Actress Elizabeth Banks (REUTERS)
They’re both blonde with flawless figures and an unmistakably sharp wit, and it seems actress Elizabeth Banks takes full advantage of her uncanny likeness to comedian Chelsea Handler.
“I don’t mind being compared to Chelsea Handler at all. It helps me when someone says, ‘oh, you’re Chelsea Handler’ and I say ‘yes I am.’ That gives me one more gain of anonymity,” Banks told FOX411’s Pop Tarts, while promoting her new film “People Like Us,” which opens in theaters Friday. “We met at a party and we were both aware people compared or confused us. She’s a great broad, a real wit.”
And although Banks is fast becoming one of the big-banking Hollywood screen stars with a recurring role in “30 Rock” and a much-coveted part in “The Hunger Games,” it turns out that she turned to acting only as a result of a severe sporting injury.
“I broke my leg sliding into third base at softball practice. I was a good softball player and I needed something else to do after school, and I couldn’t run anymore so I started singing in the school choir and ended up in a production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’” she continued. “Not playing Mary Magdalene, but playing Pontius Pilate so I could wear a long flowing robe over my walking cast. That was it – I was bit by the bug.”
But when she isn’t busy on a movie set, or pretending to be Ms. Handler, Banks is leading the charge as the new spokesperson for Nestlé's new Girl Scout Crunch Girl Scout bars.
“I was a Girl Scout and a Brownie. The organization is amazing, you learn lifelong skills,” she added. “I went camping for the first time and learned how to ride a horse and canoe. My sister and I were very competitive so when we had to sell cookies, it was always about who could sell the most.”
Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.
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