Elizabeth Banks Quotes

I hope I'm Jessica Tandy, you know. I hope I'm onstage, and I fall over at 85 or something with everyone applauding thinking that it was a joke, you know, 'There she goes again,' and I'm just gone. I've gone to Heaven.

I try not to repeat myself too often, but it's a gamble. 'Fred Claus' had three Oscar winners in it. No business - it was a bad movie.

Honestly, I am hoping to influence young people, and Twitter's a great way to encourage them to lend their voice to the conversation. Any time you can show young people that you support gay friends and that there are gay people in the world who are lovely, happy, singing, and in love, it opens their minds.

My number one advice to high school girls is birth control. You want to keep all your options open for as long as possible? Birth control.

I'm not a fan of plastic surgery. Oh, and I've never had a wax in my life. Waxing makes no sense to me because you have to grow it out to wax it.

When you live in a leading lady's body, which I do, you have to constantly prove that you are funny.

I am not afraid of much. I kill all the spiders in my house, and I'm planning to go skydiving. I am into girl power, and I'm very self-sufficient.

I love physical comedy. I love Oscar Wilde, I love Shakespeare comedies, I love improv.

I do try to eat healthy, and I find that's easiest when I just avoid the Doritos aisle at the grocery store.

I do want to work on a larger scale with bigger budgets partially as a way to prove that women can do that, for sure. I definitely feel a bit of a responsibility to do that.

I'm very genetically blessed; I cannot deny it, but I work hard at keeping myself together. Yes, I have nice cheekbones and skinny legs, but I can't take any credit for it.

As an actor myself, the opportunity to sing and dance and be dramatic and be funny - it's really irresistible to actors. You get to show all sides of your talent.

I have such a respect for comedy. It's a lot harder than doing drama, in my opinion; you have to have sort of an innate sense of humor. There are rules to comedy you can learn. But ultimately, it really does require a certain point of view on the world, and that really does appeal to me.

I was an early adopter of the 'Hunger Games.' I read them before they were best sellers - I was on the pre-order wait list for 'Mockingjay' on Amazon.

There's never enough money, there's never enough time, there's never enough reliable help around, anything you plan always goes wrong - it's just hard to be human, isn't it?

Most men I know rely on women to do all the literal dirty work.

I like entertaining people. I want to make big entertainment.

Normally for photo shoots I get a full wax, some tanning, a facial.

Sex is always funny. I don't find it sexy, I find it really horrifying. But it's an act that we need. And that need, that desire, is what makes it really funny.

I love the finality of film. When you make a movie, you know the beginning, middle, and end.

No matter what, I'm in a very small club. There are very few women who have directed studio-level commercial films - very few.

I have a gay cousin who came out to my parents before he came out to his own. So I benefited from having a very open, supportive family, and I want to pass that on.

When you have one kid, you feel like you can jet set around, and you can throw him on the hip, and you get your life done. You don't realize how easy one is until you have two. Now I'm really a mom. Oh, I am a mom now! This is for serious - I am responsible for two people now.

The sexism in Hollywood is not particularly overt - because the system is good at hiding it.

'Hunger Games' is a tried-and-true tale about a totalitarian society. It's more similar to China than America, but it's also similar to Nazi Germany and anywhere where the populace gets semi-brainwashed into serving the agenda of a very few.

My father is a huge horse racing fan, so I was introduced to the sport long before 'Seabiscuit.' But the role made me an even bigger fan. Horse racing is one of my favorite sports.

'Thank you' is often an admission that you needed something that wasn't being fulfilled or you couldn't do on your own, so you needed someone else. There is also guilt. We think, 'Well, too much time has gone by, and it doesn't matter,' but it does. It always matters.

I'm perfectly happy to have the reputation as a comedian. I love comedies, I would love to be doing more comedies. But I also feel like I hit the limit on playing the girlfriend type in a lot of rom-coms that aren't actually rom-coms, but guy movies that happen to have girls in them.

I really find that when I get on an airplane, I never drink anything but water, and I drink a ton of it. I like to sit in the window, but I'm always climbing over people to go to the bathroom. I'm that seatmate. But ya gotta do it. All about the water.

The only reason ever to make a sequel is to spend more time with the characters that people love: to tell more of their story.

Sometimes I'm sexy, and sometimes I'm not.

I grew up in a very small town, but it happened to be in western Massachusetts, where there were a lot of gay people. I remember my aunt going to a gay wedding when I was 11, and I thought it was the coolest thing.

My acting gives me my self-worth.

Portion control is a real problem. My husband and I always split one appetizer and one entree. I'm sure waiters hate us.

I played softball. I was on an all-star team. I traveled with the team. I loved it.

I work out with our trainer, Jocelynne Boschen of Alpha Sport L.A., hike a lot, and eat healthy. I love cooking so prepare a lot of my own food and avoid processed foods. No fast food. No soda.

I imagine, in the future, life expectancy is long and they use crazy plastic surgery. Who the hell knows what's going on?

I'm a physical comedian, and I don't get to show it off very often.

I really just drew off of where we are now, with reality TV. You can't help but see a lot of it. You choose to watch some, but with some, you just can't help but hear it and see it. It's just piercing in your brain. That piercing is what I was tapping into , with whatever they were doing to pierce into the minds of everybody. It takes a certain kind of person to shut your mind off to the consequences and just try to get results. That's what I was going for - results.

