Top 50 Elizabeth Banks Quotes

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

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 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.

I grew up sort of lower working class. And I just didn’t want to have the money struggles that my parents had. You know, I could just – as loving an environment I grew up in – and I grew up in a great home, a very loving home – but, you know, we had that stress. We had that stress in our life.

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

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.

The great thing about Twitter is, you get a lot back, and I read through a lot, and I want my fans to know that I do read a lot, and it’s why I do respond or retweet clever posts, and I’m constantly amazed by the cleverness of people on Twitter.

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.

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

Producing never stops. It’s 24/7.

I’m afraid of a cappella. I don’t read music, and I have a hard time harmonizing. Basically, I’m a melody singer only.

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.

I have very fond memories of the Eagles from my experience with ‘Invincible’ and my college days in Philadelphia. But I am a Massachusetts girl and a Pats fan.

My father always made an amazing meatloaf, and I’ve inherited his skill. Leftover meatloaf in a sandwich? Come on!

All through my twenties, I lived in very walkable cities – Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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!

‘Pitch Perfect 2,’ those scenes are super fun. It’s just me and John Michael Higgins, and we’ve been friends for so long, we just have the best time. Anything I do with him is some of my favorite stuff.

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.

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.

I only know the lyrics to songs that I listened to between the ages of 11 and 15.

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

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

I actually think that secrets are just a part of human nature and that everybody should have some.

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.

I love Prada shoes. I cannot get enough of them. Or Valentino.

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.

I went to drama school. I’m classically trained; I studied Shakespeare, blah blah blah. But I always preferred to do Oscar Wilde, or Shakespeare’s comedies over his dramas.

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.

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

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

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

I love stories about misfits and underdogs.

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.

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.

‘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.

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

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

‘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.

Klutziness is endearing. I like imperfection.

I suppose the best advice I ever got, frankly the advice that changed my life, came from my uncle who told me to go to drama school and study acting instead of taking a job, because he said the job would always be there.

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

My acting gives me my self-worth.