ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Skincare star Lewis Pullman about the upcoming thriller directed by Austin Peters. IFC Films will release the Elizabeth Banks-led movie exclusively in theaters on August 16, 2024.
“Famed aesthetician Hope Goldman (Elizabeth Banks) is about to take her career to the next level by launching her very own skincare line, but her personal and work lives are challenged when rival facialist Angel Vergara (Luis Gerardo Méndez) opens a new skincare boutique directly across from her store. She starts to suspect that someone is trying to sabotage her reputation and business, and together with her friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman), she embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of who is trying to destroy her life,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Your character in Skincare is a life coach. That’s like an instant red flag when I hear that occupation. What was your prep for this role? Did you look into any real-life life coaches? Especially those who are projecting an image more than who they really say they are.
Lewis Pullman: I watched a lot of YouTube videos, and it was really fun because, obviously, there are some great life coaches out there, but there are too many bad ones. So that was obviously the route I was looking into more. It’s clear that he is an entrepreneur of sorts, but he’s like a jack of all trades, master of none sort of.
There’s that scene where I do get to do some life coaching, and we weren’t sure how much we were gonna use of it, so Austin usually let me go for it. I was just kind of summoning all the life coach sessions that I had experienced in the month prior. Just coming up with this. They love a good analogy, but some of them are literally, if you were to [really] listen, you’re like, “This doesn’t make any sense what you’re saying.” So, to try to put in some of that, I thought it would be interesting.
When we were first talking about Jordan’s voice, I thought trying to figure out how he sounds or likes the people that maybe he respects and how they sound. I started listening to a lot of interviews of Justin Timberlake because… not that he’s a life coach, obviously, but he has a beautiful voice and it’s kind of seductive and sort of soft and slightly effeminate. I thought that it was 2013, so what if he was obsessed with Justin and was trying to kind of — ’cause he sort of is a chameleon — replicate certain people that he’s looking to or mirror them. But we ended up tuning that down a little bit, the Justin Timberlake voice, but it came out a little bit when he was doing his voice coaching. Thought that was pretty funny.
I love that you mentioned how there’s a lot of talking in circles because it really doesn’t cut the mustard if you really look at what they’re saying, but if you say it confidently or eloquently enough, people are just completely fooled.
That’s the key right there. That’s sort of, honestly, that’s at everything that’s at the nucleus of Jordan is like. Fake it until you make it kind of mentality.
I love Elizabeth Banks’ performance here, and you both get some excellent scenes together. What just really stood out about her as a scene partner and getting to see her go all out? I know she’s great in comedies, but it’s so nice to see her just have such a juicy, dramatic role here.
God, I know, isn’t it? When I read this, I knew that she was attached to it, so I could easily imagine her doing it. It’s one of those roles where you’re like, “Nobody else.” Who else is gonna be able to lock into this like she did? And she did it even better than I ever imagined. So, yeah, it was like every day a masterclass just of her.
She works so hard and has such a good work ethic. She’s a great director as well, so it’s cool to watch how she breaks down a scene and how she approaches it. But she’s also like a very joyous person and the more joy there is on a set, the more relaxed everyone is, the more free they are to try things out. I think that that she set the tone and so it was one of the great joys for me getting to work with her.
You were just at San Diego Comic-Con and Thunderbolts* had such a big showing. You have to be so secretive about these projects, so how was it just seeing the crowd really respond positively to it and getting to see that work starting to pay off?
Oh man, that was incredible to be able to have a seat at that table. Yeah, my heart stopped when I walked out on that stage. It was beautiful, I mean, all those people that were in there were so kind, and it was cool to be able to see. We worked so hard on the movie and then to see face to face the people who love it so much, why we put so much work into it, and how appreciative they were even before it came out. But you know, just to see that I was like, “All right. Yeah, it was all worth it, what we did.” I’m excited for them and everybody to see it.
Thanks to Lewis Pullman for taking the time to talk about Skincare.
