Joy Sunday Has Us Under Her Spell

"I'm walking on eggshells making sure I don't spoil anything for you," Joy Sunday says in a brief moment of distress. The Wednesday actress has the arduous task of promoting a project that is very much guarded under lock and key by the folks at Netflix, which requires a bit of mental gymnastics as we talk about the latest in the world of our favorite Nevermore Academy siren Bianca Barclay, the character who made Sunday a scene-stealing breakout. We're just a few weeks away from the show's highly anticipated return when Sunday and I meet via Zoom. The next day, she will fly to Poland to kick off the global press tour—a thrilling whirlwind fashion affair, which we'll get to later.

Based on the character Wednesday Addams and helmed by the visionary Tim Burton, the supernatural dark comedy Wednesday is, by all accounts, a major success. Following its debut in the fall of 2022, it became the most-viewed English-language series on Netflix, putting its star, Jenna Ortega, on practically every "ones to watch" list and nabbing four Primetime Emmy Awards. Season 2, part 1 arrived over two years later with excitement at an all-time high, receiving 50 million views in its first five days.

For its young ensemble cast, Wednesday is the kind of opportunity and star-making moment dreams are made of. "When it came to actually being in it, it was very surreal and very cool to be expanding the [Addams Family] universe as a completely new character," Sunday says. "That never fails to make me smile."

While Sunday was aware of the Addams Family IP growing up in Staten Island, New York ("Everybody knows that [theme song] and snap"), she never had the chance to engage with the films and TV shows. Anything of a spooky, gothic nature was considered taboo in her Nigerian household, which meant there was no celebrating Halloween and definitely no watching The Addams Family.

"It was funny because I had invited my dad to the premiere of Wednesday season 1," Sunday recalls. "It's all this revelry and happiness and celebration, and then you sit down, and the credits start to roll, and I thought, 'Oh my God, Joy!' I just turn to my dad, and I say, 'So, Dad, by the way, this is kind of a supernatural show,' and he turns to me and goes, 'Oh, that's okay. I've seen The Shining.' That's pretty much my family's relation with scary, spooky things—it's either nothing or The Shining."

Sunday's Bianca was a season 1 standout. Everyone loves a great redemption arc, and Bianca's "mean girl to hero" story is no exception. When we first meet the siren in a fencing classroom, she is guarded, cold, and competitive, which plays out in a fun-to-watch rivalry throughout the season with Wednesday. As the layers begin to peel back, a vulnerable side comes to the surface, revealing a young woman struggling with her family's sordid past and trying to find her own identity as a siren. Bianca is a character fans could easily relate to, which was an exciting element for Sunday. "Everybody has a bad day. Everybody's a mean girl once in a while," the actress says. "So it was nice to see … what's happening in the background. … A lot of people shared [that] was how they connected with the character."

The role required a fast-paced shooting schedule and intense prep, including fencing and canoeing lessons, but Sunday tells me it was the most comfortable she's ever been on a set. "I wasn't nervous [and] shaking in my boots, which is wild because I'm on set with Tim Burton and Catherine Zeta-Jones."

Season 2, however, was a little different for Sunday. "I don't know if there's an actual phrase for it, but it's like a sequel scare. I definitely wanted to make sure I kept the magic from season 1," she says. Almost three years had passed between the filming of season 1 and season 2, and this time around, Sunday decided to take a different approach to her on-screen queen bee. A forever student of the craft, she hired a new acting teacher and dove into more character work, which involved building out Bianca's backstory even further. She explored the needs Bianca would have had as a child, as an adolescent, and now as a teenager from her parents and how those needs would have shaped who she is today. She also explored Bianca's relationship to her mother and how that influences how she uses her own powers.

"It caused me to have a different viewpoint of Bianca," Sunday reveals of the process. "A lot of her motivations and the things she responded to kind of shifted because of what I discovered in my work. How I perform is very instinctual, so there's always something holding us (Bianca and I) together. Regardless of the work that I do, there's still a through line."

Tiptoeing around any major plot details and spoilers, Sunday shares that season 2 is all about Bianca learning to accept hope and community and not to bear the burden of her past all on her own. In a first for the character, we'll also see her embrace her powers to defend herself, not just for the benefit of others or in a deceitful way.

Outside of the thorough prep work Sunday put in, slipping into Bianca's black-and-purple Nevermore uniform brought the actress right back to the character. Sunday excitedly tells me that Bianca's style has evolved across seasons in a way that mirrors the character's progression, and finding that was a fun collaboration with the costume team. "I always love working with Mark [Sutherland] and Colleen [Atwood]. They're just amazing and let me fly when it comes to the wardrobe," she says.

