Elizabeth Banks Talks Beauty Thriller-Noir Skincare & Her Own Facial Secrets

In the film Skincare, Elizabeth Banks plays a woman on the brink of a breakdown. Hope Goldman is an aging celebrity aesthetician with old-school networking tactics; she hands out business cards, samples to strangers, and, as Banks tells me in a recent interview, “her passwords are, like, her initials, and 1, 2, 3, 4.” Hope, who is desperate to keep her product line and facial studio afloat, begins to unravel once a hot, young aesthetician named Angel Vergara (played by Luis Gerardo Méndez) moves into the storefront across from hers. To add to her stress, Hope is being stalked and harassed by a mysterious hacker who’s doxing her by creating hyper-sexual ads on Craigslist that include her actual contact information and posting pictures of Hope in her underwear on the Internet.

The movie, directed by Austin Peters and distributed by IFC Films, takes place in Hollywood circa 2013. “That was the beginning of Instagram, and revenge porn,” Banks notes. “That was really new in the culture. Certainly it was not being regulated by anyone. It was such an interesting time for women in L.A. especially.” Skincare has the pacing of a thriller, and many noir elements that’ll leave your heart racing—an aspect that Banks enjoyed most. “Hope’s becoming more and more desperate. And you know violence is coming, but you’re not sure what’s going to happen,” she says of the film, hitting theaters August 16. “But you know that these people are capable of anything.”

What initially drew you to this project?

When I first read the script, I was struck by how this is a woman my age who is attempting to stay relevant in an industry in which youth and beauty are all-important—and at a time when the industry was changing underneath her. I immediately felt Hope’s vulnerability and saw it applying to my own life. Also, I just love when L.A. is a major character in a film.

The fear of becoming irrelevant seems to drive Hope to keep her business afloat at all costs.

One of the reasons she becomes so paranoid is because she doesn’t understand the Internet, nor how to sell her products or herself in any new way. She’s very old-school. She’s made the business her identity, and now her identity is about to mean nothing to anyone. This movie really questions whether you can hold onto who you are through adversity. How do you maintain that level over time? I don’t know, maybe Celine Dion at the Paris Olympics showed us it is possible, but it’s rare.

There are multiple scenes where Hope is treated like a sexual object by the men in her life, but she usually manages to sidestep their advances, occasionally using flirtation to her advantage. Do you think that makes her vulnerable?

I think Hope’s approach to sexual advances is another part of her relevance issue. It’s all related. She’s a woman who’s getting older but is holding onto her youth and her sexuality as a tool and source of power. She might not be feeling as hot as she used to, but she also understands the quid pro quo game that is her business. I mean, look at Hollywood. We have an entire movement about this. But this film takes place before that movement.

What do you think Hope’s beauty look—heavy kohl, smoky eye, somewhat cakey foundation—and her fashion sense says about her as a character?

I think it’s a mask. It’s her armor. The makeup was based on pictures we’d put up on set of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Rachel Zoe from 2013, 2014, when the movie is set. That was the inspiration—the blonde extensions, the It bag, you know, you had to have the hot bag back then. In the film, I’m carrying a vintage Balenciaga City bag from that time period.

Let’s get into the Beauty Notes questions. What’s the wildest beauty treatment you’ve ever tried?

The craziest thing I’ve ever done was a laser, which is not that crazy. It’s called an IPL treatment. I did it because I was getting dark spots. Even in a hat and sunglasses, I was getting sun spots below my cheekbone. And, of course, this is my money maker, so I have to protect it. I will say, the IPL did work. Apparently you’re supposed to get them multiple times a year for wrinkles and other things, but it’s a 10-day recovery period. I literally never have 10 days in my life to take off.

What’s one skin concern you deal with on a regular basis?

I used to have really acne-prone skin. I had bad breakouts throughout my 20s and 30s. Now, I struggle with some puffiness, I retain a lot of water in my face. But on this film, every morning when I got to set, I put my face in a bowl of ice water—a cold plunge, basically, but for your face. It brings all the blood to your skin. We thought about what Hope’s skincare tips and tricks might be, what she might do, and tried to do as much of that as possible. All the new stuff, LED, IPL, none of that existed then. But a cold face and ice—that’s been around a long, long time. I think French women have been doing that since the Victorian era, probably.

Is the bowl of ice water trick something that you picked up on set?

You want to know? I first saw that in an episode of Falcon Crest. Leslie Caron does it. I did it on another set a few years ago. For Skincare, I was like, we got to bring back the bowl of ice every morning.