Elizabeth Banks' Transformation From Wet Hot American Summer To Cocaine Bear

With her directorial debut in the rearview, Elizabeth Banks' filmmaking ambitions only grew as the 2010s treaded towards a close. In 2019 she helmed a reboot of the "Charlie's Angels" franchise starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska as the new trio of femme fatales. The franchise began as a TV show in the late 1970s, before gaining further attention with a pair of films in the 2000s starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu.

For her reboot, Banks threw everything she had into the film, writing its script and also starring as Bosley, the assistant to the unseen Charlie. The film's marketing was extensive, featuring an original song by Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, and Ariana Grande, the latter of whom also executive produced the film's official soundtrack. Sadly, the film grossly underperformed at the box office and reviews criticized its pacing and formulaic nature. Nevertheless, praise was reserved for Banks' direction and Kristen Stewart's performance. 

In retrospect, Banks looks at the film's failure as a learning opportunity. In an interview with The New York Times, she attributed that failure to its marketing, claiming, "There was a story around 'Charlie's Angels' that I was creating some feminist manifesto. I was just making an action movie." However, she wouldn't let one film's underperformance deter her from the action movie genre.