During an interview with Glamour U.K., actress Elizabeth Banks revealed that she was turned down for the role of Spider-Man's love interest Mary-Jane Watson in the original 2002 superhero flick because she was considered "too old."
The "Pitch Perfect" actress and director was only 28 years old when she auditioned for the role and was turned down despite being only about a year-and-a-half older than the film's male lead, Tobey Maguire. Kirsten Dunst, who is eight years younger than Banks, was later chosen to play Mary-Jane's character in the film.
"Tobey [Maguire] and I are basically the same age, and I was told I was too old to play her," Banks, now 42, told Glamour U.K "I was like, 'Oh, OK, that's what I've signed up for.'"
However, Banks screen-test did not go in vain as she bagged the supporting role of Betty Brant, a secretary working for the Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) and featured in all three films in the "Spider-Man" franchise.
In a 2008 interview, Banks said that the newspaper secretary's role was offered to her as a consolation prize. She added that she was a nobody back then and did not even expect to star in the movie but one day she received a call from the casting director.
"As a consolation prize essentially do you want to be Betty Brant?" he asked her.
"So it started out as a consolation prize and it's become a favor," Banks said.
This is not the first instance of an actress being discriminated against because of her age in Hollywood. Olivia Wilde recently revealed that she was turned down to play the role of Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in "Wolf of Wall Street" because she looked too old. Wilde is nine yours younger than DiCaprio. Maggie Gyllenhaal, 35, was also rejected for the same reason after she auditioned to portray a 55-year-old actor's lover.
Banks is the latest actress to speak out about age discrimination in Hollywood.
