Actress Elizabeth Banks revealed she had a “scary” choking experience recently on the set of her new movie “Skincare.”
The Emmy-nominated actress was eating lunch in her trailer by herself when suddenly she couldn’t breathe.
“I was choking on a pea,” she told Good Morning America. “I was alone in my trailer. I threw the door open, couldn’t make any noise—I was so afraid. It was terrifying.”
A crew member who happened to pass by noticed the actress in distress and asked if she was choking.
“I gave him the sign,” she said, holding both her thumbs up, “I was like—yes. He came over very calmly. I backed right into him. He gave me the Heimlich maneuver.”
“He had to do it twice … it came loose.”
“His name is Julius,” she said, with a big smile on her face. “He’s my guardian angel, saved my life, literally.”
The 50-year-old actress said this was her “first-ever choking incident.” She said she has been using every opportunity since to advise people to learn the Heimlich manoeuver.
“There’s tons of videos about it, it’s really easy,” she told viewers, adding that people shouldn’t be afraid to apply the maneuver out of fear of hurting someone or cracking a rib.
“They’re dying!” she exclaimed. “So crack their rib if you have to—I would have been fine with a cracked rib. I literally couldn’t breathe. It was super scary, so yeah… learn the Heimlich manoeuver.”
Banks was invited to the studio to talk about the sixth season of her game show “Press Your Luck,” which aired on July 18.
The actress shared her delight in hosting the show.
“We do an incredible job personalizing prizes for people,” She said. “We had a guy who had been in a car accident two weeks earlier … his car was totaled, he shows up at the show and he wins a new car. That’s the kind of set-up pay-off that we get to do all the time.”
“I just love being there for my contestants,” she added. “It’s so fun.”
The Hunger Games and Pitch Perfect star also shared some details about her upcoming movie “Skincare.” It tells the story of a successful Los Angeles aesthetician whose personal and professional life becomes threatened when a rival skincare boutique opens across the street from her.
Banks plays Hope Goldman, a character who she described as “old school in a very new world.”
“She’s just like a little, you know, opened a shop 25 years ago and really gets taken advantage of by young people who are like, ‘You need to be on Instagram and you need to do it this way,’ and sort of dox her and mess with her and she loses her mind while she tries to stay relevant,” Banks said.
The movie, set to be released on Aug. 16, is directed by Austin Peters. The script is loosely based on the story of celebrity facialist Dawn DaLuise, who was accused of a murder-for-hire plot against a rival aesthetician. A jury found her not guilty.