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Elizabeth Banks on Working with a First Time Director: “I wouldn’t say I have qualms, you know? Every first-timer sort of makes…it’s always a different situation. You want to work with a first-time director in the best circumstance, meaning that you want to work with them with great producers - which we had on this film. People who sort of know how to get a great movie out of young talent. How to form talent.

I mean Chris, he’s very mature for his age and he went to film school and he had such strong vision for this, he was so prepared, and so just meeting him put to rest any concerns I would have about him as a first time director. He really doesn’t seem like a first time director.

To be honest with you, since Glenn Close had already sort of said of said, ‘Ok, I’m gonna go with this guy,’ who was I to say I don’t know? As long as she had confidence in him, I mean that sort of set the tone for everybody else.”

Elizabeth Banks on the Attraction of “Heights:” “I thought the material looked really good, I thought the character was really interesting. Merchant Ivory was a huge plus. It was a great role for me personally - and Glenn Close was in it. Those were all huge, huge plusses. It really was that combination of things that led me to want to do the film.”

Working with a Large Ensemble Cast: Occasionally when movies involve an ensemble cast the size of the one in “Heights,” a few characters will suffer because they get lost in the mix.

Banks said she never worried about that with “Heights.” “I felt like it was a story about five people so I wasn’t, I didn’t really have any ego about it in terms of getting lost. I figured that they were going to put together the movie, the story that made the most sense and the movie that made the most sense, or the takes that made the most sense for whatever vision Chris had for the movie. And I thought he did a great job,” said Banks.

Bonding with the Cast: “There was a little bit of rehearsal period but honestly, we just got along so well from the get-go. James [Marsden] is hilariously funny and very self-deprecating and just a sweetheart, and the same really for everybody. The bond was a lot of trust right off the bat because we sort of were in a situation where we all respected each other’s talents. And that served as a great basis for trust. You can go a long way with people as long as you respect them, and we had a lot of respect for each other right off the bat. And then we just had a great time after that.”

Leaving It All Behind at the End of the Day: Banks’ role is one of the most emotionally draining of the film. Not all actors can leave everything on the set when they call it a night, and Banks said for her it all depends on the day. “Mostly I can but…there was sort of a melancholy, I think, to Isabel that definitely sort of overtook me a little bit when I was making this movie. Which I was glad for, because I think it adds a layer of something to her. I just wanted her to have a lot of levels. I think that Chris pulled a lot of that out of me and it was in the writing as well. And then also sort of in the setting and just in dealing with, ‘Hey, you’re on the streets in New York City and you’ve gotta cross, and there might be a cab coming.’ We didn’t have like closed sets. We were really on the streets and up on rooftops in New York. So you have a lot of things working in your favor to not be too in your head about anything. You know, you’re worried about traffic. You’re worried about real things, which is nice.”

New York as a Character in “Heights:” “I think it is a kind of quintessential New York story. I think they did such a great job finding like the hotels in Times Square and the theater districts and downtown. And you know, Diana’s balcony of her house looks down on like the World Trade Center site, and so I think we were really trying to just show New York in all its glory. Could it take place other places? Sure, it would be a different film. It could be in London, I guess, but there aren’t really many other places that have that sense of like the theater and these grand apartments and these types of people and these types of parties. There are a couple parties in the film and I just love that. Having lived in New York, I believed everything about the movie.”

PAGE 3:Elizabeth Banks on Working with Glenn Close and the Strong Female Characters in "Heights"