We spoke to Elizabeth Banks about her new movie Skincare, where she plays an ambitious but anxiety-stricken beauty salon owner in Hollywood. It’s a deliciously dark study on the far reaches that business owners will go for the sake of success, especially in the crowded beauty industry in sunny, plastic Los Angeles. Between Skincare and Demi Moore’s new buzzy film The Substance, our perpetual striving for beautification is clearly a hot topic in Hollywood these days.
“There’s a lot to be said about aging and beauty and all of that right now, especially online, especially as it applies to social media and what it’s doing to our psyche about aging, as everything can be filtered and everybody can be Botoxed, and everything can be filled,” Banks told MoiveWeb. She went on to say:
“I think collectively,
we’re losing sight of the privilege and wisdom of aging
in a time when, you know,
our billionaires are going to
sleep in, like, oxygen chambers or something. You know what I mean? I understand we’ve always been obsessed with the fountain of youth, but I feel like we’re really obsessed with it right now. Collectively, it’s kind of insane.”
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‘Business Is a Cutthroat Business’
Skincare (2024)
- Release Date
- August 16, 2024
- Director
- Austin Peters
- Runtime
- 1h 37m
- Writers
- Sam Freilich , Austin Peters , Deering Regan
While weaving in pertinent themes about business and identity, Skincare paints a sometimes picturesque yet, at other times, grim picture of Hollywood, set specifically in the not-to-distant past. “It was so detailed in establishing this world in LA, you know, 10 to 15 years ago,” said Banks. “I love what we say in the movie, like, ‘Beauty is a cutthroat business; business is a cutthroat business.’ I love all those, like, really specific details. But at the end of the day, I think this movie is like an existential crisis that’s relatable on so many levels to so many people, no matter what industry you work in, right? That’s the ‘business is cutthroat business’ part of it.”
The life of Banks’ business owner character, Hope, is thrown for a loop in Skincare once a competing beautician named Angel (Luis Gerardo Méndez) sets up literally right across the street from her, promising de-aging products that might outmatch her Italy-produced gems. It also doesn’t help that Angel is noticeably younger than Hope.
Watch Our Skincare Interview with Elizabeth Banks
Banks tells us she related to Hope’s fear of fading away, saying, “This sense of irrelevance that this woman is facing in the face of, like, what is new and coming next, I feel like for me in my daily life, it’s happening, you know? I felt very connected to Hope Goldman, the character I play. She is an aging woman in an industry that prizes beauty and youth and the new above all else.” Adding:
“So I think we can all relate to that, especially right now, where the technology that we’re living with is all moving so quickly.
I feel like none of us feel like we’re totally on solid ground
. Like, the way we’re conducting this [virtual] interview is different than we would have done, you know, three years ago. And in two years, like, maybe I’ll just be an avatar of myself!”
From IFC Films, Skincare will be released exclusively in theaters on Friday.