Elizabeth Banks: 'Skincare' spotlights relatable existential crisis

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Lego Movie, Pitch Perfect and The Hunger Games icon Elizabeth Banks says she wanted to star in the satirical thriller, Skincare, because it skillfully taps into modern anxieties.

"One of the aspects of the script that really stood out to me were all of the details about the world of institutions in Los Angeles, very specifically in Hollywood. But, at the end of the day, I also felt like there was a giant sort of existential crisis inside the movie that was relatable to anybody," Banks, 50, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"This is a woman working in an industry that prizes beauty and youth and what's new above all else, and as a middle-aged actress in Hollywood, there was a lot I could relate to there."

Opening in theaters Friday, the thriller with a satirical spin is set in 2013 and loosely based on true events. It follows Hope (Banks), a Hollywood aesthetician who spirals emotionally and psychologically because she believes rival beauty expert Angel (Luis Gerardo Méndez) is out to sabotage her business and destroy her life.

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez plays Hope's assistant, Marine, and Lewis Pullman plays wellness guru Jordan in the movie, which was helmed by first-time director Austin Peters.

"There were a lot of inciting incidents here that happen with technology," Banks said.

"At the beginning of this movie, this is a woman who thinks she should sell products out of her storefront and the whole world of marketing has moved online," she added.

"It's like you're the product, sell yourself, and just all of that was so anathema to her, and it's still to so many people right now. We're trying to figure out how to be."

The movie also sees Hope's reputation tarnished and her client base dwindle after an unflattering email goes out to her entire contact list.

"I just thought that was such an interesting idea to talk about -- the relationship she has to being doxed, and the real paranoia that gets raised when somebody sort of steals her identity online, like who steals her email and sends emails and tells a story about her that's a total lie or puts out this revenge porn," Banks said.

"It's just so horrifying and, honestly, what I came to find out was that it's so common, and that really scared me," she said. "I think it should scare a lot of people because that is what we're all worried about.

"We're worried that someone is going to take over our online identity and tell a story about us that just isn't true. I find that really fascinating and a real area that's very ripe to be explored."

Banks described hope as ambitious, but flawed.

"I love that she's pretty narcissistic and very self-centered, but, at the same time, she built this thing by herself, probably to the detriment of her entire personal life," she said.

"As you can tell in this movie, there's no husband, there's no kids, there's not even a cat. Her entire world is this business. She has poured her heart and soul into it. I think a lot of people can relate to that.

"There's this sense that it could be torn down or taken away from her, that she doesn't have any control. It's that loss of control that leads to a real sense of desperation in her."

It is this unhinged state that makes Hope so much fun to play.

"It's so delicious," Banks said. "It always results in [someone] making terrible decisions -- not rational decisions, decisions that happen too fast and it also results in trusting the wrong people. There's just so much that goes sort of sideways for her."

Two of the people she trusts, but probably shouldn't, are Marine and Jordan.

"For someone who's trying to stay relevant with the youth, befriending the youth is always something that you you try," Banks said.

"At the end of the day, though, she's paying Marine to be her friend. She's also her assistant, and Jordan? We're not friends. He also wants to be paid. He wants a free place to stay. He wants sex."

The film turns into something of a cat-and-mouse chase in which everyone thinks they are manipulating the situation.

"I tried to play it sort of both ways. This sense of 'Who's in control of those situations? Is Hope controlling them or they controlling her, and I think she thinks she's controlling them until the very minute when she realizes wait a minute, maybe I have been outsmarted."

Despite the horrible things that happen to her, Hope accomplishes her goal in a roundabout way.

"There's a fine line between fame and infamy, and by the end, she's going be infamous, and that infamy is going to drive sales, and that's she wants more than anything, right?" Banks said.

"She wants to be rich and famous. We all do. She wants to be seen, and she is about to be seen. That is a win, and that kind of b****, who can turn all the bad [expletive] that happened to her into something positive, is a character I can root for."