Actress and producer Elizabeth Banks has teamed up with Nestle Crunch and Girl Scouts of America to help promote their new, delicious, candy bars which supports the Girl Scouts by taking some of their greatest cookies and turned them into candy. Banks recently stole the scene when she played Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games. The ever busy actress took a moment to talk to TheCelebrityCafe.com to discuss her role with Nestle, her upcoming films including Catching Fire, a film she tells us is what she is looking forward to most of all!
TheCelebrityCafe.com: Tell me about your work with Nestle Crunch and Girl Scout Candy Bars.
Elizabeth Banks: I was a Girl Scout growing up. I was a Brownie first and then a Girl Scout, and I think it’s just an amazing organization. Girl Scouts of the USA has about 2.5 million girls with them at any given time and it’s an amazing organization whereby you learn life skills, comradery, leadership and confidence. For me personally, I learned how to ride horses and learned needlepoint and I went to my first overnight camping trip. I competed for badges with my sister who was also a Girl Scout along with me, and we sold cookies of course, because that’s what you do as a Girl Scout, and I just thought that the Nestle Crunch partnership with Girl Scouts was really cool and they spent two years developing Crunch bars with the three most popular Girl Scout cookie flavors…one of them of course happens to be one of my favorite flavors, Samoa. They made a caramel coconut cookie Crunch bar to reflect the Samoa cookie and they reinvented the cookies basically into these Nestle Crunch cookie candy bars - they’re fantastic.
TCC: How will the candy bars benefit the Girl Scout foundation?
EB: Well, Nestle Crunch has a partnership with Girl Scouts and is also sponsoring the Girls World forum and they’re huge supporters of the Girl Scouts basically. This will go back into the Girl Scouts programing.
TCC: How long will the candy bars be available for purchase?
EB: The candy bars are limited edition so they are very special and can only be purchased this summer. They are in limited supply, so when they’re gone, they’re gone. You have to get them now that they’re out. Me personally, I’m going to get a bunch of them and stick them in the freezer so I can save them for later and dole them out to myself in little bites. I also like to crush them up and put them on top of ice cream.
TCC: You have a fantastic reoccurring role in 30 Rock. What can you tell me about Avery Jessop for this upcoming season?
EB: You know I have no idea what is going to happen next year on 30 Rock. I’m really happy that Avery Jessop is back and I loved our happy divorce at the end of last season in Maui. I don’t know where this is going to go. I do think that, if I were to make a guess, I think that Jack is going to find a new love interest and I think Avery is not going to like it very much.
TCC: What is it like working on the set of such a hilarious show as 30 Rock?
EB: Everyone is such an amazing pro and I feel like I am getting to work with icons of American television.
TCC: The Hunger Games is one of the greatest books I have read in a long time and you had the privilege to play Effie Trinket, tell me what that was like.
EB: Well it was a great privilege, I’m glad you put it that way. I think Effie is an incredible character and one of my all-time favorites. She’s so over-the-top and so fun, and I feel like she’s very layered and has a lot going on under the surface. Some people reading the book just try to write her off as comic relief, but to me, Effie is so much more. And, Effie is the real representation of the Capitol in the books, and I think that is a lot of responsible for her to carry.
TCC: There is so much speculation out there as to who should play Finnick, so I am curious, in your opinion, if you were to pick any actor to play Finnick Odair, who would it be?
EB: I have no dog in that fight. I am going to trust the casting process, who I think has been fantastic so far. I personally believe the movie is perfectly cast, and I know that process is going to yield a perfect Finnick. I have a feeling there will be controversy surrounding whoever they name to be in the film, but I’m sitting on the sidelines just like all the other fans waiting to hear who it’s going to be.
TCC: You are also set to star in Frank or Francis, what can you tell me about that?
EB: You know, it’s from the mind of Charlie Kaufman so it’s a crazy sort of satire on the intersection of Hollywood and the Internet. We haven’t made it yet, and I am hoping to start making it soon.
TCC: Pitch Perfect comes out in October, what can you tell me about playing Gail in this film?
EB: The main role I play in Pitch Perfect is I produce the movie. My husband and my partner Max Handlemen and I found Pitch Perfect as a book proposal and it was written by Mickey Rapkin who wrote for GQ for a very long time and writes for Elle now. He came across the real life story of these very funny characters on college campuses who compete in a cappella competitions. That is sort of the heart and soul of Pitch Perfect.
For me, just getting that book proposal and turning it into a movie and then getting it onto the big screen. We have an amazing young cast, headed up by Anna Kendrick, who is Oscar nominated for Up In The Air and Rebel Wilson who is a true comedic find, Adam DeVine from Workaholics, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow – just such a great group of young people and that’s what I am most proud of when it comes to Pitch Perfect.
TCC: Lastly, you are crazy busy, between your role in “30 Rock,” several movies in the work and a full working website, is it fair to ask what else can fans look forward to seeing you in?
EB: Well you know, Pitch Perfect will be by fifth movie in 2012 so I think that’s about as much as fans need to see from me this year [laughing]. I’m really excited to go back and do Catching Fire, that’s what I’m most looking forward to in the fall.