This is the way Banks approached the role of a woman who is sentenced to prison for murder in the new thriller, The Next Three Days. Paul Haggis's remake of the French hit Pour Elle features Banks as Lara Brennan, a Pittsburgh woman convicted of a murder that she may or may not have committed. Meanwhile, her professor husband, John (Russell Crowe), hatches a prison escape plan. Movieline spoke to the incredibly savvy Banks about her prison research before The Next Three Days, why she won't be held accountable for the departure of Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, the fallout after her name change and why she's happy she does not have Demi Lovato's career.
[Minor spoilers follow]
I have five interviews today; I think I'm getting a taste of what you guys go through.
At least you get to talk about different movies every time. [Laughs]
That's true. You're pretty much regulated to The Next Three Days, I assume?
Yes, they make me just talk about this one. I mean, you can ask me whatever you want.
Is there anything in particular that you want to talk about?
No.
That would be a funny way to end the interview. "Well, thanks for your time."
[Laughs] "I was there to interview her about The Next Three Days, but we talked about genocide in Darfur."
That seems like an important topic.
Sure. Especially for the Movieline audience.
They are a very socially conscious group.
Yes, that's why they go to Movieline.
I'm being serious when I ask this: Are you the busiest person on Earth?
I do a lot. It's true. I really like working. You know, the 30 Rock thing, that just blossomed into something that I wasn't expecting. The writers, they came to me about doing it and at the time I was shooting The Next Three Days and I just said, "It's not going to happen because they're never going to let me out of this movie." We were in Pittsburgh and they were in New York. And then, somehow, everybody worked it out that I could leave the set for literally one day to come up here. And if we went over, past the last flight of the day, we would have to drive through the night to Pittsburgh so I could shoot the next day. The scheduling gods came together and I got to go and start shooting Avery Jessup. And now it's a year and a half later and I'm having a baby. [Laughs] But I had taken a lot of time off before The Next Three Days. I had taken almost a year off. I did W. and Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and then I didn't make a movie for like 11 months.
I saw The King's Speech and The Next Three Days back-to-back...
Yeah, a lot of people did.
I am terribly frightened of public speaking and wrongful imprisonment.
I know! Wrongfully imprisoned -- I have a strong sense about that all the time, anytime that I break the littlest rule. My husband calls me a goody two shoes, which I am. I'm a total goody two shoes. I won't run a yellow light. He's like, "Come on!" But this made perfect sense to me that bad things happen to good people all the time. And then you end up in prison for the rest of your life.
I'm always afraid that I'm going to make an innocent mistake on my taxes and the next thing I know I'm at Riker's Island.
Right! Totally! That's how I played this woman. We didn't answer the question, really, whether she did it or not. We weren't sure how we were going to end the movie; Paul wasn't sure whether the audience needed to know or not because it doesn't matter to Russell's character. So I played it as though it could have happened -- that we have a tendency toward violence as human beings. I mean, I've lashed out at people, for sure. That something little can accidentally become some big, huge thing with consequences. And that, to me, is the greatest fear: A little thing ends up being huge. You know the singer Brandy?
Yes.
She was sued for $50 million because she rear-ended someone who rear-ended someone who rear-ended someone and that car went into the other lane and was hit by a bus and the person died. That was the chain of events that I thought about. Someone died because she rear-ended someone accidentally. We all get in that moment. I love that you're not allowed to text in your car. I think it's totally dangerous, but at the same time you can eat, smoke, play with your baby. You know what I mean? There are a million distractions in a car and you could end up killing someone. That was the scenario that I imagined that this women got herself into.
Do you think people will be surprised not to see a happy Elizabeth Banks in this movie?
Have you been in a prison cell?
No.
Because I have. And you would not be happy. [Laughs] It is extremely sobering, let me put it that way.
Were you in a prison cell for research?
Yes. I was also really lucky that I got to sit with inmates. Allegheny County Jail, where we shot the movie, was extremely welcoming to us. And they allowed us to go right into the cell block. I went by myself one day -- no Russell, no Paul -- and go to the cell block and sit with inmates and just talk to them about their daily life. And I asked how many of them had children on the outside and every hand went up. And I asked them if they cried the first night, and they all said yes. You want to be strong, but it is that terrible.
When I was little, my mom, who apparently thought I was going to be a criminal, would tell me never to run: "An American prison is better than living in a third world country." I think I'd prefer the third world country. What do you think about that?
Yes, you would. Prison is about fighting for little tiny freedoms that I guarantee you're taking fully for granted. Like having a pen and a piece of paper to write on. Because if they wanted to take that pen and paper away from you, you don't have a choice in the matter. So all of your choices, someone else makes them for you.
Was the fact that nothing was too far over-the-top during the escape scenes a conscious decision?
Paul was very intent on that. And I think it's true of the original movie. This is a regular person, John, he's a regular Joe. And this bad thing happens and what would you do? Would you take it or would you stand up and try to change it? So when Paul sat down to write this script, he Googled "how to break out of prison" and 400,000 search results come up. I'm not advocating anybody break out of prison...
Movieline does have a large prison readership...
[Laughs] Right. But the fact is, people break out of prison all of the time. These things happen. And Paul took all of that from real life. And it's not like John all of the sudden knows how to pilot a helicopter. He could have if that's what he wanted to do, but he would have had to take the time and learn how to pilot a helicopter and then hire a helicopter.
You mentioned Avery from 30 Rock earlier. Alec Baldwin has mentioned that he's leaving 30 Rock after 2012. If he leaves because of Avery, are you prepared for America's scorn?
It's not my fault if Alec Baldwin leaves 30 Rock, OK? Don't try to lay that sh*t on me, dude. It's not my fault.
