After wowing audiences earlier this year with her dead-on portrayal of the bizarre Effie Trinket in the smash dystopian thriller "The Hunger Games," actress Elizabeth Banks admits as she's getting ready for the release of her latest film "People Like Us" that she's still looking for a way to describe the feelings on playing the District 12 escort.

"There really are not words," Banks told me, laughing, in a recent interview. "To be embraced by so many people around the world -- it's a big thrill. I do this job to entertain people, so to entertain that many people is pretty exciting."

Banks is especially thrilled to have the chance to entertain people again, and in dramatic fashion, no less, in "People Like Us," the directorial debut of acclaimed screenwriter Alex Kurtzman.

Opening in theaters Friday, "People Like Us" strips away all the glam makeup hair and fashion that defined Effie in "The Hunger Games" and bares the soul of a character that is easily Banks' most emotionally satisfying portrayal to date.

Chris Pine plays Sam in "People Like Us," a fast-talking, New York corporate hustler who, after his estranged father, Jerry, dies, reluctantly returns home to California to no more than put in appearance for the sake of his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer). But instead of making a quick exit home with his girlfriend (Olivia Wilde), Sam, per his father's will, is tasked with delivering $150,000 in cash to Frankie (Banks) -- a half-sister he never knew he had.

Once Sam locates Frankie, he finds a way to befriend the struggling single mother, but doesn't have the heart to tell the truth about their father -- especially when she reveals that Jerry was a big part of her life until the time she was 8 years old, only to abandoned her and her mother without warning. Sam longs to tell Frankie the truth, but is afraid if he reveals that his family the reason he left, it will destroy any chance of the two siblings ever becoming a family.

Banks said while the Sam and Frankie's circumstances are a little more extraordinary in "People Like Us," audiences will empathize with their characters just the same.

"Even if you can't relate to this scenario, most people feel like their parents damaged them a little bit," Banks said, laughing. "It just goes along with the territory. You can either forgive your parents and recognize that they were doing the best they knew how in the circumstances they were in, or you don't. You don't need your past to determine your future. Hopefully you can move on with grace and forgiveness."

Mostly a drama with some humor mixed in, "People Like Us" marks somewhat a change in direction for Banks, who, before her work in "The Hunger Games," was mostly known for her work in comedies like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" and most recently, "What to Expect When You're Expecting."

"Frankie's a very, full and complex character, that's what I look for, always. Some of the characters I play just happen to have fewer layers," Banks said. "I'm always looking for characters that I can relate to and hook in to, and I recognized Frankie right away. I know a lot of struggling single moms including my sister. But Frankie somebody who is a survivor who has difficultly asking for help whose been disappointed by a lot of people in her life. I not only wanted, but needed, to tell her story."