Elle Fanning has been endorsed by Elizabeth Banks to play young Effie Trinket in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping.
At the premiere of her new Peacock series, Miniature Wives, on Monday night, when asked what she thought of Fanning in the trailer for Sunrise, Banks said: “I think she’s perfect casting. I’ve always said that. The fans loved it and wanted it, so I was really happy.”
Fanning previously told The Hollywood Reporter that Banks congratulated her on her appearance with a bouquet of flowers, a message with the film’s iconic phrase, “May the odds be in your favor,” and a sign that read, “With Love, Elizabeth Banks.”
In the Francis Lawrence-directed prequel, Effie, played by Banks in the original four Hunger Games films, works as District 12’s tribute Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada)’s stylist for the 50th Hunger Games.
An adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, the film’s cast includes Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle, Billy Porter as her estranged husband, Whitney Peake as Lenore Dove Baird, McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemmons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Maya Hawke as Wyers, and Kelvin Harrison. Junior as Beatty, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wan as Wyatt, and Ralph Fiennes as President Snow. Molly McCann also stars as Louella, while Iona Bell plays Lou Lou, a lookalike assigned to her by the Houses of Parliament.
Original series stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are also set to appear in the film.
In Miniature Wife, Banks plays a woman who is accidentally shrunk to six inches by her scientist husband, played by Matthew Macfadyen. “They pitched it to me as ‘War of the Roses,’ and she’s 6 inches tall. I thought that was very interesting,” Banks said. “I loved the theme of minimizing a partner’s emotions and their wants and needs and everything else. And I thought this was a great opportunity to use an absurdist lens to really dissect those kinds of dynamics in a relationship.”
She admitted that she was worried about how real she would look while she was little. “I was relieved that the CGI looked just as good,” Banks said. “I was so worried that it wouldn’t look like I was really there. Honestly, no matter how many times I was told it would be okay, I can’t even imagine.”
Her co-stars used 6-inch dolls as stand-ins for her characters. “I was basically 3D printed from a human being just like me,” Bank said. “What I’m trying to say is that this was probably the least mentally prepared I was for this job, because I didn’t realize how much solo work I was going to be doing and how vulnerable it was to have to imagine everything on my own. It’s really scary.”
All 10 episodes of “The Miniature Wife” will premiere on Peacock on April 9th.
