Elizabeth Banks Married Her College Sweetheart. They’re Still in Love.

Modern Love

The New York Times

Love, New York Times, Nytimes, Essay, Loss, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Redemption, Nyt

4.3 • 9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On her first day of college, Elizabeth Banks met a cute guy at a party. This was long before her roles in “Pitch Perfect” and “30 Rock.” A lot has changed, but 33 years later Banks is still with that same cute guy. In this episode of “Modern Love,” she tells our host, Anna Martin, about the intense conversations and difficult decisions that have kept her relationship alive. And, she reads “Making Space in Marriage, Even as the Walls Close In,” a Modern Love essay about a couple who crack open a stale marriage by leaping into Burning Man. Listen to and Follow ‘Modern Love’ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube |iHeartRadio Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We Want to Hear From You Email us at modernlovepodcast@nytimes.com. Here’s how to submit a Modern Love essay. Here’s how to submit a Tiny Love Story.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Love now and love.
0:03.0	Love was stronger than anything.
0:07.0	And I love you more than anything.
0:11.1	There's to love.
0:11.8	From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin.
0:16.4	This is Modern Love.
0:17.5	And today on the show, I'm talking to actor, producer, and director, Elizabeth Banks.
0:24.2	Elizabeth starred in some of the most iconic series of my teenage years. We've got Pitch Perfect,
0:30.2	the movies that put Acapella on the map, and maybe even did The Impossible, which is make
0:34.7	acapella cool. Also, The Hunger Games, which transformed a book series I
0:39.5	loved into a series of movies. I loved even more. On screen, Elizabeth's characters are kooky,
0:45.8	they can be brash. They're very big, which is why her new TV show, The Miniature Wife,
0:51.2	is so intriguing to me because her character is very small.
0:55.3	And I mean this literally. She's tiny. She plays a woman who is shrunk down to a minuscule
1:00.0	size by her scientist husband. It's absurd, but it tugs at a very real relationship problem.
1:07.0	This idea that our partners can make us feelrioritized and unimportant, they can make
1:12.6	us feel small. Today, Elizabeth tells me how she and her husband have avoided this dynamic,
1:19.2	from their start as college sweethearts who met on the very first day of freshman year to now
1:24.6	after 33 years of marriage.
1:38.3	Music to now after 33 years of marriage. Elizabeth Banks, welcome to modern love.
1:40.8	Thanks for having me. Hi.
1:42.8	Hi.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.