After her memorable role in The 40 Year Old Virgin, Elizabeth Banks is no stranger to comedy as Banks returns to her recurring 30 Rock character for the 30 Rock season finale. Although Elizabeth Banks will soon be seen with Russell Crowe in the Paul Haggis directed film, The Next Three Days, Banks steps back into 30 Rock on Thursday, May 20 for a love triangle between Jack (Alec Baldwin) and Nancy Donovan (Julianne Moore) and her CNBC anchor character, Avery Jessup.

For her latest appearance on 30 Rock, Elizabeth Banks joins big name guest stars Matt Damon and Michael Sheen along with SNL regular Jason Sudekis for “I Do Do” that sees Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon meet the man of her dreams.

Ahead of 30 Rock, we snagged a few brief minutes with Elizabeth Banks to find out more about “I Do Do”, her 30 Rock guest spot, and what it was like on the 30 Rock set with so many stars.

THE DEADBOLT: How do you view the love triangle between Avery, Jack and Nancy?

ELIZABETH BANKS: Well, the best thing about it is that I never see Nancy, so I don’t even know who – You know, Jack has not revealed to me who his other dalliances are with. I think Jack and Avery are both grownups and I’m sure Avery feels competitive with this person, which is why she sort of put it to Jack that he needed to decide. But she’s a big girl and she’ll get over it whatever ends up happening.

THE DEADBOLT: What was it like on set with Matt Damon, Will Forte, and Michael Sheen?

BANKS: It’s pretty great. There were a lot of Oscar nominees on the set that day. I actually did not work with Matt Damon because his schedule got a little messed up and he ended up coming in after we had wrapped the season to shoot just with Tina Fey. So we actually worked with this photo double on the days. So I did not meet Matt Damon.

Michael Sheen is a doll and I love Leslie. I think that’s a great character for him. I love him with Tina. I mean, Will Forte looks so amazing on the season finale, I can’t wait for people to see what he’s dressed as. I took about eight photos of myself with him because I’m just so excited to have evidence that I was there when he was dressed the way he’s going to be dressed Thursday night.

Since you spend so much time with Alec on the show what is it like working with him?

BANKS: Everyone wants to know that. I think he’s fantastic. First of all he’s so charming it’s sort of ridiculous. And I think he’s really working in a zone right now. His career is really amazing. I mean, he’s so funny and they’ve really done such a great job with the Jack Donaghy character for him. And he seems very delighted by Tina Fey and by the scripts. So I think he’s pretty happy there. They certainly make a big effort to keep him happy there. I hope he’s happy with me, too.

Do you ever see yourself settling down into a series or do you kind of like this dynamic of going back and forth between film and TV?

BANKS: I’m very happy going back and forth right now. I really love playing multiple characters. I’m not quite ready to commit to a single character for multiple years just yet. But that said, I never rule it out. Life is long, and you just never know, but it won’t be anytime soon.

In the season finale are we going to get to see a hint of Avery’s annual PMS retreat?

BANKS: There is no scene that takes place in the fenced in area in the Adirondacks. Unfortunately no. But I’m assuming it sort of comes from The Red Tent book, the Anita Diamant book, which is about how all the women whenever they get their period all have to go sit in the red tent and hang out with each other. I think that was the inspiration for the idea of the fenced in area. I’d love to see what other ladies are there.

How is everything going to come to a head, are you going to have a face-off with Julianne Moore?

BANKS: I will tell you that Julianne Moore and I do have a scene together. I don’t know if it’s quite the face-off that you’re expecting but we do have a scene together so we meet in the finale.

Is there any chance that Avery could come back next year or is this wrapping it up for her?

BANKS: I would say like with any show and especially this show you just never know year to year what the writer are going to decide they want to do or what direction they want to take things in. So it’s not quite wrapped up. It’s open-ended at the end of the season as to what’s going to happen.

Well we recently saw Avery at an event with Jack and they hollered, “Hey Chelsea Handler, look over here.” Was that something that you had a hand in?

BANKS: Well, I’m friendly with the writing staff on this show and there was a piece on my Twitter page about Chris Rock referring to me as Chelsea Handler. It was a call-back to that because then I think Star Magazine or something put – I’ll tell you what. I get called Chelsea [and] I get confused with Chelsea Handler often enough that we felt like it was a funny joke to put in the show.

And speaking of Twitter, it’s a big part of promotion for TV shows and movies. You’re an active participant on Twitter; why is that so important for you?

BANKS: I just like having a direct connection to my fans. That’s why I think Twitter is so [powerful[. To me the power of Twitter is that. And the great thing about Twitter, which the other social networks don't have, is there's no expectation of returning anyone's Tweet to me. Most the people who Tweet to me I actually read their Tweets. But I'm a busy person and I don't have the time or the inclination to respond to everybody. And the great thing about Twitter is that there's no expectation to respond whereas if you're on Facebook, it's like why don't you friend me you bitch. And I'm like, great. I don't really want to be called a bitch on Facebook, so I'm not going to do that anymore.

I'm curious to know what it's like coming into a show that has such a specific sensibility as 30 Rock and how you try and get into the groove with the regulars who have been there for ...

BANKS: Yeah, you bring up a good point which is that 30 Rock has a rhythm that is unlike most typical sitcoms. And it really is all about sort of falling into that rhythm. I mean, the pacing on that show is - I think [Alice] referred to it Cheetah pace. And I would say that’s true. You know, they don’t pause for any jokes. There’s no like ba-da-bump punch line, it’s very much blink and you miss it on that show. And I happen to have that sensibility. I think the writers knew that when they were writing the material. And it was a very easy transition for me. But you really do have to be aware of the rhythm of the show and how to fall into it properly.

From The Deadbolt

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.