By: debbie lynn elias
For self-described die-hard HUNGER GAMES fan, Elizabeth Banks, the first word that comes to her mind on tackling the role of Effie Trinket is “fun.” The second, “transformative.” “It’s really fun to watch yourself disappear in the movie every day, and watch Effie appear. It required a full transformation. I never knew how old she was, in reading the book. She could be 30, or she could be 100. I imagine, in the future, life expectancy is long and they use crazy plastic surgery. Who the hell knows what’s going on? So, I really wanted her to be ageless. Gary’s [Ross] one real note was, ‘I imagine Joel Grey in Cabaret for her face.’ That was our jumping off point, and why we ended up with the rough skin and the gnarliness of that.”
Fortunately for Banks, Judianna Makovsky, who did the costumes on Seabiscuit in which Banks stars, was called on again by director Gary Ross, this time to bring the world of Panem to life, with Effie being one of the design showstoppers. Once Makovsky was on board, “She called me immediately and said, ‘Come to the studio. I want to show you what I’m looking at.’” As testament to Makovsky’s vision and talent, “All of [Effie’s] costumes are handmade. She has one of those dress forms of me, which is weird, in her studio. She had reference boards all the way around the room, and it was great. We looked at Kabuki, a lot of Christian Dior, Marie Antoinette, all these crazy adornments, and just really crazy, cool stuff.”
Despite the opulence and over-the-top persona and appearance of Effie, Banks “[N]ever wanted Effie to be a clown. I really wanted her to be three-dimensional. She represents the Capitol, in every way. Not just in the way that she dresses, but in her attitude. . .My looks get a little more outrageous, as the movie goes on. Once we’re in the Capitol, then it was whatever I wanted to do. But, for the Reaping, it was very specific. I was really nervous because, in the book, [Effie] has pink hair and she wears a green suit to the Reaping. I thought, ‘The fans are gonna die if she’s not in a green suit at the Reaping.’ And we had a green suit that I didn’t end up wearing because once we looked at the color pallette of the day and the background and everything, that fuschia was better. That was the right decision. It’s perfect for that moment. The green was wrong. It was too much nature, too early. That’s Katniss’ thing, at the beginning of the movie, and you don’t want Effie stepping on it too soon. Gary is really fucking brilliant about that stuff.”
One of the interesting focal points in Effie’s look are her fingernails. Designed to match each outfit and occasion, they are deliciously long and as I surmised and Banks confirmed, very problematic when it comes to functionality. “I literally didn’t function. I had ladies-in-waiting that did everything for me. I couldn’t type on my phone. I couldn’t go to the bathroom. I couldn’t get in and out of [the costume]. By the time I got to the lunch line, everybody was back in their trailers, done with lunch. I was like, ‘There’s no one to eat with! I just got here!’ It took me 25 minutes to get in and out of my costume. My lunch hour was a full 10 minutes of eating, and that’s it. But, it was fine.”
But despite the difficulties of opulence and over-the-top kaleidoscopic glamour, there is one thing that Banks is most excited about. “There are going to be a lot of Effies for Halloween!”
#
