing up in Pittsfield, a working- Banks’ designations as Homecoming Life isn’t so different now, even if the class town where her mother was Queen of Pittsfield High and magna cum 36-year-old has gained celebrity by star- employed at a local bank and her father laude graduate of Penn are a reflection of ring in movies including The 40-Year-Old at the General Electric plant, Banks the versatility that’s characterized her Virgin, The Uninvited, W, and Zack and was a dedicated athlete until she broke acting career. She feels equally at home Miri Make a Porno. Her packed schedule her leg sliding into third base during a in a drama as she does in a comedy, even may include stints in Cannes, on various high school softball game. The teenag- if she’s better known for her funny mov- red carpets, and on the couches of Jay, er filled the ensuing void in her after- ies and regular appearances on TV’s Dave, Conan, Jimmy, and other talk show school schedule with acting. Scrubs. She credits her part in 2001’s Wet 48 JAN | FEB 2010 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Hot American Summer—a low-budget worked at the William Morris Agency Stone saw a buttoned-up first lady. comedy that evolved into a cult film and before segueing into luxury-brand mar- After seeing Virgin, Stone called her in ended up launching the careers of a num- keting. “Not Liz. She has fun with it. It’s to audition for the part of Laura Bush in ber of comedic actors, including Paul not lost on her that she’s at the Vanity W. He says he knew the moment he met Rudd, Michael Showalter, and Amy Fair Oscars after-party, sitting next to her she was Laura. Banks had a giggle Poehler—for starting her down the come- Tom Ford and Uma Thurman.” fit on the drive home from the audi- dic path. She played Lindsay, a camp Combined with her Homecoming Queen tion—a reflection of her incredulity over counselor who makes out with lifeguard beauty, that earthiness made her a favorite such a surreal experience. She couldn’t and future Banks’ co-star Rudd while a with the flock of writer/directors whose believe Stone had handpicked her for camper apparently drowns. That role films feature man-children and the women the part. Stone sang her praises after the helped land her a small but memorable who love them. Judd Apatow, the godfather movie wrapped, saying he’d call her role as one of Steve Carell’s potential first of the latest wave of these comedies, whose “Laura” on set because she embodied the flings in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Seth other films include Knocked Up and last role so completely. She has played plenty Rogen, who worked with her in Virgin, summer’s Funny People, cast her in Virgin; more dramatic roles: Jeff Bridges’ wife in suggested Banks for the role of Miri in Kevin Smith in Zack and Miri; and David Seabiscuit; the photojournalist daugh- Zack and Miri Make a Porno.