January is here, and Madelyn Cline is behind on her manifestations. “I kind of fell off on them the latter part of last year, which”—she cracks a smile—“was only a week ago.” The 26-year-old actor, nestled in an upholstered chair during a Zoom call, improvises a list. “Abundance,” she begins, with the sincere glow of a Gen Z life coach. “I think of love and friendship and positivity, and just trying to manifest good energy. Sending it out so it comes back to me,” she says, sunny vibes emanating through the screen.  

Cline’s year is so far off to a strong start. This month she is back in her home state of South Carolina to shoot season four of Outer Banks, the hit Netflix series about treasure-hunting teens navigating love and perilous adventure. When the show premiered in the spring of 2020, shortly after lockdown, its cast of sun-kissed ingenues vaulted into the limelight. Nearly four years later, Cline’s evolution into a household name takes another big leap forward: Today, she becomes the newest ambassador for Revlon, joining the storied American brand at a moment when TikTok-fueled beauty fervor is at an all-time high. 

To see Cline in the Revlon campaign portraits—her crimson lips and tips echoing those of an early ’50s Dorian Leigh—it’s clear she has the magnetism for the job. Still, to find oneself in the company of spokespeople past (Lauren Hutton, Cindy Crawford, and so many more) has got to be head-spinning for someone in the upswing of her career. “I’m blown away because looking at the list gives me a little bit of imposter syndrome,” says Cline, wearing an ivory turtleneck and the sparest of makeup. “Sharon Stone, she is an icon. She’ll always be the moment,” the actor says of the Basic Instinct star, who fronted Revlon’s Charlie fragrance in 1983. “But I’m currently walking alongside Ashley Graham and Megan Thee Stallion as ambassadors. That is incredible too. I love them so much.”

Cline’s Revlon role follows another high-water mark for the actor: joining the illustrious ensemble cast of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson’s 2022 whodunit set on a private island in Greece. “Edward [Norton] would say all the time that we were just a crew of deeply unserious people, and it’s so true,” Cline says of the group that included Kathryn Hahn, Daniel Craig, and Kate Hudson. “I was so intimidated walking into it, and then once we were in the green room together, in the trenches, it truly felt like we were in the theater. It was always lovely, beautiful, wonderful chaos.” Here, she shares more about her kinetic life, on set and off.

Vanity Fair: What is keeping you busy these days? 

Madelyn Cline: We’re shooting the boat show [Outer Banks] in the winter, which I don’t like. I’d rather be sweating than cold! But that’s okay.

How does your wellness rhythm change when you’re in that zone? 

We definitely don’t talk enough about how a filming schedule can really turn your life completely topsy-turvy upside-down. It really does. It’s a full-time job to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself—because it feels like there's no downtime, at least with our schedule. We shoot a lot and we shoot really quickly. So I try to wake up and get even just a 20-minute little Pilates workout in. I’ll focus on abs or something [for] a quick sweat. Then I’ll make sure that my skin is prepped and ready for whatever is to come, whether it’s dirt or sweat or, God knows, dirty swamp water. My job—as much as possible while I'm filming—is to stay as centered as possible: tiny rituals like nighttime skincare, morning workout, good food, staying hydrated, that kind of a thing. When I’m not shooting, I have all the time in the world to do that, and I’m a little bit lazier with it. I have to be much more strict while I’m shooting.

You’re the eye of the hurricane. Everything’s revolving around you.

Yes. And if a tiny part of that regimen gets thrown off, everything gets thrown off. It’s the one thing that keeps my equilibrium.

A brand like Revlon has so much history behind it. Some of its products are industry icons, like a 1952 red lipstick called Fire & Ice. Does that sense of opposing forces resonate with you? And what would be your signature shade? 

