A Field Guide to Elizabeth Banks

Actress/blonde sex pot Elizabeth Banks has got to be quite the proud woman these days.  In the video above, she looks fucking sensational on the set of her current Allure magazine cover shoot and she has directed her first full-length feature film that is now the number one film at the box office this weekend--"Pitch Perfect 2".  That is fucking impressive.  Oh, yeah, and she is still such a natural stunner.

Banks is thirty-nine years old and hails from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  She changed her name for her acting career--her real last name is Mitchell but she did not want to be confused with actress Elizabeth Mitchell.  As a teen, she was a very active softball player but after breaking one of her legs sliding into third base, she found herself interested in theater and she pursued that with a serious drive.  Mitchell went on to earn her bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating magna cum laude, and then she earned her masters of fine arts from the American Conservatory Theater from San Francisco.  The teamwork necessary to put on a great show or movie had all of the friendships and pursuit of a common goal that softball had going on, and with that beauty of hers, it all clicked together.

She moved to New York City and made her first TV appearance on "Third Watch" and her first movie appearance in the insane heroin/gender bending film "Surrender Dorothy".  From there, she moved to Los Angeles to make her real impact on the entertainment world.  In 2002, she played Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant in "Spider-Man" but in 2001, she appeared in the very delightful teen comedy "Wet Hot American Summer" where we get to see her soaking wet in a bikini, making out with Paul Rudd.  Banks is coming back to the Netflix eight episode sequel to this movie and that will be streaming there on July 31st.  (I can't wait!  So much hot flesh in the original!)  Banks also appeared in two of the other "Spider-Man" movies as that sexy secretary before the Marvel world got Garfield-ed up. 

From there, Banks went on the star in the awful Madonna-starring comedy "Swept Away" (more bikini time for Banks, at least) and the brooding New York City drama "Heights" where she worked with Glenn Close.  In an independent drama "Sexual Life", Banks portrays a woman exploring her infidelities in relationships very well, but in 2005 we got to meet Banks on screen in the role that many of us remember her seeing her for the first time most for--the role of super slut/Seth Rogen's eventual true love Beth in "The 40 Year Old Virgin." 

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Yeah, that man o'lantern waxed into Steve Carell's chest was super kinky, huh?  The same year, Banks also starred in a drama that was an interpretation of an Anton Chekov story "The Sisters" with Maria Bello and Erika Christensen.  In the 2006 horror comedy "Slither", Banks makes out with her mutant slug husband Michael Rooker.  Yum.  In "Meet Bill", there are no slugs, just Aaron Eckhart and she cheats on him.  She met up with Rogen again and director Kevin Smith for "Zach and Miri Make A Porno", a sweet rom-com that covered how the friend zone can shift into something more in female/male friendships.  It's a sweet flick that just didn't get the love it deserved.  

On television, she was hilarious on"Scrubs" but it was her time on the Tina Fey-penned "30 Rock" that got her two Emmy nominations.  I fucking adored Banks in the role of Avery Jessup, the conservative financial reporter who marries Alec Baldwin and then ends up brainwashed in North Korea.  True brilliance.  

Banks kept the conservative woman groove going playing Laura Bush in director Oliver Stone's "W" and she played a New York City police officer/hostage negotiator in the tense drama "Man On A Ledge".  Banks in a ridiculous amount of surreal hair and makeup has appeared in all of the Hunger Games movies as Effie Trinket, a media handler for the contestants/government representative.  She is great in this franchise and she handles this weirdly serious and whimsical role very gracefully.  She also appeared in the first "Pitch Perfect" movie as a an event commentator.  This initial brush with the franchise definitely proved fruitful as it brings us to her present state.  She is a driven, beautiful woman who is showing Hollywood that women will turn out in a big way for comedies directed by women.  Banks is one in a series of women as of late who are topping the traditionally male directing game.  I look forward to all of Banks' upcoming creative choices--bikini-wearing or not.  She will be appearing in the upcoming Magic Mike movie and well, she is definitely a woman who hopefully taught that cast a thing or too about owning their sexuality.