Actress Elizabeth Banks and husband Max Handelman have been together for 27 years ― a veritable lifetime in Hollywood years.
It’s a track record even the “Charlie’s Angels” director is impressed with. In a new interview with Porter magazine, Banks talked about her relationship with Handelman, who she met on the first day of college at the the University of Pennsylvania in the early ’90s.
“Twenty-seven years. It’s the thing I’m most proud of,” she said of her marriage. “I do think people grow together or they grow apart. We definitely grew together. We were constantly making decisions that kept us close.”
One of those decisions? Working together. The pair, who married in 2003 and have two sons together ― Felix, 8 and Magnus, 7 ― launched Brownstone Productions, a film production company, in 2002. As Banks told Porter, Handelman worked in finance on Wall Street until she “dragged him into the industry.”
“He worked an 80-hour week; I was traveling all the time in a career that requires me to film on location for up to six months of the year,” she said. “Forming the company really was about trying to combine our professional and personal goals.”
Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman attend the premiere of Columbia Pictures' "Charlie's Angels" on Nov. 11, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Amy Sussman via Getty Images)
Since then, the college sweethearts have gone onto produce a number of films together, including all three “Pitch Perfect” movies and most recently a “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, which Banks directed and also stars in.
As for how they’ve kept their relationship going, Banks said it’s helped that she’s “a little traditional when it comes to marriage.”
“I think there are people that go into marriage thinking: ‘If it doesn’t work, I’ll get divorced.’ That’s not me,” she said. “You’re going to have bad moments. You’ve committed to something. Do you value it or don’t you?”
It doesn’t hurt that the pair are still really into each other. Considering what Banks told Allure in 2015, it sounds like that’s been the case from the start.
“I didn’t meet my husband and think, I’ve met the man I’m going to marry,” she told the magazine. “I was like, He’s cute. I’ll f— him, because I’m 18 and in college.”
“Really, what happened was I’ve never met anyone that I liked more,” she continued. “In the early years, did I have crushes or little interests here and there? I know my husband did, and so did I, but we stayed together. We still to this day take the long view.”
With Handelman, she said, “there’s love. And then there’s lust. So it’s great.”
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends AHA's Go Red For Women National Wear Red Day at Macy's Herald Square on February 3, 2012 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends the Premiere of Summit Entertainment's 'Man On A Ledge' at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 23, 2012 in Hollywood, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends The Cinema Society & Gilt Man with Grey Goose screening of 'Man on a Ledge' at the Tribeca Grand Hotel on January 19, 2012 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends the Cinema Society & Blackberry Bold screening of 'Haywire' at Landmark Sunshine Cinema on January 18, 2012 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks attends the 'Just A Little Heart Attack' Premiere Party at Abe & Arthur's on September 13, 2011 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actor Paul Rudd and actress Elizabeth Banks attend the after party for The Weinstein Company's 'Our Idiot Brother' on August 16, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives to the premiere of The Weinstein Company's 'Our Idiot Brother' on August 16, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre on August 7, 2011 in Universal City, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives at the BAFTA Brits To Watch event held at the Belasco Theatre on July 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends the 'Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty' Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2011 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives at Malaria No More Presents: Hollywood Bites Back! held at Club Nokia L.A. Live on April 16, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives at Malaria No More Presents: Hollywood Bites Back! held at Club Nokia L.A. Live on April 16, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends Nintendo 3DS exclusive launch event at Siren Studios on March 26, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 27: rives at the Vanity Fair Oscar party hosted by Graydon Carter held at Sunset Tower on February 27, 2011 in West Hollywood, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives at the Tom Ford Beverly Hills Flagship Store Opening on Rodeo Drive on February 24, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks poses for a portrait during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival at The Samsung Galaxy Tab Lift on January 23, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends 'My Idiot Brother' Premiere at the Eccles Center Theatre during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks attends the premiere of 'The Next Three Days' at Ziegfeld Theatre on November 9, 2010 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks attends the New York premiere of '127 Hours' at Chelsea Clearview Cinema on November 2, 2010 in New York City. (Getty)
Elizabeth Banks
Actress Elizabeth Banks arrives at Stand Up To Cancer held at Sony Pictures Studios on September 10, 2010 in Culver City, California. (Getty)
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