Elizabeth Banks' Transformation From Wet Hot American Summer To Cocaine Bear

Elizabeth Banks' coming-of-age story is not one rife with struggle, as she would tell you herself. She grew up Elizabeth Mitchell, the daughter of a General Electric worker and a banker in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Her old-school Irish Catholic upbringing found her casually getting along well with both men and women, while participating in many extra-curricular activities from softball to cheerleading and, of course, performing. 

In high school, it became clear that acting was a natural gift. "She would know what to do, instinctively," theater teacher Ralph Hammann told The Berkshire Eagle in 2008. She eventually pursued theater as a minor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she properly studied communications and graduated magna cum laude. It was a fruitful and highly educational time for the aspiring actress, who used her Ivy League school's resources to study Shakespeare.

However, Banks' aspirations for performing would take her far away from the town where she grew up, which she continues to miss. She especially misses the exuberance she got from performing in high school theater productions in the early '90s, which included a performance in the musical "Man of La Mancha" during which she didn't miss a beat even as a thunderstorm poured rain onto the stage.

Elizabeth Banks' big break on the big screen came with "Wet Hot American Summer," which paired her, a then-unknown actress, with an all-star comedy ensemble including Paul Rudd, Janeane Garofalo, and Amy Poehler. The film was co-written by David Wain and Michael Showalter, the former also directing, and consisted of many cast members that comprised the comedy collective known as "The State," who gained notoriety with their MTV sketch series in the early '90s. Its members included "Wet Hot American Summer" stars like Showalter, Michael Ian Black, and Ken Marino.

In the film, Banks plays Lindsay, a teen counselor at the film's fictional Camp Firewood. Notably, Paul Rudd's aloof Andy cheats on his girlfriend Katie (Marguerite Moreau) with Lindsay, which results in a disgusting make-out sesh between the two. "I was trying to make as many obnoxiously loud noises with my tongue as possible," Banks would later recall to Entertainment Weekly.

Though the film was a box office flop, it slowly gained a cult following over the years, which was all the more helpful for Banks' burgeoning career. She remained close with members of The State, appearing in their Comedy Central series "Stella" and later reprising her role as Lindsay for two Netflix series reuniting the "Wet Hot American Summer" cast: a prequel released in 2015 and a sequel in 2017. 

Although her acting career was just getting started in the early 2000s, Elizabeth Banks was already setting her sights on a career behind the camera. However, she wouldn't be venturing out on her own just yet. In 2003, she married her college sweetheart, sports writer Max Handelman. A year before Banks and Handelman tied the knot, the two teamed up to start their own production company under the name Brownstone Productions. 

Banks and Handelman's first production didn't hit screens until 2009, when they executive produced the Bruce Willis-led action movie "Surrogates." The film is based on the comic book series of the same name, and was a personal endeavor for Banks, who told MTV in 2008 that choosing the film as Brownstone's first production was "very lucky," considering it was a Disney production via Touchstone Pictures. Banks also claimed that her company was interested in producing a sequel, though the lackluster reviews of the final product have prevented that from becoming a reality

Since "Surrogates," Brownstone Productions' filmography has gotten only more high-profile and found more critical success. Highlights include the Anna Kendrick-led "Pitch Perfect" franchise, Banks' own directorial efforts, and the Hulu series "Shrill" starring Aidy Bryant of "Saturday Night Live.".

Before she threw herself fully into the world of movie stardom, Banks made a brief return to her first love: theater. In 2005, she participated in the Williamstown Theatre Festival in her home state of Massachusetts, which had previously been attended by actors like Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Walken, and Bradley Cooper. Banks' participation in the festival was as part of a production of William Inge's 1955 play "Bus Stop." 

Banks played Cherie, an aspiring nightclub singer who rebuffs the romantic advances of Bo, a young cowboy. In a 1956 film adaptation of "Bus Stop," the role of Cherie was played by none other than Marilyn Monroe, giving Banks quite the large shoes to fill. Directed by Will Frears, the production also included Logan Marshall-Green as Banks' scene partner, with other actors including Elizabeth Marvel and Bill Camp. 

In a theatre review from Curtain Up, Banks' performance in the play was praised for being "believably desperate and vulnerable." The New York Times, playing devil's advocate, noted that her portrayal of Cherie's confidence was a result of miscasting. Nevertheless, it was a valiant effort by Banks on the stage, a type of performance she hasn't returned to since. With her more recent years focused on directing, it's unlikely that Banks will find much time to return to her roots in stage performing. 

