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Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
Two words come to mind for Elizabeth Banks after her showdown with shingles: “Not fun.”
The “Hunger Games” and “Pitch Perfect” actress and director actually missed work for the first time in her career when the vaccine-preventable illness didn’t clear up quick enough. Shingles is an infection caused by the same virus that leads to chickenpox, the varicella zoster virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the most common symptom is a painful, itchy rash. It rattled the 51-year-old.
“That was a huge wake up call, because I take a lot of pride in staying healthy while I’m working,” she says over a phone call. She got the shingles vaccine after, which is recommended for adults 50 years and older.
That also inspired her to stay up-to-date on other vaccinations, including the pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine, which was recently recommended for adults as young as 50 instead of 65 and older. She’s partnering with Pfizer to get the word out that, compared to 18 to 49-year-olds, those 50 or older have a more than six-times greater risk of contracting pneumococcal pneumonia.
Banks is also going through perimenopause, the transition into menopause, which offered her the opportunity to evaluate her health and lifestyle. She plans to stick around not just for as long as possible, but as healthy as possible, too, for her family’s sake. Banks has two teenage sons with husband Max Handelman.
“People are worried in middle age about coming down with the things that kill us,” she says. “We don’t want cancer, we don’t want heart disease. We don’t want pulmonary disease. Those are the things that I’m really focused on too, just making sure that I’m watching out for everything. I want to be around for a long time for my kids.”
Elizabeth Banks talks perimenopause and ‘FOMO’
Banks’ perimenopause symptoms weren’t atypical, including brain fog, high emotions and bouts of rage, but they scared her nonetheless. “I thought, ‘Who is this person inside of me? This isn’t really me,’ and then it became obvious what was happening,” she says, adding “it’s gonna happen to every woman. So I’m by no means unique. I didn’t have particularly unique symptoms, and I’m really happy that I was able to talk to my healthcare provider about getting the help that I needed.”
She’s working out more, eating better and going to bed at 9:30 or 10 p.m. instead of midnight. She’s spending time at wellness spas and thinking about longevity like everyone else. Turning 50 last year was way easier than turning 40.
“I felt like I had spent my time learning in my 20s and 30s, and I really feel like I’m in my earning period right now, like where you don’t have that imposter syndrome anymore, where you are sort of in your power in a way that you’ve never felt before,” she says. “And I think you give up a lot of the holding on to the ‘FOMO’ and being young.”
Elizabeth Banks cherishes time with her kids
Now, Banks wouldn’t miss out walking her dog, a schnauzer-poodle-terrier mix named Saucer, with her kids. “The dog walk is a sort of integral part of our daily life,” she says, where she loves hearing about her kids’ days. They’re also bingeing “Severance” on Apple TV+ and plan to start Netflix’s “The Residence” soon, too.
Banks struggled with infertility, making this time with her children that much more special. “Anybody who opens that conversation with me, I’m always happy to have it, and I feel like that’s been true of most people that I’ve talked to as well,” she says. “But you got to bring it up. So if you need help or you want information, seek it out. It’s there for you.”
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