Bloody Disgusting - Interview The Uninvited Set Visit: Star Elizabeth Banks

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The Uninvited Set Visit: Star Elizabeth Banks

By: Slice

Vancouver, Canada
INTERVIEW DATE: AUGUST 30, 2007

THE UNINVITED revolves around Anna (Emily Browning), who returns home after spending time in the hospital following the tragic death of her mother. Her recovery suffers a setback when she discovers her father (David Strathairn) has become engaged to her mother�s former nurse, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks). That night, Anna is visited by her mother's ghost, who warns her of Rachel's intentions. Together, Anna and her sister (Arielle Kebbel) try to convince their father that his current fianc�e is not who she pretends to be, and what should have been a happy family reunion becomes a lethal battle of wills between stepdaughters and stepmother.

BD: I imagine this is a lot different than working with James Gunn (on SLITHER).

Elizabeth Banks: Yeah. James is a, he's, I just met him on Friday night, he's really well, him and Nathan Fillion actually. We had a little family back in Atlanta. And, but that's the last time I was here, we're shooting Slither in Vancouver and, with them and having the time of my life.

BD: And how is it working with the two new directors, can you talk a little bit about that?

Elizabeth Banks: They're brothers. They're great. They're very visual. You can tell that they're very concern about, you know, every little detail of the composition of the shots and, which I appreciate. I think they're really raising the bar in terms of how the movie looks. They talk a lot about making sort of a more classy thriller, a What Lies Beneath-type of movie versus just sort of a fast, you know, less artistic horror flick. More in line frankly with the original. I mean, the original is so visually arresting. And I think they're really trying to go for something that American audiences can relate to but that still has a great, sort of, sense of artistry about it.

BD: Are you a fan of Asian horror, and like prior to this, have you been into it?

Elizabeth Banks: You know, I'm not, I do love to see a good Asian horror movie every once in a while. James Gunn introduced me to a lot of them. This is actually his favorite movie. So, when I told him I was doing the remake, he was horrified. So, he's...

BD: Kind of a purist.

Elizabeth Banks: Yeah, he's a purist, definitely. So, I don't know how he'll receive this one, but it's okay.

BD: What made you want to do it in the first place?

Elizabeth Banks: Great character. I get to play a villainess, which I never get to do. And I'm, as you said, I'm, well, a little more well-known nowadays for doing comedy, so just the idea of being able to play someone who's a little edgier, her sexuality is right out there. We talked a lot about Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and Sharon Stone and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, they were just like the great female villains. I just love all of those and their performances that I admire, and they're really fun to play. And I think the audience gets a good kick out of it, too.

BD: Are you playing your character who's like David's nice guy character's in love with you, so you have, I guess you obviously have to have a nice, is it formality or...

Elizabeth Banks: Well, no, you know, my whole take on Rachael is that she is very misunderstood by, she is clearly misunderstood, I mean, by being in the movie, we know for a fact that she's misunderstood. But I, you know, they call me evil nurse on set, that's my sort of, my nickname. So, you know, instead of poetess, I'm like evil nurse. So, and I keep saying misunderstood nurse, misunderstood nurse.

Rachael, really, I think, is just a lot of light and a lot of energy for a family that has, was suffering for a long time. And whose daughter clearly, one of their daughters clearly has, you know, some depression and a lot of issues. And Rachael is just very straightforward and out there and wants to be happy, and she's ambitious and fun loving and, you know? I, as an actor, need to see all of those great sort of fun qualities that I can play and not just worry about her being frightening to this stepdaughter.

BD: When you, when you play a character like this, do you, or any character, do you have to find something that you like about them?

Elizabeth Banks: I don't, you don't have to like, I think like is not the right word. It's respect, that's for me the word. You have to find, I mean, you know, it's the Hitler question, right? How do you play Hitler? Well, you know, you got to find something to respect about the character, and then just actionable things to do. What can I, you know, what is she doing in the story and how is she, you know, moving the story forward and that's it.

But you know once, I obviously approached every character. I have to be able to see their whole life. So, you know, even that character in The 40 Year Old Virgin was very real to me. I thought, okay, I know this girl. She lives in the valley. She graduated from Claremont College and she, either, anyway, it's the same thing here. It's like I know exactly where this girl came from and where she wants to get to and this is, and this is like this moment in time, this movie that we're telling.

BD: So, as an actress, do you do that, you create the whole back-story? And knowing what, that there're twists in this, is it difficult for you sometimes 'cause, you know, you're maybe not, you're not playing what you're playing, you know what I mean?

Elizabeth Banks: Yeah. Well, the twists are, you know, for me... It's just making sure that whatever I am playing, someone can interpret two ways. I'm just playing a straight up reality from, you know, this is when I'm carving, I'm carving a rose. Now, this knife could seem very threatening to someone the way I'm carving this or I could just seem like I'm carving a rose.

