SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; as a part of the strike, union actors should not promoting their film and TV projects. This interview was conducted prior to the strike.

The tires of Taylor Zakhar Perez’s plane have just touched ground at LaGuardia airport the morning of July 13, mere hours before the Hollywood actors’ strike can be made official. It’s likely he’s only just now seeing the text from his team telling him to call some journalist from Allure magazine as soon as he can. He calls me just as he’s finding a seat by the airport’s gaudy Latest York City-themed “water show” installation that blasts Frank Sinatra every five minutes (“It seems like Fantasia”). It’s not a really perfect time nor place to do press, and yet, after I bring up the subject of skincare, it’s like I can hear his face lighting up.

The actor leads Amazon Prime’s Red, White & Royal Bluea queer rom-com based on the bestselling novel of the identical name (you furthermore may know him from The Kissing Booth movie franchise and his short stint as a porn model on the series Minx). Alex Claremont-Diaz, his character in the previous, is the sort of guy who “rolls off the bed, puts a cap on, and gets out,” despite being the son of a United States President. “I do not really think he spends an excessive amount of time primping or prepping,” he explains.