Eiza González is often a standout in her films - Baby Driver, Paradise Hills and Bloodshot, just to name a few. But I’ve been convinced that very few projects really make the most of the range she has, and now I Care a Lot proves it. Rosamund Pike leads the film as Marla Grayson, a super sharp go-getter working as a court appointed guardian. While Marla may appear to be a saint helping those in need, what she’s really doing is manipulating the system so that she can gain control of her wards’ assets and just throw them in a care facility.

González steps in as Fran, Marla’s girlfriend and her partner in this whole operation. While Marla’s the smooth talker of the two who appears in court and manages to weasel her way out of (most) sticky situations, Fran is busy running things behind-the-scenes. While Fran is very dedicated to their scheme, operating with ambition and confidence, she is the only one of the two with a moral compass. When they target a potential big-money ward with ties to a mobster, Marla is willing to push and push to get what she wants, whereas Fran expresses some serious apprehension about the risk required.

Eiza Gonzalez and Rosamund Pike in I Care a Lot
Image via Netflix

With the movie now available to stream on Netflix, I got the chance to chat with González about a whole bunch of qualities that make Fran stand out in the film, a big one being something we don’t see too often on screen - a character who doesn’t wear makeup. Was that part of the character description for Fran even before González took the gig? Here’s what she said:

“It wasn’t. I can’t take full credit because it’s a creative team and that’s why it’s incredible to work with incredible wardrobe, makeup, hair, the director’s vision. You can see it, the movie’s very stylized and it’s very polar opposites and we wanted to keep that; make them iconic but in their own little world, and it fits their personalities. The clarity, the clean lines of Marla versus the messiness of Fran.”

As explained by González, Fran’s look also reflects where she’s come from and how she prefers to operate now:

“Our makeup artist is incredible and I felt bad because I kept on pushing back on makeup. And I was like, ‘I just don’t think she would wear makeup.’ And she was like, ‘But it …’ And I was like, ‘I understand, but Fran is a woman that comes from a bail bonds background. She’s a fly on the wall.’ She doesn’t want to be seen and she’s also very comfortable in her own skin.”

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Eiza Gonzalez, Dianne Wiest and Rosamund Pike in I Care a Lot
Image via Netflix

Fran’s makeup and fashion choices also gave González the opportunity to play a different kind of character, one with qualities that break the mold of the roles she’s offered most often. Here’s how she put it:

“And I think that for me, especially my background as the things I’ve done and the things that people cast me for, there is this predisposed idea that I have to be beautiful or whatever stereotypes that people like to put on me and it was exciting that J was willing to play and he was like, ‘Yeah, don’t wear makeup.’ It was like, this just feels like this woman. It’s not me with an agenda. It just feels like Fran is that person. And it just transforms you because it allows you to live in someone else’s skin. That’s not Eiza, that’s Fran. She’s in Vans and she’s in these t-shirts and the way I carry myself, it just allows you to have a different physicality.”

If you’d like to hear more from González about her experience working on I Care a Lot, check out our full chat at the top of this article!

Eiza González:

  • The benefit of working with a director who also wrote the screenplay
  • González on pushing back on wearing makeup as Fran.
  • Spoiler warning! How might Fran have reacted to first finding out that Marla struck a deal with Roman?

KEEP READING: 'I Care a Lot': Rosamund Pike Reveals the Significance Behind that Vape Pen