Elizabeth Banks says her dream job was directing Pitch Perfect 2. Now, she’s partnering with Doritos and Crash the Super Bowl to give one lucky fan their dream job at Universal Pictures and $1 million.
We can’t wait to see Elizabeth Banks return as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 this November. While we’re waiting, we had the chance to hear about her involvement with the Dorito’s ad contest, Crash the Super Bowl.
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“Since 2007, Doritos has been sponsoring this Crash the Super Bowl ad contest and, this year, I’m one of the judges. They’re taking submissions from all over the world, looking for the best and brightest 30-second ads fans can come up with. The winner with the most fan votes gets their commercial aired on the Super Bowl, a million-dollar grand prize and they get a dream job working at Universal Pictures.
“I love that Doritos is going to give someone a jump start on their career. Everyone needs to start somewhere, everybody needs a supportive patron in the beginning and that’s what Doritos is going to be doing for one lucky winner. Universal gave me my dream job and now I want to help others get theirs.”
We confessed our love for the Doritos Cool Ranch flavor and Banks said, “I’m also a Cool Ranch person, but I also like the classic Nacho Cheese, as well.” OK, so do we. We like them all, in fact.
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Of course, we had to ask Banks about playing the stunning Effie Trinket in the Hunger Games movies.
“Personally, she’s one of my all-time favorite characters; she’s really an icon. I’m a huge Hunger Games fan myself and really enjoyed being a part of that world and being in Francis Lawrence’s (The Hunger Gamesdirector) life.
Since we were talking about Doritos, we asked what flavor Banks thought Effie would enjoy. “In the Capitol, they’d probably have pineapple-fruitberry-cheddar. They would have figured some whole new thing out by the time we’re eating in the Capitol.”
We wanted to know how Francis Lawrence helped her and if he gave her any advice before she directed Pitch Perfect 2.
“He helped me wrap up Effie so I could go and direct Pitch Perfect!”
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As for advice as a director, Banks said, “He comes from directing music videos. One of the things he told me was include the hips. Because the hips don’t lie.”
We asked Banks what it was like to get behind the camera for the Pitch Perfect sequel.
“Pitch Perfect 2 was something I was heavily developing as a producer. I produced the first film, starred in it, this time around I took on more responsibility as director and I’m really just excited to bring more of the Barden Bellas to the big screen.”
Desperate to know what songs will be in the sequel, we asked her if she could reveal any of the upcoming musical gems.
“I can’t give away any of the songs in the movie, that will just have to be a surprise come May 2015.” But she did say, “There will be much more music made by people’s mouths, so you have all that to look forward to.”
Thinking about the future, we asked if Banks would ever consider returning to her roots in the theater.
“Yes, but not until my children are much older. There’s also a lot of amazing roles for older actresses, so I can’t wait to be able to do them.”
We asked if maybe we’ll see her as the famous character, Blanche DuBois, in A Streetcar Named Desire some day and she said, “Sure, I’d love to play Blanche, I’d love to play Lady Anne, I’d love to play Miss Daisy.”
One thing is clear, Banks has a long career ahead of her.
If you want to submit your own Doritos commercial and “Crash the Super Bowl”, visit Doritos.com for more info.
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