Big toy manufacturers continue to brand products according to gender while many global toy chains have stopped labeling aisles “boy” or “girl”. It’s contradictory, but it is what it is. Children obviously don’t like to be judged, yet they are forced to conform, even at an age when the number of stay-at-home dads is on the rise, highlighting the swapping of traditional gender roles. We often forget that it’s normal for a young boy to want to be the person he has a close relationship with, like a sister (and vice versa). The boy may want to paint his nails, sport ribbons in his hair and even dress up like a princess because he may adore what his sister does.

Masculinity is about accepting a person for what he or she is, something that’s shown beautifully in the film Palmer, which is screening exclusively on Apple TV+.

In the film, Justin Timberlake is far removed from the image he has in the pop world, based on deception and enigma. He was Zayn Malik when Zayn was taking steps into his teens. Now Zayn is walking in the footsteps of Justin Timberlake, who — with every passing year — looks more like pensiveness personified. Bearded, rugged and dripping sweat like the son of the soil, the former NSYNC man plays the title character, who has just finished time in prison, returning home to rural Louisiana where grandma (June Squibb) awaits. Both his parents have passed on.

Eddie Palmer returns to do what appears stereotypical for a few minutes — pour shots down his hatch, eye that woman (Juno Temple’s Shelly) with sassy talk, and make the drive to her trailer-home where a wild night is had. These five minutes of cinematic cliches that haunt Palmer are far removed from the remaining 90-odd minutes as his house turns out to be just next door to the always-high Shelly, who has a son named Sam (Ryder Allen). The boy likes to sport ribbons and bows, something the person he loves doesn’t object to — Palmer’s grandma.

Sam’s a misfit much like Palmer, who is trying to right wrongs. The eight-year-old finds a shoulder to lean on in Palmer and his teacher, Maggie (Alisha Wainwright). “I guess sometimes we all kind of feel a little bit like misfits, right? I came into acting as a second career. My primary, my first job, was as a scientist, so I’ve kind of come into acting late in the game. I will say I feel a little bit kind of an outsider. But in terms of relating to the project, what really got me were the themes about family and about feeling like you can be accepted by the family that you make,” she says over a video chat that was arranged by Apple.

Wainwright’s meteoric rise — playing Nicole in Raising Dion and Maia in Shadowhunters — was preceded by a career in the sciences. The 31-year-old studied botany at the University of Florida and then moved to Panama to prepare for a PhD. “I had a very weird anthropological-botanical focus,” she had said in earlier interviews.

Of course, there’s no looking back as success has come in heaps: “I wouldn’t change the journey I’ve taken. I had a strong passion for science and I really thought it was something that would be my career. But, at times, your perspective on things that you love change and I found myself more creatively fulfilled as an actor. So I took the chance and I feel fortunate that it worked out. If it didn’t, maybe I would have become a scientist again, who knows,” she said unhesitatingly during the video chat.

Justin Timberlake and Ryder Allen form a pair of misfits in Palmer. Picture courtesy: Apple

There’s no denying that Timberlake and a four-feet Allen enjoy most of the screen time but it’s Wainwright who is the glue holding the chapters, taking the story forward. “I play a supporting character, so I think as a supporting character, her function is perfect. The story is about Palmer and Sam, so the role I play facilitates their storyline, but I’m not a static character; I actually say and do things and have a backstory, so you get the feeling — ‘Oh, this is a real person’. I think less about genre and more about, you know, this character… someone I identify with… someone who fits into the story in a meaningful way and then when I read the script, that’s how I felt.”

To slip into her role, the Florida-born actress did some “shadowing at the local elementary school to kind of understand how a classroom works”. She does it well, right down to the wardrobe, which is “off the shelf, from the rack. I didn’t want anything new.”

The movie’s heart is revealed towards the end when Palmer’s outsider status finds reflection in Sam’s nonconformity. Sam asks Palmer if he is queer, to which the answer is a simple: “I’m different, that’s for sure.”

And that element of nonconformity reverberates with Wainwright whose acting career opened up to a range of possibilities with Raising Dion and continues with Palmer, taking her away from the world of science or the moment when she toyed with the idea of becoming a winemaker (she suggests a white wine spritzer while watching films at home).

Getting her act right

Name: Alisha Wainwright, 31

Past instincts: Majored in botany from the University of Florida and then found a spot at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama

Fancy-free: She has got some boxing chops and has considered a career in winemaking

Early gig: Starring in an Apple commercial for the company’s Maps app

Known for: Played Maia Roberts in Shadowhunters and Nicole Reese in Raising Dion, both on TV. Latest is the film Palmer