Elizabeth Banks' career certainly has runt he gamut, spanning from comedy to drama. But if she had to choose one theme to follow for the rest of her career, it would be females taking charge. She's Allure's June cover girl, and inside the magazine she dishes on everything from her career in comedy to life with her husband.
"If I had to pick a theme of the things I do," Banks says, "it would be: Girls win."
But making her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2, Banks says there was a lot of pressure. Accepting the offer was a no-brainer, but that doesn't mean she didn't struggle with the stress that comes with it.
"Once you get offered a studio job, as a woman, its really hard to say no because they don't let women do this very often," she tells the mag. "So I knew I needed to embrace it and I couldn't mess it up. Because if you mess it up, they don't let you do it again, and you become representative of female directors as a whole. Like, 'See girls can't do it.'"
Although she has worked on both comedies and dramas, Banks reveals that she prefers to make people feel good than sad. "Making people laugh is a very addictive thing," she says, referencing the faces who perform at the Friars Club. "All of these people absolutely get high off of killing a room. You can get that feeling of flying in drama as well, and I've had it many, many times. But I find making people laugh to be a really specially ability.
"It's like having a superpower."
The Hunger Games actress seems to take a realistic view not only about her career but also about her personal life. Although she has been married to Max Handelman since 2003, Banks admits it wasn't love at first sight. "I didn't meet my husband and think, I've met the man I'm going to marry," she says. "I was like he's cute. I'll f--k him, because I'm 18 and in college."
But what makes their marriage work, she explains, is how they feel about each other and their focus on the future, even if neither of them totally swooned upon meeting each other. "Really, what happened was I've never met anyone I liked more," she admits.
"In the early years did I have crushes or little interests here and there? I know my husband did, and so did I, but we stayed together," she adds. "We still to this day take the long view. We have always dreamed about our life together. And we work together every day, and we have a lot of respect for each other on every level. And then there's love. And then there's lust. So its great."