Hunger Games Movie Actress Elizabeth Banks Talks About Being Effie

Article source: http://www.teenhollywood.com/

While chatting in Beverly Hills with actress Elizabeth Banks about her new thriller Man on a Ledge, we asked her about playing Effie Trinket, the colorful escort/advisor of the District 12 tributes in the March 23 release of the popular "Hunger Games”. Turns out she was a huge fan of the novels.

TeenHollywood: So how did you get interested in being in The Hunger Games film?

Elizabeth: “Hunger Games” I followed for a long time. I was a very early adopter of “The Hunger Games”. I read the books long before they were best-sellers and I’m very friendly with Gary Ross (writer/director). We made Seabiscuit together. So, when Gary was going up for the job, we had conversations about Effie and we kept that conversation going while he put together the rest of his cast.

Then he brought me into his office and we had a long conversation at the end of which I was like “If he doesn’t say I’m playing Effie I’m gonna punch him in the face” [she laughs]. But he said “All right. If you want to do it, you can do it.”

TeenHollywood: In the books, Effie is so colorful and over the top and her outfits are amazing so that had to be fun.

Elizabeth: Yeah. I got to collaborate. Everyone involved is Academy award-nominated from Gary Ross to the hair and make-up team to the costume designer. They are pretty good at their jobs. The best thing about making The Hunger Games is that Suzanne Collins (author of the books) sort of blessed the whole process so people are like “How are you handling the pressure?” and, to me, once she’s happy, there is no pressure. That’s who I needed to please and I’m really pleased with my interpretation of Effie. I really feel like she’s what I imagined when I read the books so I’m pretty excited.