Fairlady|September 2016

She was the first member of her family ever to go to university – and graduated magna cum laude. She produced, and acted in, both Pitch Perfect films (directing the second one too, just for good measure). She met her husband on her first day at university and is still happily married to him. She has two sons, an extraordinary career and a will to change the world for the better. Is there anything Elizabeth Banks can’t do?

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Elizabeth Banks has no illusions about Hollywood. ‘I remember screen-testing to play Mary Jane Watson in Spiderman opposite Tobey Maguire, and they didn’t cast me because I was too old,’ the actress says. ‘I was literally told, “You are too old.” I was 26 at the time, nearly the same age as Tobey, by the way, but they went with someone 10 years younger.’ She shrugs. She’ll be 42 next birthday, and despite the weirdness of the world she operates in, she’s having a good time.

Having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in communications, Elizabeth went on to earn a master of fine arts degree at the American Conservatory Theatre. She met Max Handelman, the man who was to become her husband, on her first day at university. They wanted to have children and, after she struggled to get pregnant, they turned to surrogacy for their two sons, Felix and Magnus (even more remarkable her on-point depiction in the 2012 comedy What to Expect When You’re Expecting of how un-glowing pregnancy can be).

Elizabeth says bluntly that it wasn’t exactly the Hollywood dream of love at first sight. ‘I didn’t meet him and think, I’ve met the man I’m going to marry. I was like: “He’s cute. I’ll sleep with him, because I’m 18 and in college.”’

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Denne historien er fra September 2016-utgaven av Fairlady.

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