Elizabeth Banks Wanted Effie’s Clothes to be Torturous

As if wearing those agonizingly towering heels wasn’t enough, Elizabeth Banks went to even greater pain-staking lengths to properly carry out her role as Effie Trinket.

”Everything you see on Effie is purposeful, nothing is whimsical,” said Banks. “As an ambassador for the Capitol I wanted to make it clear Effie is oppressed, so all her clothes are constricting, corseted uncomfortable.”

She went on to say that, in the movie, “I wear crazy shoes that you would never be able to spend a 12-hour day in – I wanted her to be tortured by her clothes.”

Elizabeth Banks went from sporting rigid, spandex-tight clothes to the extremes of taking sandpaper to her skin and throwing in some latex to make it appear as if she had truly undergone plastic surgery.

”We sandpapered my skin,” admitted the actress. “We wanted to show that Effie has a cracked veneer, that perfection doesn’t exist in the Capitol – it’s actually become hideous. We layered latex and used tricks of the camera and the lighting. I like to say I was a little fearless, definitely.”

Wow. Talk about dedication to accurately playing your character! I would have never even thought of sandpapering my skin, let alone actually done it!

Did Elizabeth Banks take it too far? Or do you approve of her efforts to match as much as possible the effervescent, Capitol-manufactured District 12 escort, no matter how radical?

[Source: Contact Music]

Category: Effie Trinket, Elizabeth Banks