From comedy to drama to biopics and every genre in between, Elizabeth Banks always understands the assignment. The actress had plenty to play with in IFC Films ‘ Skincare , which premieres Friday in theaters. It’s a true crime-inspired character study about a woman’s struggle to stay relevant in Hollywood and the dangerous lengths she’ll go to defend what she’s built — a role to which Banks “felt very connected.
” “I related to this sense of vulnerability, of feeling like the technology is going so fast that you can’t keep up with it, that there’s always gonna be a new fresh, useful way of doing things,” Banks tells Deadline. “And this woman just doesn’t know how to do it. And I feel like as someone who’s middle-aged and works in Hollywood, I already feel like I don’t know what the next big thing is gonna be, what the AI thing is gonna be or what has been now introduced into all of our lexicon.
I think everyone is worried about staying relevant.” For director Austin Peters , who makes his feature debut with the “sunshine noir,” casting Banks in the leading role of Hope Goldman was “when it became a real movie.” As a self-proclaimed “Elizabeth Banks fan,” he explains that she was the final puzzle piece in bringing the story to life on the big screen.
“She said to me early on, ‘It is fun for an audience to watch someone lose their mind,'” recalled Peters. “And those are the kind of movies that I like and have influenced this .