Summary
Currently available to see in theaters,Skincareis a new thriller directed by Austin Peters that explores how far a person will go to protect their image. The film stars Elizabeth Banks as Hope Goldman, an aesthetician taking the next step in her career by launching her own skincare line. WhenLuis Gerardo Méndez’scharacter, Angel Vergara, opens a competing boutique across the street, Hope believes he may be responsible for tarnishing her reputation.
Prior toSkincare, Méndez is known for starring and executive producing Netflix’s first Spanish-language original comedy series,Club de Cuervos. He worked with Banks on the 2019 film,Charlie’s Angels, and looked forward to reuniting with his former director. Méndez believes that, overall,Skincareis a story about mental health, and hopes it will speak to those finding their footing in the ever-evolvingcity of Los Angeles.
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Screen Rantchats with Méndez about what drew him toSkincare, filming under time constraints, and what he hopes audiences will take away from the movie.
Méndez Believes That Skincare Is About Balancing A Person’s Ambitions With Their Mental Health
“If you just care about your ambitions and that desire of projecting something, it never ends well.”
Screen Rant: To start off, I would love to know what drew you toSkincareand made you want to get involved in the film.
Luis Gerardo Méndez: The script was really good. It was loosely inspired by true events. That’s always fascinating as an actor, and the possibility to work again with Elizabeth Banks. She was mydirector in Charlie’s Angels, and we became good friends there. The possibility of being this other force against her was fun.
Jumping off of that, your character is Hope’s business rival, and they don’t get off on the best foot. What is Angel’s first impression of Hope when she walks into his shop?
Luis Gerardo Méndez: The way I saw this movie, and the way I saw Hope and this relationship—I think it’s a love letter to Los Angeles. It’s like a love letter to this city, and at the same time, it points out all these things that we struggle with—the people who live here. “You need to stay relevant. You need to be more successful. You need to be more this or more that.”
I feel it’s a movie about mental health. How do you create a nice balance between your mental health and your ambitions? Because if you just care about your ambitions and that desire of projecting something, it never ends well. I think that was the thing I was trying to portray with this friction with Elizabeth’s character.
Do you think Angel has some level of respect for this woman who is working in the same industry?
Luis Gerardo Méndez: I don’t know. He probably didn’t even know about her. That’s what makes the encounter even more devastating. They have this line where he’s like, “I don’t think we have the same clients.” They don’t like each other from the start. I think the most interesting thing is that this guy has this new technology. It’s just something fictional that the director created to say there’s always going to be something new. There’s always going to be something new that you don’t know, that is going to feel like a threat.
I feel like right now we’re starting to interact with AI, for example, or ChatGPT and all these things. It’s really easy to be like, “Oh yeah, I feel for Hope, because she’s just trying to sell her lotions and stuff, and suddenly, there’s this guy with this technology that you don’t even understand.” I feel a little bit like Hope in the movie business right now. This technology is coming, and now they’re going to be able to do movies without actors. How is that going to work? It’s really easy to relate to feeling like you’re staying behind the wave. I think that was something else interesting about the script.
Méndez Believes That Angel’s Backstory Was An Important Part Of Skincare’s Message
“He is the most successful character in the movie, but when we see him in his intimacy, in his house, you can feel that he’s not enough for himself.”
We don’t know a lot about your character before Hope meets him, so I’m curious if you came up with a more in-depth backstory about how he got into the skincare business.
Luis Gerardo Méndez: For me, that was the most important part of this character. We have this scene where we see Angel singing in his house and having his own karaoke party. That was very important for the director, and for me, because we’re trying to show the cracks in all these characters. You could think that he’s the one who is successful. He should be happy. He has the best technology. He is the most successful character in the movie.
But when we see him in his intimacy, in his house, you can feel that he’s not enough for himself. He wants something else. He used to be a dancer, or he used to be a singer, and now he works in the skincare industry because he failed in the other industry. So again, it’s very specific about this city, and I think that backstory was also very important to say the things we wanted to say.
As you were saying earlier, image is obviously a huge theme in this film. I would love your take on howSkincareaddresses our relationship with image and the image of success.
Luis Gerardo Méndez: It’s a huge theme, and it’s something that takes a lot of attention in my life, talking about mental health. It’s tricky to navigate through the requirements of the industry and the world we’re living in and creating a good balance between your ambitions and your mental health. I think that’s the most interesting thing that I can take from the movie. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more, and wanting to be successful, and to want this or that.
But what are you willing to do to get that? That’s the tricky part. Are you willing to destroy someone’s life to get what you want? Are you willing to destroy your own mental health to get what you want? If you know that something is not good for you, are you going to keep doing it because you think that’s going to get you to the place you want to be? I think all those questions are in the movie, in a way.
I read in the director’s note that you shot this in 18 days.
Luis Gerardo Méndez: I don’t remember if it was 18 or 20 or 25, but it was crazy. It was fast. That’s what happens with indie movies. You get a lot of creative freedom, but you don’t have a lot of time, so you need to run. I got the script two years before we shot the movie. It’s usually like that. I had a lot of conversations with Austin Peters, the director, and with Elizabeth, and then one day they’re like, “We got the money. We’re gonna start shooting in three months,” and you’re like, “Oh, cool.” I knew about this project like three years before. You never know when these movies are going to get made.
Now that this film is about to premiere, what’s next for you? Do you have anything else in the pipeline?
Luis Gerardo Méndez: Yes. I directed my first movie last year. It’s called Technoboys, and it’s with Netflix, and it’s coming out soon. I cannot say the day yet, but soon. It’s about a boy band. It’s a crazy comedy. I think you’re gonna like it.
About Luis Gerardo Méndez’s New Film, Skincare
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 new friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman) she embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of who is trying to destroy her life.
Skincareis currently available in theaters.
Skincare
“Skincare” features the renowned aesthetician Hope Goldman and the challenges she faces when her rival, Angel Vergara, opens a competing boutique just across the street. This rivalry sets off a chain of events where Hope, with the support of her friend Jordan, seeks to discover the person behind the sabotage of her business.