You took John Dorian away, too.
I did not take John Dorian away, either! They just bring me in too late into the seasons.
So should we expect you to show up on The Office at some point this season?
No... I do think Holly is going to end up taking him away. I think Holly is the love of his life, and I think he's going to New Hampshire.
I know the back story on why you changed your name from Elizabeth Mitchell to Elizabeth Banks -- because of the other actress Elizabeth Mitchell. And I know Banks really had no meaning for you. But how do you sell that to your family? "Hey, Mom, you will now refer to me by this name..."?
Oh, it was so upsetting. I was never going to change my first name because I honestly couldn't imagine answering to something else. If someone was like, "Hey, Rachel," I'd be like, "Are you talking to me?" I would never have caught on, I'm a little slow. I'm [comforted] by the fact that most women in America change their last name when they get married. I think it's slightly weird that Banks has no connection to anything in the world. But I also really love that I was able to create a really public persona that's not me. I like that. Although I am melding now, I'm sort of more Banks than Mitchell.
Does it help you separate work and private life?
It does a little bit. It also means that people can't track me down as easily. Like my high school videos and stuff for Leno.
You're kind of like Maggie Seaver on Growing Pains, who changed her name to Maggie Malone when she became a TV reporter so that...
So that you don't get the phone calls! As I like to say, I don't want to take the phone calls. I'll be honest with you: I bawled my eyes out when I did it; it was very upsetting. It's your whole identity; it's your family, your connection to your family. So I was not happy about it.
Did you worry that people who knew you wouldn't realize that it was you?
There is a sense of pride. Like, "Oh, I want all my mom's friends to know that it's me in this play." And you lose that a little bit. But, again, I was warmed by the fact that most women change their last names. My sister has had two husbands and three last names now.
Why does it seem like you've been an actress longer than you have? Wet Hot American Summer is really not that long ago.
It wasn't. I came into this business very late. I'm actually working with the actor Jamie Bell -- he was Billy Elliott -- so he's 24 years old. And he's been doing something his entire life that I had not even started dong when I was his age. I was not in SAG when I was 24.
What were you doing?
I went to college! I was a real person! I went to college; I went to grad school. I was living my life and dreaming about being an actor but worrying that I wasn't going to make any money doing it. And then I got lucky because I started making money almost immediately upon deciding that I was going to be a professional actor. I got an agent, started making money, and that was it. I never had to do anything else.
Is it better to not start your profession at the age of 15?
When you think about most actors, I can think of a few people -- Brad Pitt was doing smaller... I love True Romance, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. I remember seeing Brad Pitt in that and Thelma and Louise. But he wasn't 17. He was in his 20s at that point. But that doesn't happen now. You get the Kristen Stewarts and it's like... I am so grateful I never had to be an 18-year-old actress in the limelight. I would have died.
I always look at Phil Collins. I'm not sure he could come along today and be the big star like he was in the 1980s.
Oh, I don't know if that's true. Jonah Hill is a big star. I think if you are talented and devoted, it doesn't matter how old you are. Look, the fact of the matter is Demi Lovato works her little f*cking ass off. I was not interested in working that hard when I was 17 years old. I liked going to school and going to dances and just being a person. She lives in a reality that makes sense to 99.9 percent of people in America.
Does that make it easier to be in the position that you're in? Having a normal life growing up? I've interviewed Demi Lovato and, frankly, she just gives the answers that she was taught to give.
She has no life experience! [Laughs] I personally believe that good actors bring their life to their work so you need to have as full of a life as possible to inform your work. I tell young actresses that I meet to go to college. Go to college. Because this sh*t, it's so fickle. You can be something when you're 17 that you're not going to be when you're 35. And you will have no fallback position. Everything has consequences. That was always my take on it. There was no option in which I was ever going to leave college to be an actress. No way. I wanted to be educated.
Which of your movies did this for you? The one that put you where you're at now?
I'm a chameleon, for the most part. I look very different in roles. There are many, many people who only know me from comedy. Only know me from 30 Rock, or only know me from Seabiscuit. Or only know me from horror: I did Uninvited and Slither. So I have that little crew of people who love those movies.
I think Definitely, Maybe was a big movie for you.
Definitely, Maybe was a big movie. I thought Zack and Miri and W., doing them back-to-back, was really my moment. That to me was the big moment. But, at the same time, the same people didn't watch. They're for such two different audiences. It was hard, also, for people. I think people still only saw W. or saw Zack and Miri. You know what I mean? Older people really liked W., and younger people really loved Zack and Miri. But I still didn't have people like, "Oh, yeah, she's that actress that does all of this crazy sh*t." I literally did them back-to-back.
Is W. underrated? I feel some people dismissed it because Oliver Stone was involved.
I think he's personally a political person, which is tough for that kind of subject matter. But I agree that actually his filmmaking, generally, is so patriotic. I think he's a true patriot. He's one of our great artists in America. He's great, I love him. But to indict war, to indict the media as he did with the serial killer movie, Natural Born Killers, I think he's constantly questioning our society. Holding up a mirror and going, "Guys, really, this is what we're OK with?"
Are you and Leslie Mann making What Was I Thinking? Is that happening?
We are loosely attached, but I don't know if it's actually going to happen.
What does "loosely attached" even mean?
It means that before there was a script, before there was anything, there was this idea of, "Everybody likes this book; it would be really fun to tell a story where we flashback to use our past relationships to improve our future lives." Great concept. OK, write the script, find the director, set it up, sell it to the studio, get the money. Honey ... it could be years. [Laughs] I definitely want to work with Leslie, for sure. If it's not that, we'll find something else.