When an actor is really good at playing a certain role, it can be hard to separate them from that part. Jenna Ortega, for example, has become synonymous with Wednesday Addams thanks to her captivating performance in the series Wednesday — and making it even harder to separate art from artist is the fact that she admittedly borrows elements of the iconic character’s goth beauty vibes in real life. “I got a taste of it and I decided that was what I wanted to look like. It stuck. I didn’t realize how much I like the color black,” she previously told Allure about Wednesday’s look. Which is why departing from that look so dramatically, like Ortega is doing with her current manicure, feels so out-of-character — literally.
On Thursday, Januar 11, Ortega attended the world premiere of her new film, Miller’s Girl, at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. As the cast answered questions after the screening, she held a mic, giving the audience a clear look at the least Wednesday nail look imaginable: a French manicure.
Sure, we could picture Wednesday — who wore black nail polish through the first season — wearing a French manicure with black tips, maybe. But a classic, elegant, rounded, not-the-least-bit-goth white-tipped French manicure? Never. But Jenna Ortega is, in fact, an entirely separate, nonfictional person, after all.
But it’s not just her nails that stray from Wednesday’s aesthetic; Ortega’s entire look is essentially the polar opposite of the Addams daughter’s. She wore a voluminous half-up hairstyle with decidedly fresh-faced makeup: glowing skin with freckles, pink blush, and natural-looking pink lips. The only hint of black was provided by a subtle winged liner look. And nothing like Ortega’s playful, off-white Valentino dress would ever be found in Wednesday’s closet.
It really goes to show that, while a classic French manicure is rarely considered a groundbreaking look, putting it on an unexpected hand can make it truly interesting.
