Elizabeth Banks Biography: In Her Own Words – Exclusive Video, News, Photos, Age

Hailey SchipperApril 1, 2023, 8:03 pmDaily Digest, News, News Feed, U Bio >

Elizabeth Banks is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in Pitch Perfect, Hunger Games and Cocaine Bear.

ELIZABETH BANKS BIOGRAPHY: EARLY LIFE, AGE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Elizabeth Banks, originally named Elizabeth Mitchell, was born on February 10, 1974 (Elizabeth Banks: Age 49) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to Ann and Mark Mitchell. She is the oldest of her three siblings. Banks tried out for the school play after breaking her leg in Little League, which is what started her acting career.

In 1992, Banks graduated from Pittsfield High School. She then went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 with a major in communications and a minor in theater arts. Banks finished her schooling with an MFA degree from the American Conservatory Theater in 1998.

ELIZABETH BANKS BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

When Banks joined the Screen Actors Guild, she changed her last name from Mitchell to Banks because of another actress was already named Elizabeth Mitchell.

Some of her first roles included Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Swept Away (2002), Seabiscuit (2003) and Spider-Man (2003-2007). She began getting more exposure with roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Bus Stop (2005) and had a recurring guest role in the show Scrubs.

Banks set up Brownstone Productions with her future husband, Max Handelman, in 2002.

Some of Banks’ other acting credits include Invincible (2006), Definitely, Maybe (2008), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012), Pitch Perfect (2012), The Hunger Games series (2012-2015) and The Lego Movie (2014).

In 2015, Banks debuted as a director with Pitch Perfect 2 and co-produced Pitch Perfect 3. In 2019, Banks wrote, produced, directed and starred in the action comedy film Charlie’s Angels.

Her most recent project was directing the thriller Cocaine Bear and produced it along with her husband for Brownstone Productions.

ELIZABETH BANKS BIOGRAPHY: THE NEXT THREE DAYS

In 2010, uInterview founder Erik Meers interviewed Banks for her movie with Russell Crowe, The Next Three Days. In the film, Banks and Crowe play a wife sentenced to life in prison for murdering her boss and her husband who works to prove her innocence.

In this throwback interview, Banks revealed what it was like working with Crowe.

“No, it was really fun to be with someone who has been in a lot of action movies and stunt work and the running and the driving, you know,” she began. “Russell sort of took me along literally for the ride and I think my favorite day shooting with him and also the scariest day. We shot a scene when we’re driving through a tunnel and at one point he said, you know, ‘take the wheel’ while we were shooting in the tunnel with the car full of people and I gave him this look like, ‘are you crazy?’ but I didn’t really have a choice so I did it and I’m I’m really glad that he trusted me with all of our lives and it worked out fine but it was very scary.”

Banks also revealed that they actually shot in a real prison for the movie.

“It was very scary and and really fun at the same time,” she said. “We were lucky enough to shoot this film at the Allegheny County jail where my character is actually imprisoned and so shooting there was really helpful and it was also great to sort of meet inmates and I was able to sit in a cell and I wore all prison issue clothes and just all my conversations with people in the jail. We had the real warden play a warden in the film so it was very real to me, every day we had the walls of that place you know that’s where we were and it was very sobering experience. I met a couple of women who I thought, ‘ok if if I were in here with these two they’d be my friends and they’d help me make it through.'”

ELIZABETH BANKS BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Banks met her husband Handelman on their first day of college in 1992. They got married in 2003 and have two sons via surrogacy. Banks is a practicing Jew but has not yet been fully converted.