Already a friend of Hunger Games director Gary Ross’s and a huge fan of the books, Banks said she actively campaigned for the role of outlandish Capitol District 12 representative Effie Trinket. Banks told EW that she pitched Ross that Effie “drank the Kool-Aid. Essentially she’s a villain—a really fun villain, but a villain nonetheless. The challenges for me were how to make her theatrical and larger than life but also fit into the tone of this movie, which is very serious.”