In Hollywood, not everyone is the name they say they are. For example, did you know that Michael Keaton’s real name is Michael Douglas? Vin Diesel was also born Mark Sinclair Vincent, Judy Garland was actually Frances Ethel Gumm and Reese Witherspoon’s first name is actually Laura Jean. The latest I’m learning is that Elizabeth Banks isn’t actually Elizabeth Banks!
The actor and director may be known by Elizabeth Banks, but she was actually born Elizabeth Mitchell. She had to choose a stage name, because there was already another Elizabeth Mitchell by the time she was seeking her Screen Actors Guild membership. You might know the other Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet Burke in Lost or from Outer Banks, First Kill or The Santa Clauses. Anyways, here’s what she thinks of being known as a Banks now:
I think serendipity plays a big role in a lot of people’s lives, and that was just a little serendipitous moment: I actually think that ‘Banks’ was the perfect name, and I didn’t totally realize it until it was mine.
When Elizabeth Banks recently talked about her stage name with Elle, she said that she decided to stick with her first name because a friend had warned her not to pick anything too “unfamiliar” to her. In terms of her stage last name, she thought about going with her partner, Max Handelman’s surname, but wasn’t yet married to him at the time and didn’t want to “jinx it”.
Article continues belowShe came across “Banks” after looking over a number of options that she knew were available and being struck by the “brightness” of the name. Funny enough, her own mother used to work in a bank as well.
Learning how stage names come to be is always an interesting thing, but most of the time it has to do with SAG-AFTRA prohibiting its members from sharing identical working names in order to avoid confusion in credits, allow them to keep their own brand identities and more practical things like maintaining accurate payroll and residuals.
Other examples of popular stars with stage names are Emma Stone for example, who couldn’t officially use “Emily” despite preferring the name. And then there’s Brie Larson, who took inspiration from one of the American Dolls because she found her real last name Desaulniers to be hard to pronounce.
Elizabeth Banks’ latest role is as the star of the new Peacock series, The Miniature Wife. Her next movie is expected to be Signal Hill, a drama about the 1981 police brutality case centering on Johnnie Cochran (played by Anthony Mackie). It doesn’t have a release date yet, but it could land on the 2026 movie schedule. These days, one would have no idea that Elizabeth Banks isn’t really named as such, so clearly she picked well.
