Jenna Ortega takes her coffee exactly how you would imagine: “Black,” she says declaratively, wrapped in a gray hotel robe with perfectly mussed bedhead. “Just black. I can do espresso, Americano; depending on the weather, maybe I’ll put some ice in it. But when I’m home, it’s coffee before I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth.”
And caffeine she needs. It’s an early morning in London’s Westminster neighborhood, eight hours ahead of home on the West Coast, and the start of what’s about to be a busy press tour for season two of Netflix and Tim Burton’s Wednesday. Throughout the five-city tour, all of Ortega’s beauty looks—created by makeup artist Melanie Inglessis and hairstylist Cesar Deleon Ramirez—have one thing in common: a secret. The actor, who is a Dior makeup ambassador, has been road testing the house’s new lipstick, Rouge Dior On Stage. The pigmented shades are meant to last 24 hours, so it feels only right that we hang for the day. (Sadly, no pillow talk reveal forthcoming.)
As we sit down to start a room service feast of unusual sorts (hummus with crudité, fruit), Ortega tells me she’s “really not a morning person.” That’s when we both hear a shriek from outside the hotel suite window, and I realize we’re across from the King’s Guard and their famous biting horses. “Even if I wanted to, I just wouldn’t make sense. I think I would identify with those biting horses.”
It’s time to get ready for a busy day—Wednesday isn’t going to promote itself—and the 22-year-old bestows me with total control of the aux cord to “set the vibe.” This is a task I would never volunteer for under normal circumstances, let alone with people I don’t know, so the pressure is even higher. I want to appear tasteful and cool, but then Ortega delivers the kiss of death when it comes to my music tastes: no pop. Wracking my brain, I search the room for inspiration and land on my tote bag—a piece from the now shuttered Vampire’s Wife brand, founded by Brit-goth cool girl Susie Cave. Her husband, Nick, is a musician. Bingo. “Great choice,” she confirms as the first beats of “Into My Arms” start to flow through the speakers. “I saw him in concert earlier this year. Susie is a real-life Morticia.”
Ortega first fell in love with the world of Tim Burton when she saw Mars Attacks!, which came out six years before she was born. “Sarah Jessica Parker on a Chihuahua changed my life,” she says while getting ready in the bathroom. “It was the first film I remember seeing and wondering, What is this world?”