Lili Reinhart on Her Reiki Journey, Celebrity Beauty Fatigue, and Doing Hollywood Differently

After seven seasons playing Betty Cooper on Riverdale, Lili Reinhart is ready to slow down and be more intentional about her next chapter—whether that means acting, growing her skincare brand, or practicing as a reiki master.

"I love acting. It's why I do what I do. But ultimately, if I could do that job without any ounce of anything else—or even just the industry involved in general—I would," Reinhart explains on the latest episode of "Nice Talk". (The 29-year-old spoke to editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike at Marie Claire's Power Play event in Philadelphia in September and the conversation was recorded for the podcast.)

Reinhart feels that the entertainment business can be "like a chess game" where the "creativity and artistry about being an actor kind of gets taken away at a certain point, because it's all about ... how can I keep climbing the ladder, or how can I keep getting these accolades, or these better roles, or a promotion."

She goes on, "I am here to just act, so I think that's something that I struggle with. And then post-Riverdale, especially, kind of having a little bit of, like, not a blank slate, but a chance to sort of rewrite what the next phase of my career looks like, to just be very mindful. And I'm just doing a lot of projects that make me personally feel happy."

One of those projects is Hal Harper, the Mubi dramedy series that premiered in October. Reinhart stars alongside Mark Ruffalo and series creator Cooper Raiff, and also serves as an executive producer.

Reinhart tells Ogunnaike that she’s especially proud of her work as a producer through her company, Small Victory Productions, and of her skincare line, Personal Day. True to her ambivalence about fame, Reinhart made a deliberate choice to keep some distance between her own name and her beauty brand.

"When I see a celebrity has a brand, I roll my eyes, as well," Reinhart admits. But she decided to launch one anyway after struggling with acne for years and realizing that many of the products she used were actually making her skin worse. Knowing she could use her platform to help others dealing with the same issues, she moved forward with the idea, albeit with a few ground rules in place.

"My name is not on the packaging. Like, you wouldn't know was my brand looking at it, and my face is also not plastered all over our socials," the Hustlers star explains. "The one thing that I said when I created the brand was, 'I just want it to be known for its effectiveness.' I don't want anyone to just say, 'That's Lili's brand.'"

So that’s acting, producing, and running a skincare line... so why not add becoming a reiki master to the list, too? Reinhart says she began her training after “leaving a really bad relationship.”

"I needed to heal a lot. There was only so much processing through talk therapy that I could do at that point," she says. "I just wanted to kind of take healing into my own hands, quite literally. And I had had reiki done to me, like, a few years before, and I remember I really liked the sensation of it. It's just working with your energy in your body, through your chakras. And so I went on that journey, and I'm a reiki master." She adds with a laugh, "For some reason."

For more from Reinhart—including her "cringy" poetry book and how she feels about taking brand deals—check out this week’s installment of "Nice Talk". The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.