sexy: March 2008

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Elizabeth Banks

Just when you thought you’d sooner sport a Santa cap at the office holiday party than show up to see Vince Vaughn in Fred Claus—this year’s front-runner for the annual Tim-Allen-Christmas-Schlock Award—you turn the page and there’s Elizabeth Banks. The one who plays, as she puts it, “the ‘Mistress of the Elves’…though perhaps that’s a little more sexual than I should imply.” And while this fact alone could fill you with enough childlike wonderment to last the New Year, know this: In real life, Banks is at least as much of a go-getter as her role as Santa’s overachieving helper implies. As you talk with her, she tells you some things—that she graduated from Penn, that you should have gone with Maroney over Tomlinson on your fantasy squad, that she’s just wrapped a movie in which she stars opposite one of her comedy idols, Eddie Murphy (it’s called Starship Dave, out next year)—that make you think, I could learn a thing or two. Here’s what we picked up.

Lesson 1: Men don’t just like fast women—they laugh at them, too. It’s okay if you only remember Banks as that over-the-top bimbo from The 40-Year-Old Virgin who tried relentlessly to jump Steve Carell’s bones. Many of Banks’s best performances—like in Wet Hot American Summer, when she couldn’t stop sucking Paul Rudd’s face—have been just like that one. What makes Banks so memorable in these parts is her unbridled animal aggression; her screwball antics go beyond hilarious to sublimely ridiculous. “In comedy right now, I find they like their women loose,” she says. “I think that that’s the male fantasy come true. And to pull it off, you just have to be game for it—you have to not be worried about looking bad.”

Lesson 2: Being a young Hollywood actress doesn’t mean you can’t also be an expert on Tom Brady versus a Nickel D. Banks grew up in western Massachusetts, which makes her a Sox-and-Pats girl. But she’s not just a casual, inherited-it-from-Dad sort of fan: Each season, she competes in a fantasy league with her husband, who recently wrote a book called, yes, Why Fantasy Football Matters (And Our Lives Do Not). Banks is so obsessed with sports, she says, that she “debated joining the cheerleading team in college instead of doing a play.” What changed her mind? “My boyfriend convinced me that he’d rather date an actress than a cheerleader.”

Lesson 3: Behind every great woman there’s some dude who says shit like “I’d rather date an actress than a cheerleader” and not only gets away with it but actually gets what he wants. To which we say: God bless him.