Wallis Day exudes a natural grit. The kind the cool girls in school tried to mimic but never quite mastered.
She sits before me in her south-west London home, wearing a slouchy black sweatshirt with her blonde pixie cut pristinely slicked back. A polished make-up blend accentuates her film-fronting features, which led her to being signed by Models 1 at just 13. Her posture is enviable – a true sign of an It-girl.
Flanked by dark wooden furniture and the odd lamp, she’s a far cry from the rolling hills of Hollywood, where she has just returned from: “I just moved house, so everything is literally everywhere,” she laughs.
Wallis doesn’t seem like the type to feel the stress of a house move. An actress, model, poet and now DJ, the multi-hyphenate is never short of creative outlets. Safe to say, her schedule is often jam-packed, meaning downtime at home is highly valued.
"I can’t really say much at this point... But trust me, there is a lot of exciting stuff coming in this direction"
“My family is here in England, so London is home,” she says, while perched in a pink-walled room. “Home is where your family is, isn’t it?” The actress splits her time between London and Los Angeles, finding kinship on-set in the latter. “[The cast] are like your family when you’re away from home and on a set in Hollywood. I’ve had times where I’ve felt really lonely in the middle of a job, in a hotel room by myself. At the end of the day, most people are on the same boat. Everybody’s away from their families. Everyone has something going on back home. That loneliness just goes because you are their family.” Wallis grew up in London, an environment she describes as, “adventurous, supportive and character-building”.
"I’ve learned to ground myself in who I am and not just what I look like"
She started modelling as a teenager: “Starting so young in the modelling industry definitely made me more aware of how other people perceive beauty. It taught me to have resilience and self-worth beyond appearances. I’ve learned to ground myself in who I am and not just what I look like, for sure.”
That being said, her azure eyes and striking elfin pixie crop are hard to ignore. Think Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct meets the elegance of Charlize Theron with a touch of androgynous Ruby Rose charm mixed in. The latter was in fact her predecessor on Batwoman, Wallis stepped into the shoes of superhero Kate Kane after Rose left the role.
"I purposely made a choice to take on more complex roles"
Although destined to model, it wasn’t always an easy ride for Wallis: “It’s a tough one, because I was in school. While my close friends were really supportive of it, there were haters in school. They were really mean and would laugh at the fact that I wanted to act and model. Not everybody was supportive. I would be in town and I’d see a big poster of me on the Adidas store and I would try to get my friends to turn the other way because I was so embarrassed about it.”
“Cutting my hair symbolised shedding expectations. It felt empowering.”
However, it was acting that really piqued the rising star’s interest. Her penchant for storytelling led her from modelling to the silver screen, a popular transition in the industry. Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz and countless others have done the same. “As I came from a modelling background, I felt that I needed to prove that I wasn’t getting an easy ride because I was a ‘pretty face’. I purposely made a choice to take on more complex roles and not settle for the girl-next-door roles as people often assume that being conventionally attractive makes things easier. In some ways, I feel like I’ve had to work harder to break free from being typecast.” Her first port of call to avoid being pigeonholed? The hairdressers. Wallis’ Linda Evangelista-inspired ‘do’ has become her signature look. “Cutting my hair symbolised shedding expectations. It felt empowering.”
It comes as little surprise that the actress leans towards strong female roles. Her break-out career moment came as Nyssa-Vex in Krypton, following appearances in TV shows Hollyoaks, Jekyll and Hyde and The Royals. She gained further recognition portraying ruthless operative Agent Shin in Infinite alongside Mark Wahlberg and Dylan O’Brien, in addition to her aforementioned turn as superhero Kate Kane in Batwoman. “I wanted to avoid the trope of a superhero with no emotional depth. I wanted to focus on portraying a character with vulnerability, as someone who isn’t afraid to show fear or uncertainty, but still can rise above it. That’s why the connections with the others of the cast were so important for me to get right, because they’re the things that humanise.”
Last year was a particularly busy one for the Londoner, who broadened her cinematic CV as Gigi in Netflix’s Sex/Life. The same year she scored the role of blue-haired adrenaline junkie Ryder in action-adventure film Sheroes, starring alongside Isabelle Fuhrman, star of Orphan and The Hunger Games. “I love her. I think she’s the Meryl Streep of our generation. She’s incredible,” she says.
Does working with actors who’ve been in the industry since their teenage years add something special to a set? “I really like it, because there is an unspoken understanding between us about the challenges of growing up in this industry. It creates an instant camaraderie because you’ve been navigating such a unique world from such a young age, and we support each other. There’s an additional layer of trust and connection through life experience. You see a lot on sets…” she trails off cryptically.
"When I put my mental health first, I try to achieve little goals throughout the day as it gives me a sense of accomplishment and momentum which is important in this industry.”
Amid a hectic schedule and notoriously gruelling industry, Wallis prioritises nurturing her inner self whenever she can. Time away from set includes journalling, motorbike riding, writing poetry and spending time with her Shiba Inu called Arlo. “He’s my bestie,” she says, her face lighting up about her five-year-old pup. Arlo accompanies Wallis while she’s filming, providing canine comfort when she feels down. “There are so few people that can relate to your life that the lows are really low. But I’m always working on myself as I know that most of my artist friends are as well. I usually turn to my support system. Family, friends, therapy. When I put my mental health first, I try to achieve little goals throughout the day as it gives me a sense of accomplishment and momentum which is important in this industry.”
While being struck by her poise, I can’t help but feel that the actress is someone I could spend hours within a Hackney pub, mulling over the ins and outs of the entertainment industry, mental health woes and our love for dogs. Her media training refrains her from delving into anecdotes she’s clearly tempted to share, but she shows professional restraint, warmly laughing off my gentle attempts to probe.
“Home is where your family is, isn’t it?"
For now, Wallis continues to oscillate between west London and the west coast of America. “London and LA have my heart for different reasons, and LA is a place I go to for work. It has this creative energy and it’s magnetic. Some of my best friends are here. But it’s when you start to lose the fact that things are too LA and you get back to London and you’re like ‘Ah, this is normal!’”
The star has squeezed a lot into her 30 years. She celebrated her birthday in September at The Maine Mayfair, surrounded by family and friends including model Damian Hurley and content creator Oli White. Santa Brands’ crystal-dotted silver-blue mini dress with an ostrich feather trim was the birthday girl’s attire of choice, a surprising departure from the outfit she would normally choose: “I feel most confident in a tailored suit and killer heels. I know it’s a bit cliche, but it makes me feel unstoppable.” No matter, she looked mesmeric.
She candidly reflects upon the milestone: "I think I’m learning to not try and chase perfection, which is really hard to do in this industry. I do feel like there’s not enough support out there for everyone in the industry. I try to stick with the fact that I’m enough. I’ve learned to embrace every part of this weird and wonderful journey."
The full interview with Wallis Day appears in the December/January issue of H! Fashion, out now…
Editor: @nataliesalmon
Photographer: @_saskialawson
Stylist: @sophiakatyea
Hair: @wilsonhorweifok
Makeup: @lanslondon
Words: @tanialeslau
Production: @clarepenners
Style & Commerce Director: @tanyaphilipson
Social Media Manager: @raymonda.j
Videographer: @leanneperrinsfilms
Location: @trinityhouseevents
Trinity House on Tower Hill is available for private hire, trinityhouse.co.uk, venue.enquiries@trinityhouse.co.uk