Everybody has their own duality. There’s the person they are on the inside, and then what you’re projecting to the world. I’m a very, very passionate person, and I am incredibly emotional, but I just do not show it. I never truly let everything I’m feeling show, unless I am either alone or incredibly comfortable. So Fire & Ice does resonate. I feel like that could also be what people are calling “feminine rage”—I’ve been seeing a lot of that on TikTok recently. Sometimes, especially women, we feel so deeply, but we’re not always allowed to portray [that]. 

I’ve been really, really into the Super Lustrous Daylight Delight, which is a pinky nude. But if I had to choose another color, it would be maybe a coffee, like a latte mocha. I love a brown lip, especially during the winter. 

On Instagram a while back, you posted a photo of a makeup artist's eye shadow tray, with the DIY label “Basic Bitches.” What’s your go-to eye makeup?

That was a picture from the Revlon campaign! Our makeup artist, she has all of these different palettes, and Basic Bitches is the creams and nude colors, which I thought was really funny. To be honest with you, my palette would be Basic Bitches, because I am so terrible at doing my own eye shadow. I understand it, but the execution, somewhere in the middle, it gets lost in translation. I usually tend towards maybe a tan or a taupe, and I just kind of put something there. Then I use a mascara and maybe a little waterline and call it a day. I’m more of an eyeliner girl than a shadow girl.

What has been your most reliable source of beauty advice—a family member, a makeup artist on set, TikTok?

My mom always put a really big emphasis on skin care. She said that a good skin care routine is a good makeup routine because it’s your base, and also our skin goes through so much, whether it’s stress and hormones, or our environment, or what we put on it—makeup even. So for me, one thing I’ll always put number one is my skin care routine.

Eye patches always get play on social media because they look fun. Ditto an LED face mask. What is central to your routine?

My moisturizer and my sunscreen—that gives me my dewy face. I’ve also been loving Revlon’s Illuminance foundation because it’s really, really moisturizing and nourishing for the skin. During the winter, sometimes I struggle with dryness and a bit of discoloration, so it’s nice to have a little foundation on that also feels like a moisturizer. And then speaking of red light masks, my HigherDOSE is the best. I feel like it really helps calm my skin down. On my Sundays, when I take my everything shower and do my hair and my fake tan, that’s when I do my red light mask. I think you’re supposed to use it more often, but I just don’t have time to do it every day.

We do our best. Now that you're shooting Outer Banks again, what are your beauty essentials on set?

Sunscreen is our biggest one because we’re largely an on-location show, so we’re always outside. And, God bless them, they’ll put our cast chairs a mile away from set, or the tent is all the way over there and we’re needed over here. So we’re always in the elements. We tend towards some sort of tinted moisturizer with sunscreen, which is exciting because Revlon has just come out with its Illuminance skin serum—it’s tint with SPF in it. I’ve been trying to get my Revlon products into our makeup trailer because that way it’s fewer steps, which means not as early of a call time [laughs]. The whole goal on Outer Banks is less is more. They want us to look like we don't have makeup on, but of course I’m like, “Now, okay, boys: Stop right there. I’m going to wear makeup. Y’all can’t take that away from me.” But we can make it look natural. 

What about red carpet? I feel like you’ve been defining what type of glamour you want to project. 

The red carpet almost feels like you’re playing a character: It’s very confident, sexy, but still very relaxed. And on the inside—going back to the duality of people—I’m panicked and anxious and not confident and uncomfortable. But makeup is like an armor, in a sense, which is why I love it so much. It’s like, Who is she today? What is she doing? What does she drink? What is she wearing? All of that goes into this red-carpet persona.

As you think about the next phase of acting work ahead, do you envision any roles that would require transformation, whether it’s wigs or extreme makeup or physical training?

That’s my favorite. All roles, of course, take preparation and time and [involve] some sort of transformative process. But the best is when you have these tangible things that can help you step into a different skin. Fittings are one of the first steps into a different character because you’re putting the clothes on. The character can really start to take shape. But I’ve always wanted to take on a role that had some sort of physical training, physical demands, some sort of discipline—because that just sounds so immersive and informative and fun.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.