So, it's just about making things a little off so that it feels like you could interpret them either way. Through Anna's lens, she sees a certain thing and, but through someone else's lens, you might see something totally different.

BD: Please talk about the sexuality being sort of out there. As far as just, sort of, picking up on things that make a female character scary on screen, sexuality seems to be part of it. Why is that? What's the power of the female sexuality that can make it scary? It can also obviously be work the other way.

Elizabeth Banks: Yeah. I think, I think, my guess is that there's a historical context for female sexuality that we're playing with here, and that we've been playing with since, I don't know, the '70s? You know, women who owned their shit get in trouble. I think if you, if you, if you were overt with your sexuality, you were labeled lots of negative things in the past...[but] that's quickly changing. And I think everybody in our, in our very Puritan-American society, at any rate, is trying to figure out how to let it be okay for women to have over with sexuality, but scary. It's scary to guys.

BD: So, it�s prophetic that line for The 40-Year-Old Virgin where Steve Carell actually says, that girl scares...

Elizabeth Banks: Yeah. That girl is scary.

BD: ...the shit out of me.

Elizabeth Banks: That's right. Yeah.

BD: That's, but...

Elizabeth Banks: But I mean, it is, it�s, you know, I was scary in Fatal Attraction, I was scary and in Basic Instinct. I mean, it�s, I think it's just a, it's a control issue. I think when women are in control, it throws off the historical bounds of power that men are so comfortable with.

BD: Can you talk about some of your villainess inspirations? Do they always change from role to role or do you have like a couple of stalwart actors that you use for inspiration?

Elizabeth Banks: No. I'm always, it's always changing. It just depends on what, I'm just looking to, I'm just looking to find, you know, as an artist, I think all great artist steal, everything's a pastiche of everything else, and then you want to have your original twist on it. So, it was just who are the role models for this archetype? And that's what we're looking at.

BD: Did you watch the original film? Are you taking inspiration from that?

Elizabeth Banks: I did and, it's very confusing movie, that original film.

BD: Do you get the great entrance, is another question. She's got the best entrance in it.

Elizabeth Banks: I don�t, it�s not quite as good. It's not quite as good. It's, I more than anything just took a sort of, a feeling from that. Our script is very different. It's really, I don�t want to use the word Americanized, but it's certainly, it�s more easily digestible than the original, I would say.

BD: Why do you think Asian horror seems to have translated to sort of American audience in such a big way over the last couple of years?

Elizabeth Banks: Well, I don't think they have in such a big way, otherwise, we'd just be watching the original Asian horror movies. Why are we remaking them? That�s the question. I think they're great storytellers. They deal with very sort of, they deal with those deep human emotions much like Greek tragedy does. They're not afraid to talk about suicide or family and ancestors, ghosts, you know? I think we, they are really sort of coming at those deep issues. What happens after we die? Where do we go? If we don�t honor our ancestors, are we gonna be screwed? And then also just going against fate and, you know, those really big thematic things that the Greeks dealt with, that Shakespeare deals with. I think they're just bringing about that type of storytelling again.

BD: When you did Slither, it was so gross and in your face, what have you enjoyed about the more subtle horror?

Elizabeth Banks: Well, when I was doing Slither, you know, I was never really around. It was, a lot of that gross stuff was CGI-ed later on. So, it was still just about being in the moment, dealing with the other actors, figuring out what we're doing, how to move the story forward. It�s the same, you know, for everything. I, in this, I like playing, there's a more subtle quality here. There's less humor, but I'm, I'm having a fun time finding moments where at the very least I'm entertaining myself.

BD: Are you trying to find the funny in horror, not ha-ha funny but sort of subtle, the Hitchcocky and funny in the horror to be...

Elizabeth Banks: Yes, exactly. Yeah. That really sort of sophisticated, isn�t this a ridiculous situation that we're in? You know, just, you know, awareness, I guess, sort of a self-awareness. I think Rachael's, Rachael is very aware of her effect on these girls and on Steven. (SP?) And she is in control of a certain aspect of this family now that she is relishing.

BD: How have you developed your, Rachael's, relationship with Anna? Are you mean to Emily?

Elizabeth Banks: No, goodness, no. You know, I think Rachael is trying her darndest to be friends to this girl. She, clearly, she does not want to be a new mother. She's not trying to replace her mother. She's very aware of the hurt and the grieving that Anna has done for her mom. She was with the family, don�t forget, taking care of the mom, leading up to her death. So, she knows these girls on that level, and she knew the mother. And, for me, you know, if I had to guess, I think that their mother really liked Rachael and was happy to have her around, you know, sort of bringing a sense of light into the household while she was sick. So, I think that, for me, it feels like Rachael is just trying to continue the work that she started when their mom was alive and be respectful of her place. But also she is a parental figure in this house now and needs, wants and needs Anna to respect that.