While her movie career was flourishing, Elizabeth Banks wasn't averse to turning heads on the TV screen. Her most notable TV effort came as a recurring guest star on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock." Created by Tina Fey, who also stars as series lead Liz Lemon, the show follows the backstage antics of an NBC sketch series loosely based on Fey's experiences at "Saturday Night Live." "30 Rock" also features a career-best performance from Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy, the NBC executive whose decisions often complicate the lives of Lemon and her staff.

Banks made her "30 Rock" debut in the fourth season of the show as Avery Jessup, a CNBC commentator and romantic interest of Jack's. Unbeknownst to Avery, she's part of a love triangle as he simultaneously pursues a romance with his high school sweetheart Nancy, played by Julianne Moore. By the end of the fourth season, it's Avery who comes out on top as Jack's continued romantic interest.

Banks re-appeared several times throughout the following two seasons of "30 Rock," before Avery and Jack finally divorced at the end of the sixth season. It was a comfortable role for Banks, who enjoyed popping up on the sitcom even as her career in big-screen dramas took off. As she told The AV Club at the time, "I'm perfectly happy to have [a] reputation as a comedian."

While Elizabeth Banks had become known for playing funny and beautiful blonde-haired women, she would stretch audience expectations of her early in the 2010s. In 2012, she appeared in the blockbuster "The Hunger Games," based on the hit book series of the same name, as Effie Trinket. As the chaperone of series leads Katniss and Peeta (Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson), Effie serves a key role in the story, and Banks would reprise the role for the film's three sequels.

The role of Effie, who dons various colorful costumes and wigs throughout the films, represented a fun transformation for Banks. In an interview with Behind the Lens, she described the process of depicting the character's outlandish personality while trying to keep her from being cartoonish. ""I never wanted Effie to be a clown," the actress said. "I really wanted her to be three-dimensional."

Her prominent part in "The Hunger Games" became one of Banks' biggest roles. The character's design — while impractical for Banks to wear — contributed to many Halloween costumes, and even inspired a look in Lil Nas X's music video for his hit song "Montero," which Banks reacted to on social media with approval (via People). 

With her directorial debut in the rearview, Elizabeth Banks' filmmaking ambitions only grew as the 2010s treaded towards a close. In 2019 she helmed a reboot of the "Charlie's Angels" franchise starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska as the new trio of femme fatales. The franchise began as a TV show in the late 1970s, before gaining further attention with a pair of films in the 2000s starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu.

For her reboot, Banks threw everything she had into the film, writing its script and also starring as Bosley, the assistant to the unseen Charlie. The film's marketing was extensive, featuring an original song by Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, and Ariana Grande, the latter of whom also executive produced the film's official soundtrack. Sadly, the film grossly underperformed at the box office and reviews criticized its pacing and formulaic nature. Nevertheless, praise was reserved for Banks' direction and Kristen Stewart's performance. 

In retrospect, Banks looks at the film's failure as a learning opportunity. In an interview with The New York Times, she attributed that failure to its marketing, claiming, "There was a story around 'Charlie's Angels' that I was creating some feminist manifesto. I was just making an action movie." However, she wouldn't let one film's underperformance deter her from the action movie genre. 

Elizabeth Banks' 2023 got off to a fruitful start, finding her the ringleader behind a viral sensation. "Cocaine Bear," an action thriller loosely based on a true story of a black bear who accidentally ingested 175 pounds of cocaine in 1985, debuted as her third feature directorial effort. The over-the-top romp finds the titular animal on a murderous rampage against an ensemble cast including Keri Russell and Alden Ehrenreich, with a posthumous performance from Ray Liotta. 

For Banks, committing to directing "Cocaine Bear" was a risk worth taking. As she told Variety, "['Cocaine Bear'] could be a career-ender." It helped that she struck gold teaming up with producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who she had previously worked with as a voice actor on "The Lego Movie." She was eager to direct something as gory as "Cocaine Bear," even surprising her fellow producers with the pitch deck she whipped up to convince Universal to let her direct it.

The film's box office opening was not a landslide like some of the blockbusters she'd starred in, but it performed admirably for such a ludicrous premise. Reviewers agreed that the movie was fun if not incredibly deep, but high on spectacle. At any rate, Elizabeth Banks' career has been anything but predictable.