Last week, nearly every single late-night host—along with the ladies of The View—opened their respective shows by mocking Donald Trump’s dramatic, fog-fueled “We Are the Champions” entrance at the Republican National Convention. But actress Elizabeth Banks was the first to do so at the DNC.
Tuesday evening, Banks slowly made her way onto the stage through light and fog to that classic Queen song, just as Trump did on night one of his convention.
“Some of you know me from The Hunger Games, in which I play Effie Trinket,” Banks said from the podium, “a cruel, out-of-touch reality TV star who wears insane wigs while delivering long-winded speeches to a violent dystopia. So when I tuned into Cleveland last week I was like, ‘Uh, hey, that’s my act!’”
ADVERTISEMENT
After that line, Banks turned more serious, telling the crowd why she is voting for Hillary Clinton. She talked about how her parents “struggled” to raise her and three other children and thanked Democrats for building the social programs that allowed her family to get by.
Banks had the honor to play another former first lady when she portrayed Laura Bush in Oliver Stone’s 2008 George W. Bush biopic W. Before she shot that movie, Banks told Entertainment Weekly, “I’m really not looking at it from a political perspective, particularly. I think Laura is very even-keeled and a great supporter of her husband, which as first lady and his wife is probably the right move. So I will be honoring that. I guess I would say that, overall, that’s my hope—that I honor Laura Bush with my performance.”
But as she learned years later, the Bush family was not very fond of that performance. When she approached Jenna and Barbara Bush at an event last year, she says they gave her the “cold shoulder.” As Banks told Yahoo News, “We made an unauthorized biography of their parents. I totally get it.”
