Elizabeth Banks has spent years proving critics wrong behind the camera. In a recent interview, she reflected on a bias she has faced as a woman director—people told her a woman cannot direct men. Banks notes the stereotype persists even as she builds a resume that now includes multiple projects she has steered from behind the camera.
With three features under her belt and more in the works, she recalled working with Ray Liotta on Cocaine Bear as a counterexample to that stereotype. “I was literally told because I direct films that, ‘You can’t direct men. They won’t follow you,'” she told The Kelly Clarkson Show. “And then I directed Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in Goodfellas, and I think I nailed it. Check the list off. It’s all good.”
Banks’ directing résumé and current projects
Beyond Cocaine Bear, Banks has directed Charlie’s Angels (2019), Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), and a short in Movie 43 (2013). She’s now promoting Apple TV+’s The Miniature Wife, a dramedy about a writer whose world is literally shrunk by her scientist husband, a setup that lets the show probe big themes with a playful edge.
In discussing her craft and the road ahead, Banks keeps a sharp focus on representation and agency. “We need more storytellers from different perspectives, and we need more audiences to watch,” she has said, underscoring a broader mission to expand opportunities for women in Hollywood.
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