Elizabeth Banks jokes about acting with giant props
Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen joke about not being able to work together in Miniature Wives and set up props.
New York, NY – I never expected to start my morning with a game of “Never Have I Ever” with Elizabeth Banks. But I was in a SoHo hotel restaurant with a group of 15 women, all sharing intimate details about sexual health.
The 52-year-old “Hunger Games” and “Pitch Perfect” actress has been a longtime women’s health advocate, using her platform to champion reproductive freedom and access to health care. She is partnering with Cadence OTC, a brand that offers over-the-counter emergency contraception and urinary tract infection (UTI) relief. She is an investor in the company.
“I’ve traveled all over the world, and I feel like the contraceptive system here is completely out of sync with women’s reality,” she tells me over coffee in the restaurant’s courtyard.
Banks just spent six months in Canada filming her new Peacock comedy series, The Miniature Wife, which she explains also embraces themes of female autonomy and “the minimization of wants and needs.”
When Banks tried to renew her contraceptive pills (which she uses to manage menopausal symptoms) in Canada, her doctor in her home country told her that she could only use them for one month at a time and that she would need to call her doctor every three months to refill her prescription.
“I was like, why are women so powerless when it comes to our health and our bodies when men don’t have to deal with it?” she says.
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson case overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. At the same time, research shows that states with the strictest abortion laws already have the weakest maternal health support.
For example, as of 2022, 52.5% of the population of Arkansas and 49.2% of the population of Oklahoma live in obstetric health care desert areas with no obstetric health care providers or birth centers. Both states have total bans on abortion, with limited exceptions. Data also shows that some doctors are deterred from practicing in states with abortion bans, and researchers warn of the impact on workforce sustainability and the availability of timely and accessible health care.
Banks said part of Cadence’s goal is to serve medical deserts by putting its contraceptives and urinary tract infection relief products in convenience stores like 7-Elevens rather than in pharmacies, where they already exist.
There are 150 counties in the United States with no pharmacies, and approximately 4.8 million people live in counties with approximately 1 pharmacy for every 10,000 residents.
The morning-after pill delays ovulation and prevents fertilization after unprotected sex. Cadence is currently working with the FDA to develop an over-the-counter drug to give people access to contraceptives without a prescription or insurance. You should talk to your doctor about which contraceptive method is right for you.
“Miniature wife” means “being made to feel small”
In the new TV series “Miniature Wife,” Banks will play Lindy Littlejohn, an underachieving novelist who marries Les (Matthew Macfadyen), a scientist on the verge of a big break. Les, already suffering from strain in his marriage, accidentally reduces Lindy’s height to six inches.
Banks has stated that this is not a literal reduction, but rather a minimization of the characters’ wants and needs.
“This feeling often makes women feel small, like what they want and care about is beneath them,” she says.
This is a pattern she sees “across cultures.” The films are called “women’s films” and women’s sports are given special coverage, while men’s sports are simply referred to as “sports.”
“It is important that we continue to work to change language, access and conversation, as it all leads to greater empowerment of women,” she added.
“It’s definitely menopausal symptoms.”
“I’m 52 years old, so it would be really weird if I’m still having kids,” Banks joked. But what comes with menopause, she says, are “incredible changes in physiology.”
She feels “grateful” to be experiencing these changes at a time when women’s health discussions are at the forefront compared to the stigma she experienced “just a generation” ago.
“We didn’t talk about these things,” she says. “The mothers passed on this information very quietly. We all read, ‘Is there a God? It’s Margaret,’ because we had to find a way to get our periods when we were 12 years old.”
“The conversation is finally happening because there are women who are financially and physically safe enough to speak up and say, ‘We need something,'” she says. ”
Elizabeth Banks taught her ex-girlfriend how to use emergency contraception
“Never Have I Ever” is typically performed by mischievous teenagers or drunken parties, but Banks used the song to break taboos on sex, sex education, and reproductive health. We had mimosas for brunch, and even though it wasn’t 10am yet, we ladies at the table were still divulging our personal experiences. For Banks, one of those awkward situations involved getting a call from her high school and college boyfriend asking if she could talk to his new girlfriend about emergency contraception.
Despite the uproar from the group, Banks said she helped the couple take the morning-after pill.
She further spoke about her difficulties obtaining oral contraceptives for hormone replacement therapy while traveling abroad.
“Even though I’m rich and famous and have access, I still have problems when it comes to healthcare,” she joked.
When women learn that these experiences and accidents are more common than we think, a sense of community develops, she says. But along with that friendship, Banks wants to see movement to remove barriers to health care for women.
“I want to remind young women not to take anything for granted,” Banks says. “I hate to use this word, but what patriarchy takes away from us is our time and energy, because it requires us to spend our time and energy on basic needs in a way that men don’t have to.”