I can hang with the dudes because I love beef and baseball and driving fast and flirting. I understand where men are coming from, and I'm interested in typically male endeavors. But I can also wear the short skirt and cheerlead.

I'm always reaching to find something that will challenge me and make me do my best.

My favorite event each year is the Yankees-Red Sox series. Love seeing passions run hot among the fans, especially when both teams are in the running for the playoffs.

I went to a few really bad commercial auditions because I needed the money, and when you booked a commercial, your life was made: you could eat.

It's not good to put in a magazine what I weigh because it's too little. People freak out when they hear what I weigh. They think, 'Oh, you're too skinny.'

I'm a good role model. I have an amazing marriage, and it will be long lasting. I think I'm a good mom. I could run for office, no problem, because there are no skeletons in my closet.

Klutziness is endearing. I like imperfection.

So knowing that you can actually help yourself stay healthy over a long shoot where you get no sleep and what you eat really matters. It really mattered that there was a juice bar. You know?

Comedy often comes at the expense of others, and to do that smartly, you don't want to make fun of vulnerable people. You want to make fun of people in power, and so you need to really understand the dynamics of power.

I'm lucky to have worked with great actors, my whole career.

I think people respond to me as a down-to-Earth, girl-next-door person, because I am one of those people. That's something I don't have to act very hard at.

Violence against women is real and something I feel passionately about, and the gateway to all that is wolf whistling. It's allowing a man to impose his will on a woman who is just trying to walk down the street and live her life. It's all about unwanted versus wanted attention, and, of course, there's a fine line.

I secretly harbor the fantasy of becoming an action star at any moment. I know I'd be great at it.

I play Rock Band, which is Guitar Hero times ten. You can play with four people, so when you have parties, you have a real band. Nobody ever wants to sing, so I'm always the one throwing down on the mic.

If I ever complain about yachting around the Mediterranean with Madonna, who I just idolized as a child, I should be slapped across the face.

When I was in college I was accused of being a goody two-shoes. But every goody two-shoes has a bad side.

I directed plays in college. It's something that I have sort of always put in the back of my mind, and I'm a busy actress, and it's very difficult to sort of find the time, honestly, to commit to directing. It's a very - it's a big, big job.

I'm not trying to have Jake Gyllenhaal's baby. I'm not a major fashionista. I'm not going through a lesbian phase. I'm just normal. I'm just really freakin' normal.

What I love about Twitter specifically is that reciprocity is not guaranteed, nor expected. In other words, I can go one way. I can put things out. I don't have to respond to everybody.

I love improv. I do it with my co-star John Michael Higgins in both 'Pitch Perfect' films.

Predicting what content is going to fly is like looking into a crystal ball. I try not to say, 'Yeah, 'Bridesmaids' opened the door to make more movies about women.' I mean, did it? I don't know; where are they?

I think comedy has to be very fearless, or it just gets bland.

I mean time management is a big factor in my life. I'm a very organized person. You can only do one thing at a time, so that's the main way I do everything. When I'm with my kids, I'm with my kids. When I'm directing a movie, I'm directing a movie. When I'm making Magic Mike, I'm making Magic Mike. So you just really have to fragment and focus.

I love stories about misfits and underdogs.

I love working with a stylist but I also love having personal relationships with designers. A stylist is great for pulling together an entire outfit, accessories included, and for shaking me out of my comfort zone.

It's okay to lose. Losing teaches you something. Having to try and going through the trials and tribulations to actually overcome, to get there to win, to triumph, that's what makes life interesting.

I'm not a particularly shiny, happy person. I'm fairly cynical, and that's what draws me to comedy.

Some big actresses told me a few things that inspired me. One said that the biggest challenge for a female actress was to make sure they are not profoundly bored. Another told me to just do whatever you want - do anything.

I'm really interested in making movies that people see: I've made a lot of independent films and it's really depressing when no one sees them.

I think it is really important to put out what you want so the world knows what to give you.

I think the hardcore fans can expect exactly what both 'The Hunger Games' and 'Catching Fire' delivered: 'Mockingjay' is going to be as faithful a rendition of Suzanne's Collins's world and books and characters as we can put out!

It's really fun to watch yourself disappear in the movie every day

You have got to have an agent. It's a business. But I think there is a way to be artful and commercial at the same time.

I'm actively looking for things to direct again. I had such an amazing experience on this. I really am spoiled.

Your funny gets developed pretty early on. Comedy requires that you understand as much as possible about the viewpoints of all people and everything that's going on around you. It genuinely requires a true point of view, a real sense of your own view of things in the world.

It's pretty easy to hear what people are physically responding to versus what's just flat as a pancake in the room when it comes to jokes.

I don't stay in my trailer. I like to sit in video village, probably to the annoyance of some producers and directors, because they really love to talk about actors, and they can't in front of me.

When I was coming up, it was the golden age. It was Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, and Reese Witherspoon was starting. You really had, 'Who is America's Next Sweetheart?' every couple of years. And then this sort of bromance slacker thing took over.

People ask me how I stay thin, and I'm like, 'When you go to the grocery store, buy more bananas than cookies.'