WhenElizabeth Banksset out to make aCharlie’s Angelsmoviefor the modern era, she wanted a lead actress with a unique blend of talent, notoriety and individuality who could help carry the iconic property in a new direction.
Banks, who directed, produced and wrote the film’s screenplay, in addition to playing an important supporting character, says she found all of that in starKristen Stewart.
“She came to set super game, so excited,” she says. “[Kristen] is a great leader, took the responsibility of being number one on the call sheet seriously, took the other ladies under her wings, showed the way. She did all the training, worked super hard and was a total pro and leader the entire time. I couldn’t ask for better partner to make the movie with than Kristen.”
Charlie’s Angels.
Banks has high praise for all three of her leading ladies.
“I’m a huge fan of all three women I cast,” she says. “Naomi Scott, I’d worked with inPower Rangers. She plays Princess Jasmine in Disney’sAladdinand I think you saw in that movie what I love about her, which is that she has a big, huge, open heart. She’s very relatable. And Ella Balinska is, I think she’s a unicorn,” theBrightburnstar admits with a laugh. “Ella is someone who just has incredible physicality. She’s six feet tall in her bare feet and exudes elegance, charm, grace. Everything you want out of someone.”
Banks is also excited about the uniqueness of the film, an action movie starring three women, that doesn’t involve super heroics.
Charlie’s Angelsdirector Elizabeth Banks.Chiabella James/Sony
“I wanted to celebrate the everyday woman who is out there fighting for herself,” she says. “We kept it really grounded. The women do a lot of their own stunts. And they fight, not just with their bodies, but with their wits and their resilience and their grit. And that is something that these women are showing off in spades in this film.”
Not to mention some very beautiful-but-functional clothing and cool-but-practical gadgets.
“Everything came from a real sense of practicality. They wear clothes that help them in action set pieces,” says Banks. “It was important to me when designing gadgets that they felt like things that everyday women would actually use, so the lipstick taser that’s in the purse. But we also give props to a good set of fingernails and some brass knuckles. What are every day objects that these women can just pick up and turn into something dangerous.
“It’s spyware, but make it fashion,” she adds with a smile.
Charlie’s Angelshits theaters November 15.
source: people.com
