Crave Online: Is there a movie in Hollywood that you're not in right now?
Elizabeth Banks: Beverly Hills Chihuahua. They overlooked me for that and my friend made it too. I can't believe it.
Crave Online: Seriously, how did you cram all these movies into your schedule?
Elizabeth Banks: You have to remember that these were very spread out when I made them. They're just oddly coming out all at the same time and they're all coming out also in the exact opposite order in which I shot them. So it's like the smallest role last which is pretty funny.
Crave Online: Your sex scene in the movie is really powerful. What's your motivation in that scene?
Elizabeth Banks: Make love. I was really excited for Seth to appear as a true romantic leading man because I think he's never played that before. He was the lead man in Knocked Up, but you never really thought that Katherine Heigl was going to jump over the moon for that guy. I wanted it to seem like we were made for each other and truly, truly in love.
Crave Online: Even as far as watching other actors in sex scenes you can tell it's fake and you two got through that barrier.
Elizabeth Banks: Seth and I, we adore each other on a lot of levels and so I think there was a lot of relief that it went as well as it did and that it was over quickly.
Crave Online: Did you go to your own high school reunion and were there any surprises?
Elizabeth Banks: I went to my five year high school reunion which did in fact happen on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. So that was totally real to me. There was nothing particularly surprising. The guy that everyone thought was gay was gay. The guy everyone thought was going to go bald early was bald. Some girls got fat. It was pretty much par for the course.
Crave Online: Will you go to your twenty or twenty five?
Elizabeth Banks: I will never go to another reunion. It's not going to happen. Everyone I want to see from high school I already see.
Crave Online: Were you already somewhat of a recognizable name at that first reunion?
Elizabeth Banks: Yeah. I had done commercials.
Crave Online: Did they treat you differently at all because of that?
Elizabeth Banks: No, not really. It would be terrible now. I wouldn't want to go now.
Crave Online: Have you been happy with the response to W?
Elizabeth Banks: I'm ecstatic about it, yeah. I think the performances in the film are amazing and they've been getting a lot of great attention. I'm really proud of what I did in the movie. I didn't believe that it was going to come out this fast and I'm super impressed that it did. So, yeah, and we just had a great opening weekend. I'm very excited for Oliver and Josh.
Crave Online: Do you think that you'll ever hear if Laura Bush saw the movie and what she thought about your portrayal?
Elizabeth Banks: I don't know. I really can't imagine the surreal circumstance of someone making a movie about your life. I don't know if you want to see that or if you want to run as far as you can from that. I think it would just be so odd. So if she sees it I would consider her very brave.
Crave Online: If you could ask her one question out of curiosity what would you want to know?
Elizabeth Banks: I would want to know if she really supports the war. Let me put it this way, any question I would ask her I would not expect an actual realistic response.
Crave Online: What are your thoughts on the Zack and Miri ratings controversy?
Elizabeth Banks: You mean the controversy that the media keeps talking about because I keep getting asked about it? That controversy? [Laughs] I think there are much bigger problems in our world today than the word porno. I think if you have a problem explaining to your seven year old that porno is for adults just like the TV that you don't let them watch after nine o'clock, just like the food that you don't let them eat, just like the beer that you don't let them drink, just like the cigarettes that you don't let them smoke you're a fucking idiot. I just don't understand how it's any different from any of those things. "Hey, kid, it's not for you." That's it.
Crave Online: Were you and your husband romantically involved when you first met or were you friends first?
Elizabeth Banks: We were never friends. We were just romantically linked from the get go.
Crave Online: How much do you enjoy the increasingly varied roles you're doing?
Elizabeth Banks: I enjoy it very much. It's pretty exciting to be able to go in any direction. I assume my representatives are very excited about that, that they can pitch me for all different things and people don't think that they're crazy. I have no expectations for what's going to happen in the future. I enjoy making comedies a lot. If I had to guess what my next movie was going to be I'd say it's probably going to be a comedy.
Crave Online: For this film did Kevin ask you to do research or ask if you'd seen any porno?
Elizabeth Banks: Nope. He didn't ask. I don't remember if he asked. I mean, we had discussions about it. It was clear that I was knowledgeable enough. I was not a total novice. I really rely on him and Seth's encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. Making porn isn't for rocket scientists. It's not exactly hard to do. It's fairly easy. We didn't really talk about it at all and we didn't want to be good at it. We wanted to be really bad at it. So I kind of didn't want to know anything about it.
Crave Online: How excited were they about the merging of porn and Star Wars?
Elizabeth Banks: I think that Kevin had a boner the entire day.
Crave Online: What were your expectations before making the film and how did it actually compare?
Elizabeth Banks: I had no expectations of what it was going to be like. I try to never have any expectations. Hollywood will beat expectations out of you after about three jobs. I will say this, that Seth and I would get along gangbusters because we always have and I knew that we would improvise a lot which we did. I knew that Kevin would be amazing to be around which he is. He just runs a really friendly and relaxed set full of his friends and has everyone that makes him comfortable around. So I knew all of that was going to work. I knew that it was going to be really f*cking cold in Pittsburgh and it was. What else did I know? Other than that I didn't know much. I knew we were making a really funny movie. It's actually funnier than I realized.
Crave Online: How did you guys integrate your improv style in a Kevin Smith film where a lot of the comedy is already worked out?
Elizabeth Banks: Well, he wrote an amazing script. He really indulged us because frankly he's editing the movies and he could've taken out anything that he wanted to. You integrate it very organically. You shoot what's on the page and then you just go from there and you have to stay in the moment and you have to stay in character. The improv has to make sense for what we're talking about and doing and some of it just flowed from starting to go up on your line and you'd make something up. Some of it flows from the fact that by the fourth take of saying the same joke it starts to feel not as fresh. So to freshen it up and get back into the moment and feel more present you start running with it.
Crave Online: How did you and Seth that establish that Zack and Miri were really just friends, not like some Hollywood version where "just friends" are totally hot for each other already?
Elizabeth Banks: I think it's built into the script, that the turning point is when they're doing it and they think it's just going to be f*cking and that's all we talk about. It's just going to be f*cking and it's not going to mean anything and then you get there and you make love and it does mean something. So it was kind of one of those situations where it didn't meant anything until it did. I personally think that we present a very realistic couple onscreen for the entire movie. We just hadn't had sex until we did. So to me the idea of them just peeing in front of each other and making coffee for each other and paling around and driving each other to work, those are all things that regular couples do, couples who have already admitted that they're in love. So I don't know. It just flowed very naturally from that.
