Allison Williams Is “Not F*cking Around” When It Comes To Skin Care

“It’s so nice to meet you. Come sit in my beautiful apartment.” That’s how Allison Williams greets me as I walk into a lavish hotel suite overlooking Central Park. She flashes a big smile as I join her on the couch.

At first glance, Williams looks like the Marnie Girls fans know and (sometimes) love: long brown hair, a cream sweater, and an air of quiet luxury. But she's considerably cheekier than her on-screen alter ego. I'm there to talk with her about eczema, an inflammatory skin condition she's finally found relief from thanks to a treatment she's partnered with Sanofi and Regeneron to raise awareness about. Despite the personal nature of the subject, the 38-year-old actor is refreshingly candid — and frequently hilarious — throughout our half-hour conversation, which also covers her beauty routine, self-care habits, and rather unusual fanny pack contents.

The treatment, Dupixent, involves giving yourself an injection every two weeks. And though Williams has never been a fan of needles (“to put it extremely mildly,” she explains), she's developed a routine that she now actually looks forward to. The secret? “I always watch an episode of whatever the unscripted show is that I’m watching, so the minute the injection’s over, I’m just in a world that is filled with joy and nothing very serious, and it immediately takes my mind off it,” she says. “It’s become a kind of meditative moment in the day.”

Her current unscripted obsession is The Real Housewives. She's been working her way through each franchise and is currently on Atlanta. “I have ‘Tardy for the Party’ stuck in my head pretty permanently,” she says.

Ahead, Williams opens up about her emotional support beauty products, her fanny pack essentials, and why she’s at peace with being a millennial.

How would you describe your beauty philosophy these days?

I’m out of the in-it toddlerhood, so I’m devoting a little bit more time to my beauty routine. I’ve always experienced it as a feedback loop of self-esteem — you’re investing time, and you’re being deliberate, and the self-care of it all at the beginning of the day sets the tone for the rest of it.

Mine is as quick and low-maintenance as possible while also being hopefully effective. Bang for my buck, I guess, is my philosophy. I don’t have a morning shed or anything like that. I’m just trying to keep everything healthy and producing collagen.

What is something you understand about your skin now that maybe you wish you’d known 10 years ago?

Well, I always knew I had eczema. I just lived with it. The thing I know now is that I didn’t have to tolerate what I was experiencing to the extent that I was. And that has genuinely changed my experience of being alive.

Everyone’s flavor of eczema is different, but mine always showed up on my calves. I have four pairs of shorts and 1,000 pairs of summer pants for that exact reason. After a while, I adjusted to that being a part of my life. Then, when it started showing up in other places on my scalp, suddenly it triggered me to actually address it.

That’s when I talked to my dermatologist about it, and she recommended that I try Dupixent. And for my friends and family, people who've known me forever and know how I feel about injections, when they hear that I'm doing that to myself on purpose every two weeks, they're like, "Oh, you must really like this medication." I'm like, "Yes, I'm also partnering with Sanofi and Regeneron to talk about it. That's how much I like it." And so that honestly is knowing the kind of skin you have feels like knowing your blood type. It's something that I feel like we should all learn very early in life.

“If I see a split end, I cut it. My hair is like a bonsai, basically.”

What is something in your routine that would surprise most people who know you?

Oh, my gosh, what a good question. See, here's the thing — people who know me, they really know me. I'm pretty predictable and consistent. I'm so on brand that I don't do anything against my type.

Fair. What is something you wear to feel instantly more put together?

I feel like a belt, weirdly. I can be in a kind of schlumpy everything, but then if I’m belted for some reason, I’m ready. I also am always wearing a fanny pack, so sometimes I feel belted anyway. I wear one around the house all day, every day. That’s also something no one would be surprised by, because everyone in my life knows that I do this. That's not saying that it makes me feel chic — it just makes me feel like I'm ready and I can take on whatever's coming.

What's in your fanny pack?

