The green room was colder than it needed to be. I could feel it in my arms even though I wore long sleeves, and I kept trying not to pull at the cuffs. The sleeves were slightly too long, by design—meant to brush the wrist and cover the part of the hand that always felt exposed in front of cameras. Someone had handed me a bottle of water earlier, the kind with a twist cap and a silent label, and I’d opened it and then forgotten it on the side table. I hadn’t touched it since.

My makeup ...