Miri star taps into her dark side
She wields the F-bomb as adeptly as Michael Myers uses his knife, or Jason his machete. But we can’t blame Elizabeth Banks for that because she’s vividly recalling the terror she felt watching a certain horror film from the ’80s about a doomed suburban family and a creepy ol’ doll that haunted the nightmares of many young viewers.
“The movie that scared the sh*t out of me was Poltergeist ,” she says, playfulness turning to amusing dread. “The clown under the bed that comes alive? That f**kin’ clown ruined my life! I love it when you take life, the things you’re normally afraid of, and expand on them. The door creaks and you’re wondering what made the door creak. Any time you can take those everyday life moments, I think those make the most effective horror movies.”
The actress – who last took a spin in the horror genre with James Gunn’s Slither – tells us the same principle applies to her latest film The Uninvited, Dreamworks’ redo of A Tale of Two Sisters opening January 30th. “It takes the idea of the evil stepmom, the dad’s new girlfriend who you’re supposed to hate, the woman who is replacing your mother is the evil bitch you can’t stand and…ta-dah! We make that fear come true. That’s why these movies work for me.”
It’s a weekday afternoon in Westwood and the Hotel Palomar is bustling. Well, the fifth floor is. Publicists rush up and down the hall prepping journalists and talent for their on-camera interviews promoting the supernatural thriller directed by Thomas and Charles Guard. The siblings are nowhere to be found, but, we join Banks – fresh off of Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Role Models – in an empty room, devoid of furniture save for a round table and a row of windows that offer a view of Wilshire Boulevard. This could, at first, be observed as sad portrait but Banks immediately brightens the mood by throwing us a big smile. We crack a joke about how strange it must be dredging up memories about a film she shot some time ago (filming commenced in Vancouver in 2007) and the ice is officially broken.
Quick, beautiful and attentive – it’s easy to warm up to this actress who has spent much of her career in comedies playing girl next door types. That changed, however, when she fought to star in The Uninvited, a chance to step outside of the box.
“No one thinks of me for these things,” recognizes Banks. “The studio was like, ‘She’s the smiley girl from The 40 Year Old Virgin‘ and I’m like, ‘No, I want to do this. ‘”
Slipping into the role of the aforementioned “evil stepmother,” Banks plays Rachel, nurse-turned-wife to David Strathairn’s Steven after the mother of his two children, Anna (Emily Browning) and Alex (Arielle Kebbel), passes away. When the ghost of the dead mother is spotted lurking around the house, it appears everyone’s sanity is going to be tested.
“It’s a very gothic story,” Banks explains. When asked if the film is geared more towards a female audience, she laughs. “There are a lot of dude themes. It’s essentially a murder mystery. I think it’s scarier [movie] because it’s girls. I think what’s chilling about this is you see Emily Browning and you think she’s so sweet and cute with those big eyes and cheeks and you want to take care of her. To see her come alive with anger is powerful. With boys we expect aggression and it’s not as chilling when they use it. You’re not expecting it from girls and this movie is basically about Anna and Rachel butting heads.”
Banks reports this friction did not bleed into her off-camera experience yet she didn’t spend much time with her younger co-stars. This left room for Browning and Kebbel to form a palpable bond during shooting to get into character. “They totally did. It’s me and two 19-year-old girls. Naturally, there’s not a lot of crossover there. I just played with that separation that we have. We got along great on set but we didn’t make efforts to be sisterly. The two of them were really close and they’d do their thing while David and I would go have dinner. He’s such a professional, handsome and a solid human being. I enjoyed his company immensely.”
“To me, how you imbue the role with something interesting is you just have to relish it,” she adds. “You can’t play it as melodrama. To me, this movie is about power struggle and control. Lack of control or losing control. Those are fun, dangerous characters to play. People who refuse to give up control. That’s Rachel in a nutshell. She’s just refusing to give up control. She has very much created a two-on-two situation, nobody can gang up on one another in this movie. We’re equally matched. And we both have our arsenal of weapons.”
Banks describes the original film as “insane” and “f**kin’ scary” and assures the haters balking at the idea of a remake that the Americanization “is different enough. There are some similarities, story-wise. Visually it’s very different. I think [the Guard brothers] put their own stamp to be on it, and I think they were conscious of that. There’s some cool stuff with the ghosts. Other than that, it’s not similar. There’s still the white nightgown with blood all over it…”
With two horror films now behind her, the actress tells us she recently passed on a remake of The Crazies because she felt it was too similar to her role in Slither (“I have to now be careful that I don’t repeat myself.”) so she’ll continue seeking projects that don’t pigeonhole her. For more with Banks, be sure to read our set visit to The Uninvited.
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