Hardwired headphones, hand sanitizer, Listerine strips, AirPods. Hair scissors, because I cut split ends — another thing that no one in my life will be surprised by, because they all know that I do it. If I see a split end, I cut it. My hair is like a bonsai, basically. I just cut split ends as I see them. It's like a meditation. And I recently posted it on my Instagram. The number of people who do this is shocking.

What? I've never heard of this before in my life.

If you get in a certain light, you just see a split end, and then you have scissors in your fanny pack, and you cut it. That whole scenario. I found that you can fly with them if the blades are short enough because airplane light is among the best light. So I'll bring a tiny lint roller so I don't make a huge mess.

Oh, my God.

I'm unwell. So the scissors are in there, my license and a credit card, and what am I forgetting? Hand lotion, cuticle oil, and a lip gloss, usually. And I think that's it.

“If you have taken nothing else away from this interview, it's just, in general, I'm not f*cking around.”

What is the last beauty product that got you genuinely excited?

I recently went down a rabbit hole of looking online to see if there are things that can help eye cream penetrate better and get rid of bags under my eyes. This is how I ended up with basically a vibrator for my eyes.

It's a product from a company called Foreo, and it is exactly what I'm describing. There's zero way that anyone who sees my toiletry kit display is not going to be like, "And there's her vibrator with her other facial products for some reason." Every time I use it, I'm not adult enough to be mature about it. But it is this thing that vibrates and undulates, and it really feels good. It smooths the bags under my eyes, and I do it every morning.

Is there a beauty trend that you've tried that did not work for you?

Most of what Gen Z has offered us, I can't achieve. And that's OK. The middle part is kind of as far as I can go. I can't really do the clean girl thing. I haven't really figured out lip contour. I just end up looking like I had ice cream and didn't use a napkin.

You just have to own being a millennial.

I feel like I'm pretty solidly locked to that generation in a way that is OK. I'm at peace with it.

What is the most chaotic thing you've gotten into lately, beauty-related or otherwise?

Most of what I do, as I'm saying it, is deeply chaotic. I feel I’m very calm and predictable and type A. I don't love chaos, so I avoid it. I’m trying to think if there’s anything.

I'm not a big wellness girlie. I prefer to be unwell. Well, I would say that my houseplant situation is getting chaotic. I have over 50 houseplants. I don't have a natural green thumb. I used an app called Planta to help teach me how to take care of them. Now I'm addicted. I have several arriving today that I don't have places for, but the emails got me.

Has playing a character ever made you want to change something about your beauty routine?

Well, I will say one of the weirdest beauty routine-ish experiences I had was on Fellow Travelers. I aged up and down for the show, and that was very odd because it was an emotional roller coaster. It was also very interesting to just see my face in the past and also in the future-ish. I mean, we can't really know for sure. I literally wear two sunscreens every day, so the sun spots in my makeup [on that show] made me double down on the sunblock.

You're not f*cking around.

I'm not f*cking around. If you have taken nothing else away from this interview, it's just, in general, I'm not f*cking around.

That'll be the headline.

Great.

Is there a beauty look from one of your projects that you still think about?

Yes, because people also talk to me about it a lot. My character's makeup on Girls when she got married is something I still think about a lot. It was heavy makeup, and I am proud to say that I applied most of it with the inspo I got from Instagram and watching really intense makeup tutorials. It was sort of the beginning of that era, and I realized that if you combined all the tutorials into one face, it would look insane.

You did it yourself?

Yeah.

Amazing.

Well, I mean, it's not a brag when you see it.

What is something that instantly improves your mood no matter what kind of day you're having?

This is so trite, but I got this advice from so many different sources, and then I finally applied it, and it's true. If you're feeling bad and you do something for a different person, it changes your mood entirely.

Yesterday I was grumpy because of hormones, and then my friend whose husband is recovering from surgery was talking to me about how stressful it is, and I sent her food — and literally the act of sending her food took away my grumpiness, either because it distracted me and I'm Dory and I forgot to be grumpy, or because it does something to you energetically to do something for someone else. It takes you out of your own, I don't know, myopia and makes you think about somebody else.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.