Elizabeth Banks has recalled being told directly that she would be unable to direct male actors, a claim she says she promptly proved wrong by directing Ray Liotta.
Appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show to promote her Peacock comedy series The Miniature Wife, Banks was asked about moments she had been made to feel small in Hollywood.
Her answer was immediate.
“I was literally told because I direct films that, ‘You can’t direct men. They won’t follow you,'” she said.
“And then I directed Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in Goodfellas, and I think I nailed it. Check. It’s all good.”
Liotta starred in Banks’ 2023 film Cocaine Bear, which grossed $90 million worldwide.
It was one of several major studio films Banks has directed, alongside Pitch Perfect 2, a global hit at $287 million, and Charlie’s Angels in 2019.
It is the Charlie’s Angels experience that Banks returned to at length, describing her frustration at losing control of the film’s narrative to a media that was determined to frame it as a feminist statement rather than simply a big-budget action film.
“So much of the story that the media wanted to tell about Charlie’s Angels was that it was some feminist manifesto,” she recalled.
“I just loved the franchise. There was not this gendered agenda from me. That was very much laid on top of the work, and it was a little bit of a bummer. It felt like it pigeonholed me and the audience for the movie.”
When Clarkson asked whether being told she couldn’t direct men had simply fired her up to do exactly that, Banks’ answer was to-the-point.
“Yeah, of course!”
