Christine Taylor Isn’t Chasing Anything Anymore—and That’s the Whole Secret

I grew up in a small town next to Allentown, PA, so Christine Taylor’s name has been in my orbit my whole life, as it is for everyone from there. We knew she was nearby before we knew why—a family friend’s daughter had gone to school with her, somebody’s older brother remembered her as the block’s babysitter. And then she was Marcia Brady as we watched her marry Ben Stiller, and the whole town kept its own quiet tabs on her from there.

These days, I catch her the way a lot of New Yorkers do, a few rows into the Knicks crowd, which is its own little full-circle thing for someone who started out a mere 90 miles away. But cheering from a distance is different from actually reaching her.

When I got her on the phone, I wasn’t just fact-checking a skin-care routine; I felt like I was checking in (and taking up too much of her time)—mid-sentence with her dogs going into bark mode, followed by an in-depth chat about what it actually feels like to stop caring what the photos look like the next morning.

Ahead, the Emmy-nominated actress opens up on her nighttime ritual, her favorite lymphatic facialist and why she finally stopped picking apart red carpet photos.

We all know you from a ton of different things, but your skin was absolutely glowing on the sidelines during the Knicks’ games this season. What does your daily routine actually look like?

“I got into a really good habit at a young age. I was always good about washing my face before bed, doing the full routine no matter what, and that stuck. I would never skip a night. When you’re exhausted, and you’re like, ‘Let’s just do a makeup wipe and go to sleep!’ No, that’s not me. I have to do the whole routine every night, which is hilarious for Ben, because he’s like, ‘Here we go, the nighttime routine is coming.’ But it’s a nice ritual, honestly. I’ve got a couple of cleansers I alternate between, plus a serum, moisturizer and eye creams.

Now that I’m in my 50s, it’s really more about keeping my skin at its best, and because I live in New York, I have different sets of products for warm weather and cold weather. And I drink a lot of water. It’s basically all I drink. Maybe a little Stiller’s Soda here and there and some Diet Coke! I’m not going to lie and say I only drink water—that would be weird. But water helps a lot, especially because I lean dry.”

Are you a facial person? Do you do the treatments?

“I do, and I love trying different facialists. The one I find most gratifying, where you see a difference immediately, is microcurrent. I’ve got a great gal named Sarah—she’s a one-woman show, and she has a little company called Stillpoint Beauty in the garment district. I was introduced to it maybe nine or ten years ago, and I’ll do a session before work or a red carpet because I can actually see it in photos afterward. It’s deeply relaxing too—I fall asleep during it, even with the little jolts.

My favorite kind these days is lymphatic drainage, though. I go to Tracie Martyn for that. I’d love to hone my own skill set there, because now that I’m 55, that’s a game changer—you can just feel the puffiness drain out. I don’t always have time in the morning to do it myself, but when I get a lymphatic facial, I love it so much.

On the dermatologist side, I’ve basically got frequent flyer miles there. I do Clear + Brilliant every few months—it’s a lower-level laser, nothing that requires downtime. Once a year I do Ultherapy, which is a bit more intensive, but you still walk out looking normal. I haven’t chosen to do anything invasive at this point. I think it’s working for now.

I also love dermaplaning—that peach fuzz coming off makes a real difference with the products I use afterward. And honestly, not everything has to cost a fortune. I’ve got a few splurge products for winter and then some that are just decently priced and work fine.”

I know a lot of us still think of you as our generation’s Marcia Brady. Is there a beauty moment from The Brady Bunch Movie that’s stuck with you?

“It’s so funny—I resembled Marcia to begin with, but my hair wasn’t as light as it eventually ended up being. It wasn’t as light as the end product. I was already highlighting it, but the director wanted all of us on the girls’ side to look like that bright blonde was growing out of our heads naturally. So almost every week or ten days, they’d have the colorist come do the roots—not even highlights, just constant root coloring. I’d never done that kind of intensive color before.

When the movie wrapped and my natural color started growing back in, it was a real process keeping my hair healthy without over-coloring it, putting in lowlights to try to get back to something more natural. It was a genuine eye-opener about how deep you can get into hair color. When we signed on for the sequel, the big thing in my contract was: Please get me a wig!

Honestly, the wig looked so much better than my actual processed hair did in the first movie. I wish I’d known that going in. But…you live and you learn.”

You’ve been in this industry since you were a teenager. Does it feel strange looking back?

“It’s interesting, because I have a podcast now—Hey Dude…The 90s Called!—that looks back at what the entertainment industry used to be like, pre-cell phones, pre-social media. So much of my early work came out of the ’90s, and the level of nostalgia around it has given me a chance to step back and see the impact some of these films actually made. I did 90s Con the last two years, my first real experience interacting with fans who grew up on this stuff. One woman told me watching the Brady Bunch movies every summer was something she and her dad did together. When you work on a project, you sort of compartmentalize it—you do the job, it comes out, and you don’t get much interaction with people around it after that.

Getting to actually talk to fans, including ones who knew about stuff I forgot I’d even done—there’s a horror movie from the ’90s, Night of the Demons 2, that apparently makes the rounds—it’s been really special. I’m sentimental about it now in a way I wasn’t before. I still pinch myself that I started in Allentown in high school and I’m still here, still getting to work with young filmmakers. I have so much gratitude for the fans who kept these films alive.”

One of the good things about getting older is definitely caring less. What does confidence look like for you now, as opposed to the start of your career—especially since you started so young?

“That’s the greatest gift, honestly. In my teens and 20s, so much of my confidence was based on external validation—if a job went well or someone said something nice, I felt great, because someone else was telling me I was okay. That doesn’t work on me the same way anymore. If someone writes something nasty, it still stings, but it doesn’t define me. Confidence now is about being comfortable on the inside. I used to go back the next day and look at red carpet photos critically. It was always, ‘Ugh, that angle wasn’t great.’ I stopped doing that. If I felt good in the moment and had a great time, that’s what I want the memory to be. I don’t want one unflattering photo out of context to overwrite that. That’s come with age, and it’s the best part of getting older.”

If you could tell your teenage self one thing, what would it be?

“Just to be easier on myself. I had this exact conversation with a girlfriend recently. I remember being in my late 20s thinking, ‘I wish I were a little more fit, a little more this or that.’

Then, a few years into my 30s, I looked back at photos from my 20s and thought, what was I thinking? I looked amazing! It doesn’t matter what’s going on externally if you’re not content on the inside—you’ll feel unsatisfied either way. I’d tell myself to take it easier, stop being so critical.

My daughter is in her early 20s now, and I have to say, this generation is amazing! There’s so much more self-acceptance, so much more owning who you are. That took me a long time to get to. I’m proud that she already has it.”