LOS ANGELES Less than half an hour into one of the first public screenings of "The Hunger Games" at AMC Century City, a large crowd burst into laughter at a rare moment of levity during this movie about kids killing kids.
If you saw "The Hunger Games" – its record-setting $155 million opening weekend suggests there's a good chance you have – you know the scene: Katniss Everdeen has just slammed a dinner knife into an expensive-looking table to get Haymitch Abernathy's attention, and Effie Trinket looks both aghast and annoyed as she shouts, "That is mahogany!"
The line was in the script, but it's the way Elizabeth Banks' Effie delivers it that makes it funny and memorable.
"Everyone loved that one," says Banks of the mahogany line, which has inspired a Facebook fan page and is trending as a popular joke on Twitter and Tumblr.
The actress has a lot of funny stuff on her resume, from an Emmy Award-nominated role on NBC's "30 Rock" to parts in film comedies like "Role Models." So it's not a huge surprise that Banks, 38, provides much of the comic relief in "The Hunger Games," the first half of which sees her character drawing names of teens who will fight to the death in the Games and then escorting two of those selected to the ostentatious city she calls home (the Capitol).
Because of subject matter, though, "I never wanted to just say a jokey line for a jokey line," Banks says. "That mahogany line is (saying) these kids, they need to respect. 'I have been brought up to respect the Capitol and its ideals, and I'm trying to instill that in these tributes because that will reflect best on all of us.' "
How she landed the job
Banks had been an admirer of Suzanne Collins' young-adult trilogy of novels before the movie rights for the first one were ever sold.
So when Banks heard Gary Ross had signed on to direct the movie adaptation, the wheels immediately started turning. She had worked with Ross about a decade ago, when he was at the helm of "Seabiscuit."
"I just sent him an email and said, 'Oh my God, I'd love to be Effie, I love these books. I'm a fan. If you want someone who's going to bring passion to it, I'm your girl.' And he said, 'I need to find Katniss!' " Banks says, laughing.
After Jennifer Lawrence was cast in the lead role, and after Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson signed on as the boys in Katniss' life, Ross turned his thoughts to Effie – a character who figures in all three installments and would require freaky wigs, outrageous costumes and makeup and jewel-encrusted fingernails.
"He didn't know how old Effie should be," says Banks, 38. "I know he looked at Tracey Ullman at one point. I think he was just trying to figure out the world that this was. Then we had a conversation where I said, 'Well, I want her to be ageless. I want it to be like you don't know if she's 35 or 135.
"Then I went to his office and we looked at all of his inspiration boards, and he told me he was going to talk to Lenny (Kravitz) and Woody (Harrelson), and I was like, 'Great, great' … 'Why are you telling me this? You better (expletive) be giving me this movie!' " she says, laughing.
"He was like, 'Yeah, isn't it obvious? You're doing it. I didn't call you down here to waste your time.' "
'I'm really proud of her'
To become Effie, Banks had to spend half an hour getting into costume and another 21/2 hours in the makeup chair for her scenes, which were mainly shot in Shelby, in Charlotte and on sound stages inside the former Philip Morris cigarette plant in Concord.
Judianna Makovsky, who has also worked on "Harry Potter" and "X-Men" movies, did the costume design; Ve Neil, a veteran of three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, was in charge of the makeup. Banks says Ross told her, "I just see Joel Grey in 'Cabaret' for her (Effie's) face.' "
The studio kept the wraps on that face – and those costumes – for as long as it could, instituting a closed set policy and going to extremes to hide Banks from the paparazzi.
"I had to go to set in capes and robes, with a security detail to and from my trailer," Banks says. "Just to cover the costumes. They just didn't want anything out."
She endured unseasonably hot weather while shooting the "reaping" scene for a week in Shelby last May, at one point succumbing to the heat and ultimately being given a portable air conditioner. But in the end, it pays off on screen: That scene, in fact, is the most effective scene in the film – taut, ominous and marked by a line that is twice delivered with relish by Banks (and is the book's most famous line): "May the odds be ever in your favor."
"I'm really proud of her," Banks says. "She's everything that Gary and I talked about. She came across how I wanted her to. I wanted her to be funny and brittle and a little grotesque and a little mean, and she's all those things."
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