Back in March, Elizabeth Banks and her husband, Max Handelman, welcomed a son named Felix through surrogacy. At the time, Elizabeth released a pretty awesome statement showing much appreciation for her surrogate. She also talked about infertility, and she elaborates more on the topic in the February issue of Lucky magazine, which she covers to promote the upcoming Man on a Ledge. In the movie, Elizabeth does all of her own stunts because she admits to liking heights. Of course, this is another busy year for the actress, since she’s also got What to Expect When You’re Expecting in the can as well as a role in The Hunger Games. That last one is of particular interest in this interview:

On Playing Effie Trinket In Hunger Games: Playing the upbeat mentor to children who battle to the death on live television, she sports shaved eyebrows, cotton-candy hair and a bleached-white face that emphasizes every wrinkle. And then there’s Banks’ special contribution, the voice, which sounds like a demented ’50s schoolmarm: “It’s based on my heroes, Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame and Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.”

On Growing Up Blue Collar: She was never really a girly girl. “We played baseball and fixed cars, because that’s what Dad liked to do with us,” she says. Fun was “jamming a stick into a beehive and running.” With a mess of frizzy curls and bad acne, she was not cheerleader-perfect. “I’m so glad those photos from the ’80s haven’t surfaced on the Internet yet!”

On Her Husband: Banks [met] her future husband-writer and former investment banking analyst Max Handelman-on her very first day of college. “He looked like Jason Priestley in 90210, and he was wearing a vest with no shirt underneath, a look that was incredibly cool in the fashion world for about 10 minutes.” Today they run their own production company, Brownstone Productions, and work on scripts together. Their latest sale is a TV show called Dave’s Dead: “It’s a buddy comedy. It’s basically Two and a Half Men but if Charlie Sheen were dead and constantly in a different body.”

On Using A Surrogate: “It was a womb issue for me. Embryos wouldn’t implant,” she says. Banks is passionate and grateful about her own surrogacy experience. “It’s a big leap, inviting this person into your life to do this amazing, important thing for you. And it’s hard losing that kind of control. But our surrogate is so extraordinary, and she’s still in our lives. She’s like an auntie.”

On Her Future Parenting: “My plan is that when Felix is 15, we’ll go skydiving together. I mean, the guy is fierce and fearless, and I’m hoping he stays that way. Because I want to be that mom.” That’s right-not the glamour-puss, movie star, beauty icon mother. She gives me a slightly maniacal sidelong glance. “The one who takes her kid skydiving.”

[From Lucky mag]

Elizabeth is so damn likeable, isn’t she? That is, even if the new television show that she and her husband are working on sounds perfectly dreadful. Still, I do admire her statements about surrogacy, and it’s remarkable that Elizabeth and her husband have kept her around as part of the family, so to speak. That’s much classier than, say, merely cutting a check and arranging for transport away from the hospital delivery room. Still, it’s gotta take a lot of self-confidence to invite a surrogate to stick around afterwards. I’d probably be completely jealous of potential competitive bonding, but it sounds like the situation here is well under control.

Photos courtesy of Lucky