Before she hit it big in Charlie’s Angels and The Hunger Games, Elizabeth Banks was out here scrubbing toilets and yanking condoms out of drains.
Yeah, really. The 51-year-old actress opened up on The Kelly Clarkson Show about one of her earliest, and nastiest, jobs working as a chambermaid at a bed and breakfast. And her stories are enough to make you rethink how you treat hotel bathrooms forever.
Banks didn’t sugarcoat it either. “I started working really young. I’ve done everything. I was a waitress for a decade. I also was a chambermaid at a bed and breakfast,” she told Kelly. But it wasn’t just about fluffing pillows and folding towels. She had to get her hands dirty, literally.
In her words, “Like the amount of condoms and tampons I had to dig out of toilets as a 17-year-old is shocking to me.”
She said it like someone who’s been through things, the kind of things most of us couldn’t stomach. And that’s why she used her time on TV to make a very real plea to the public. “Please stop flushing things other than TP down toilets,” she begged. Whether it’s a five-star hotel or a roadside motel, she wants you to know that flushing the wrong stuff wrecks plumbing, and someone, probably a teenager like she was, ends up dealing with the disgusting consequences.
But even with all the gross memories, Elizabeth doesn’t seem bitter. If anything, she thinks those early days gave her thick skin and grit that’s served her well in Hollywood. “Kelly, I can go anywhere. It’s not glamorous, this life you lead. You end up going to a lot of crazy places, and I’m like, “I’ve been worse’,” she said with a laugh.
That ability to shrug it all off? Total survivor energy. She’s not pretending like it was fun, but it clearly shaped how she sees the world. Elizabeth Banks’ hotel chambermaid story is one of those celeb tales that hits different because it’s so raw and real. No glam filters here, just condoms, tampons, and clogged toilets.
And the relatable mom side of her didn’t stop there. Banks also spoke about her two kids, Felix (14) and Magnus (12), and how they have zero desire to be actors like their mom. Talking to PEOPLE, she said, “If my kids decide to get into acting, which they have currently no interest in, then I would be thrilled to ever do anything with them if they would deign to hang out with me.”
Classic mom mood. Apparently, even A-list moms aren’t cool enough to hang with their teens, unless cash is involved. She joked, “It’s unlikely. In fact, it would have to be a paying job for them to actually want to hang out with me.”
And when her son actually gave acting a shot in a school play? He was way more into the reward than the applause. She told E! News, “My son was recently in a school play, and he said, ‘That was a lot of effort for flowers and some applause!’” Brutal honesty clearly runs in the family.
So, to sum it up: Elizabeth Banks didn’t just rise to the top overnight. She hustled hard, cleaned up some of the grossest things imaginable, and still made it in Hollywood. And now she’s out here trying to save the next generation of hotel chambermaids from the horrors of your plumbing crimes.
Take her advice: Don’t be that guest. Flush only what’s supposed to be flushed. Spare the teen cleaning your room the trauma. Trust Elizabeth on this one, she’s been there.
Jamie Wells has a knack for getting the inside scoop on Hollywood’s biggest stars and up-and-coming talent. With a sharp eye for industry trends and an ear for viral moments, Jamie covers everything from red-carpet events to behind-the-scenes drama in movies, TV, and celebrity culture.