Fashion has long been a form of self-expression for Sunday. She lights up while talking about the topic and the zany ideas (including one particularly ghastly outfit involving suspenders and neon she dreamed up as a teen) she brings to her team. "The exciting part about [fashion] is that it's such a specific viewpoint that you get to communicate by just walking around," she says.

If there's an opportunity to dress up, Sunday jumps at it, so when it came time to dream up looks for the Wednesday press tour, she and her stylist Darryl Glover went all out, "playing into the Bianca of it all" with uniform-inspired looks and gothic vibes. Among my favorites were a fabulous Keburia houndstooth blazer with a statement neckline and sleeves for the Wednesday photo-call, a showstopping head-to-toe crimson Alexander McQueen number for the London premiere, and a very Nevermore-esque striped Juun.J dress.

While fashion may be Sunday's first love, the actress has also become somewhat synonymous with bold beauty thanks in part to her partnership with Lancôme, who officially tapped the actress to be a global ambassador in 2024. Since then, she and makeup artist Pauly Blanch have been creating makeup magic, but as she tells me, it wasn't always like this for Sunday. "I didn't really touch makeup probably until I was 20," she says. "Is that crazy?"

Sunday quickly affirms it might be a little crazy but explains that she just never put a lot of thought into beauty and makeup because she always found herself beautiful. It wasn't until college and because of headshots and going to auditions that she started to experiment and learn what looks good on her face.

Growing up, Sunday received a lot of harassment for her skin color, but looking back at that time, she's thankful she never internalized the terrible words. "It thankfully forced me to actually realize how beautiful I am by myself and to really build that for myself," she says. "That's something that I feel like I'll have forever, so beauty has really worked to just enhance that. It's just like fashion. Once I really learn how to beat my face, it's over for everyone."

With a major beauty contract and an array of impressive TV performances under her belt, Sunday continues to cement herself as one of the most exciting rising talents in the industry, but if you ask her, it hasn't always been easy. While one might imagine a platform like Wednesday instantly opens doors, that wasn't the case for Sunday. "It didn't necessarily shoot me out into the stratosphere," she says with refreshing honesty. "I have to navigate that as an actor. A lot of actors have that moment where it's like, 'Okay, I've got this thing, but what's next?' For a while, I really struggled with the insecurity of that, both financially and emotionally."

Sunday hasn't always had a positive relationship with acting. While her love of performance bloomed at home watching Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) films—namely actors Genevieve Nnaji and Nkem Owoh—the dream fizzled a bit while she was attending LaGuardia High School in New York. The institution is known for turning out A-list talent like Timothée Chalamet and Sarah Paulson, but Sunday describes her time there as a bit of an ordeal. "Michaela Coel and Daniel Kaluuya have spoken about this. Conservatories aren't always kind to Black and Brown actors, to poor actors, so it really forced me to be really self-actualizing about my career," she says.

Discouraged by her experience at LaGuardia, Sunday says she quit acting in high school and instead moved to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking. Eventually, though, she found her way back to acting—even crediting the high school for that choice. "At the end of the day, I was still hungry for it," Sunday says of acting. "Being surrounded by art 24/7 was so amazing, and I can't live any other way now. LaGuardia really gave me the foundation for living an artist's life."

It's a good thing, too, because what followed were roles in Dear White People, Bad Hair, and The Beta Test, all leading to her breakout performance in Wednesday.

So what's next for the exceptional talent?

"This year has been really exciting because I pretty much got to do everything that I've wanted to do for so long," Sunday shares. She recently wrapped filming the dark comedy series DTF St. Louis with Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and Richard Jenkins, a project she says would have seen her shaking in her boots if not for Wednesday. "It showed me that it was all worth it and everything happens for a reason and everything happens in its own time. Because of Wednesday, I've had to really mature as an actor and as an adult," she says.

It was also the year that saw Sunday producing a couple of projects and preparing to step into a directorial role. Wanting to do everything everywhere all at once, she starts listing the items on her to-do list, like becoming fluent in another language, learning how to DJ, and starring in a couple of studio features and some indie projects.

"I'm really grateful for where I'm at in my career," she says. "I just want to live an artist's life."

We certainly can't fault her for that.

Wednesday season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

Photographer: Danny Kasirye
Stylist: Mimi Kim
Hairstylist: Kenshy Delva
Makeup Artist: Nadia Tayeh
Manicurist: Ami Vega
Creative Director: Natalia Sztyk
Producer: Nick De Bellis