AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The new prime video series "The Better Sister" is a murder mystery with a lot of twists - so many twists, in fact, that you can easily lose track.
ELIZABETH BANKS: Nicky and her estranged sister, Chloe, are being brought back together by the murder of our - what I like to call our co-husband, Adam. We share - (laughter) we share a husband. So I was married to a man. We broke up, and now my sister is married to him and raising my son with him. That is a very complicated story.
RASCOE: That's one of the show's stars, Elizabeth Banks, who plays Nicky, a struggling alcoholic. Her sister, Chloe, a successful magazine editor, is played by Jessica Biel. Amid all the family drama, Banks says there's definitely one plot point she can relate to.
BANKS: You know, it's funny. I have sisters, and I will say, one of the things that would break us up probably is one of us sleeping with another one of our husbands.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Yeah, that would be - that's hard to get over.
BANKS: That would estrange us.
RASCOE: Yes, that would (laughter)...
BANKS: It's hard to get over.
RASCOE: It's hard to get over. Well, and so it's a messy situation, and Nicky is kind of a bit of a mess in the show. She's dealing with addiction. She hasn't had her life all together. The title of the show is "The Better Sister." How do you think that dynamic of being always compared to Chloe impacted Nicky's life?
BANKS: I think these are two people, as you say, who just - the road split, and they each walked a different path. And Nicky fell into addiction and has been dealing with her sobriety for a long time, and Chloe is somebody who just always wanted to get out of her small town, very ambitious, was going to have a big life, you know, dreamed of that and is making it come true. What I found really fascinating, though, is they're both women who society would deem bad in a lot of ways. You know, a bad mom who loses her kid - I mean, that is a villain every time.
RASCOE: Yeah.
BANKS: And an ambitious woman who's striving to reach the top always has a target on their back. And so I felt like there actually were some really interesting connection points, despite how different their lives are.
RASCOE: How did you two work on getting that chemistry? And I guess at first, it's the chemistry, but it's like a - the fighting side of the chemistry, right?
(LAUGHTER)
BANKS: Well, what siblings don't fight, Ayesha?
RASCOE: Exactly. That's why - so it is sibling chemistry, right?
BANKS: It really is. I have two boys, and Jessica also is a boy mom with two boys. And, you know, we were both saying that kids - their sibling is, like, the person they can fight safely with, right? They can work out a lot of things because at the end of the day, that person is not going to leave. They're - they are going to love you. So you can work out a lot of things with your siblings that you can't work out with other people. I'm fascinated by sibling dynamics. I've always studied it. I'm the oldest of four, and all four of us have very different lives. And so I find it really fascinating that we grew up with the same parents in the same house and all do completely and utterly different things.
RASCOE: You talked about how kids can grow up, like, in the same home but have such different childhoods. Is that something that you've thought about, especially, like, with this show?
BANKS: I do think it's right on that not every child gets the exact same version of their parents. I mean, I don't even think twins get the same version...
RASCOE: No.
BANKS: ...Of their parents.
RASCOE: Yeah. Yeah.
BANKS: We're - you know, that's the human condition, you know? We have these bonds with people. We build them through experience. And if you have different experiences with your children, you're going to have different kinds of bonds. It doesn't mean - there's no judgment on the level of love. Do you know what I mean? It's just - it's different.
RASCOE: You talked about how Nicky struggles with addiction and alcoholism. And so talk to me about your prep for that 'cause, obviously, that's something that is often explored in TV shows and movies. But what did you want to do maybe differently with this portrayal of addiction?
BANKS: The first thing I did was I thought about my own sobriety, and I got sober for a few of the months that we were shooting in New York City, which was hard. (Laughter) I really - I have a wine company. I enjoy drinking. I'm a social drinker. And it really made me focus on, like, oh, when I drink, why I drink, when I feel pressure to do it, when I don't, how social it makes me feel or doesn't. And I was much more mindful about all my choices.
RASCOE: The thing about Nicky - she can be biting, funny. You played a lot of characters in the past that also say and kind of do what's on their mind, like "30 Rock," with "The Hunger Games." Is that a blessing for you as an actor, to be able to do that?
BANKS: (Laughter) Playing characters who aren't worried about consequences in what they say is always really fun. I think it's because it's what everybody secretly wishes they could do every day - right? - like, just truth tell and have the right turn of phrase and be funny in the moment. And we all want that skill, but it's - socially, we don't do that, you know? We don't call out people.
RASCOE: No, no, we just hold it in and seethe about it then go home and drink (laughter).
BANKS: Exactly. Yeah, push it down deep inside of us.
RASCOE: You grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, right?
BANKS: Yes, I did. Yeah, proud Pittsfield native.
RASCOE: How did you get into acting growing up there?
BANKS: I literally fell into acting as a child. I played sports, and I slid into third base, and I broke my leg, spiral fractured my tibia and fibula and ended up in a walking cast and - for months and months. And so, I got asked to be in "Jesus Christ Superstar." I played Pontius Pilate because I could wear long robes over my walking cast. And I was a latchkey kid. My parents worked. I needed things to do after school, and that became, like, my after-school activity.
RASCOE: So I did want to follow up and ask one question. I mean, I guess, what do you want the audience to think about sisterhood after seeing this show?
BANKS: Yeah, I think that whodunits are really fun entertainment. They...
RASCOE: Yes.
BANKS: ...Invite the audience into them, you know, right? Everyone's trying to pick up the clues and figure out who did it, who did the murder. But you rarely see these with the central relationship being sisterhood, and that really appealed to me. As a sister, a lot of my work has themes of sisterhood. So "Pitch Perfect" is about a group of women who work together to win a singing competition. That is sisterhood. It's about a sorority, literally. "Charlie's Angels," the film I made, is about a sorority of women.
BANKS: This is a theme that I really love and really loved exploring in this series.
RASCOE: That's Elizabeth Banks. She stars in the new Prime video series "The Better Sister." Thank you so much for joining us.
BANKS: Thanks for your interest. Take care. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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