BD: Do you have any scenes that are supernatural, there was a ghost in it? And, or do you have any scenes that are violent or gory or, you know?

Elizabeth Banks: I do, I have a huge fight scene with Emily and...

BD: Has that been shot yet?

Elizabeth Banks: Yes.

BD: Okay. What was that like to do?

Elizabeth Banks: It was great. We've shot for two days of just, we did all of our own stunts for the most part. Although I love our stunt people. I would never not give them credit. But I'd say 95 percent of it, we did our own stunts. And we'd go at each other, a lot of hand-to-hand combat fighting and running, and I loved it. I, it's really fun. I like getting physical like that. And, you know, we both had ice packs on everywhere and trying to control swelling and making sure we weren�t bruising. You know, I'm all knees and elbows, so they were wrecked. And then a couple of little cuts that are now basically healed, which is good. You know, broken nails. It was good. I'm proud of it. I hope it turns out.

BD: How's it been working with Emily besides the fighting?

Elizabeth Banks: She's fabulously gifted and professional and lovely to be around. And she's very witty, which I think is great in someone so young. And I'm very impressed, you know? She's very far from home, and she's very young. And that's very impressive that's she's so together.

BD: What kind of work did you do to understand the relationship between Rachael and David's character?

Elizabeth Banks: You know, as David alluded to, we don't have a lot of actual scenes together. So, we've really been killing ourselves to create these bridges to each other, you know? I was, I shot a scene, we shot a scene in the first couple of days where Emily and I pull up to the house and he was bringing out garbage or something, and he had on his gardening gloves. And then I shot a scene a couple of days later where I walk into the house from outside and I said, I need those gardening gloves, because I'll do anything to create this sort of sense that we have things in common, you know?

BD: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth Banks: Because I really wanted, we really are investing in feeling like they have a deeper relationship than just she's sexy and he's older and so why not? So, it's little moments like that, you know, get those gardening gloves. And maybe the audience never notices, but it at least feeds David and I in the sense that it makes us feel like, oh, we garden together. Okay. We can see that, you know? We do things together. You know, she loves to cook. She's all, I keep saying, I had a line where I said, you know, I'm making something for dinner, and it was like, it's your favorite. You know, just like that she knows what his favorite food is, things like that. So, we're just trying any way we can to layer in a deeper relationship.

BD: And the director gave you that freedom to do that, to play with your characters a little bit?

Elizabeth Banks: They don't have a choice.

BD: They're very soft-spoken, the directors�

Elizabeth Banks: I think they're probably very soft-spoken to you guys. They're not that soft-spoken in actuality. They're very, they're pretty clear of what they want. The great thing is they have, basically, their two sides of one brain. So, I never, we never feel like we're getting two different opinions or two opposites of anything. It�s all, they're very clear. They're, it's no issue in terms of having two people.

BD: It's not the, one of them doesn�t come to you more often or talk the actors, more often. They come together? Hmm.

Elizabeth Banks: It�s fairly, yeah. It's, well, one of them will come over. But, you know, he speaks for both of them. Do you know what I mean? I actually wish they would spend more time apart. We'd be going a lot faster, you know? It's like, what's the advantage of two people? Oh, we're not getting the advantage 'cause they do everything together.

BD: As far as developing just, I imagine obviously, the centerpieces, the tension between you and Emily. So, as far as just off set, is it important to sort of create a bit attention as people, or is it more important to actually like, you and me, we have to actually be friends if we're gonna really go after each other on set?

Elizabeth Banks: I think, part, you do want to have a lot of trust and faith in somebody who you're going out with a knife or who's coming at you with a knife. So, you don't want that person to actually dislike you just in case they slip. I, you know, I'm older now. This is not my first barbecue. I'm not one of those actors who thinks you have to take the work home or live the work or any of that, you know? I'm, we are, my job is to go to set and treat her a certain, you know, treat her a certain way in the scene work. I don't personally need to treat her the same way off set. So, we get along great.

BD: What's the scariest movie you ever saw?

Elizabeth Banks: Poltergeist.

BD: No way.

Elizabeth Banks: The freaking clown doll under the bed blew my mind as well as, like, the tree branch outside the window, you know? JoBeth Williams swimming around with a bunch of dead bodies. The whole thing killed me. And I was right at that age when I wasn't allowed to watch Poltergeist. I got it, we got HBO that year, and I watched it from, like, behind my couch where no one, you know, where, so, if my mom came to the room I could hide, so she would think that the TV had just been left on. And the singing, the song, (MAKES NOISE) those angelic voices. Oh, that one killed me, killed dolls for me, clowns, the whole thing. Go into the light. Oh, forget it, forget it.