Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Skincare.”
Elizabeth Banks takes on the cutthroat side of the beauty business in her new film “Skincare.”
Directed by Austin Peters, the thriller, out Aug. 16, follows Banks as famous aesthetician Hope Goldman who is on the brink of launching her own skincare line. While Hope has a long list of stars and clients, her business is put in jeopardy when a rival facialist, Angel Vergara (Luis Gerardo Méndez), opens his boutique directly across from hers.
Hope’s work and image begin to get sabotaged and she soon begins to think it’s her new neighbor Angel. Scared and infuriated that her competitor is gaining fame, she and her friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman) start investigating who is trying to ruin her life. Michaela Jaé (Mj) Rodriguez and Nathan Fillion costar.
Banks previously told Entertainment Weekly that she didn’t realize “Skincare” was loosely inspired by a true story.
The actor tells TODAY.com she wasn’t aware of “Skincare” being about someone specifically, explaining, “Other than reading a rip from the headlines kind of story, I didn’t know.”
When portraying Hope, Banks says that she drew inspiration for the character from her facialist when she was younger. “We also were inspired for her look, for who she was, by the ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,’ because that was coming up then,” she says, also mentioning designer and celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe as some of her inspiration.
Hope, no doubt, goes on quite the journey that leads viewers down an unexpected path.
Read on to learn more about the “Skincare” ending, as explained by Banks, Méndez and Peters.
What happens in 'Skincare'?
In the film, Hope believes that Angel is behind the harassment that she is dealing with. She blames him for hacking into her email and sending a massive and inappropriate NSFW message to all her clients, as well as slashing the tires on her car and putting up a very inappropriate ad online. Hope thinks she is being followed and threatened by men working for her competition.
Hope reports Angel to the police and asks them to investigate who is behind the harassment. Though, she does not have any evidence against him.
Paranoid and scared for her life, Hope enlists the help of her friend Jordan, a Los Angeles transplant and motivational coach, who promises to handle Angel for her. However, she discovers that Jordan was the one behind everything when she sees him slashing her tires in the security footage.
Things get worse for Hope when Angel is attacked at his home by her friend Armen (Erik Palladino). When Armen leaves Angel's home, he gets in a car crash and is killed.
Shortly after, Hope goes to Angel’s home and discovers him bloody and bruised, passed out in his living room. The next day, police get a tip (from Jordan) that Hope might be behind Angel's attack.
Hope confronts Jordan at his apartment and the two get into an altercation. Knowing that the cards aren't in her favor, Hope returns to her home, gets all glammed up and prepares for the worst as police circle her home and bang on her door.
With a face full of makeup and wearing a hot pink coat with fur trimming, she opens the door and police arrest her. She smiles for the cameras.
Jordan is also arrested, Angel survives his attack, and Hope's story makes nationwide news as her skincare line sells out.
What happens to Hope Goldman?
Called the “killer facialist” in a news segment after her arrest, Hope is accused of allegedly hiring a hit man to take out her rival. Footage of a previous interview she did and never aired shows Hope talking about putting her best foot forward.
“What are you willing to do to get to where you want to be? It’s about taking control of your life,” she says as the film ends.
Banks tells TODAY.com that at the end, she believes “Hope gets everything she wants.”
“I think there’s a fine line between fame and infamy, and she doesn’t care. She just wants to sell product. I feel like that final scene, she gets ready for a big moment, because it’s like, ‘Well, my name’s going to be out there now,’” she says. “And I don’t think she meant for that to happen, but she turned what happened to her into an opportunity, and that’s the Hope Goldman that I’m rooting for.”
Peters adds that at the end, Hope is “ready for her close up and she’s ready for what’s going to happen next.” Hope likes to always be in control and this situation “is no different from any of the other situations” she’s been through.
Was Angel ever a threat to Hope?
Angel is seen back at his boutique, recovering from his attack and the media is wanting his take. He will survive. But was it ever his intention to hurt Hope?
“No, I don’t think so. I think that’s very interesting, as a Latino, this character is just a guy who wants to do his work and to do it as good as he can, and he’s seen as a threat,” Méndez tells TODAY.com. “I think that’s very easy to relate to as a Latino in the U.S. You’re not trying to take anyone’s job. You’re just trying to do your thing, you’re trying to harm anyone and, and I think that’s a very interesting lecture of the movie.”
Additionally, Peters notes that viewers might not agree with what the characters do or the way they think. He doesn’t believe the film “really has any good guys or bad guys.”
“I think that everybody is sort of a mix of all of them. There’s some people who do some very terrible and reprehensible things, and there’s definitely more bad — and there’s some innocent people that were swept up in the fray,” he says. “I’m super interested in complex and challenging characters that aren’t just good or bad.”
What is the message behind 'Skincare?'
“Skincare” can take on many meanings, but for Banks, she says that the themes of the movie felt “very existential” to her. She loves Hope’s ambition and that she’s “built something that she’s trying to protect.” But she also notes, Hope “is fighting to stay relevant in an industry that prizes youth and beauty and everything new, and she is none of those things.”
“She is an aging woman and that sort of milieu, and I’m a middle-aged actress in Hollywood, so there was a lot of things I could relate to in this character,” she explains, adding that it creates a desperation in Hope that leads to her making poor decisions and chaos in her life. “I just love that the script presented a real pressure cooker on top of someone who was already feeling the paranoia that the world was moving past her.”
For Méndez, he believes the film shows the cracks in people and how they present themselves to the world, while at the same time hiding their struggles and still wanting more.
“Why do we do the things that we do? Why is it never enough? Why do we need to stay relevant? Why do we need to fight so much for success?” he asks. “I think that that’s what the movie is about.”
While the film is set a decade ago, Méndez believes it’s worse now with trying to always be productive, give back, work out, be healthier, and so on.
“I need to do this and that, and it’s just exhausting,” he notes. “I think it’s interesting to see it on the screen, to be like, ‘Oh, I’d rather not become Hope. I’d rather have a better balance of my mental health and my ambitions.’”
