Jenna Ortega broke the internet with her remarkable portrayal of Wednesday Adams in the hit Netflix series, Wednesday. And this time too she has yet again broken the net with her latest dark Wednesday-esque drama, Miller’s Girl. Released in theatres last month, the film has been garnering a lot of attention for numerous reasons, most of them controversial.
While the film, also starring Martin Freeman, has been receiving somewhat mixed critical reviews, it features an inappropriate and complicated relationship between Ortega and Freeman, which fans have not been delighted about. Yet while the actress did not find them uncomfortable, we reckon she would have refused the film seeing the ridiculously long original draft of the script.
Miller’s Girl Draft Was So Long That Jenna Ortega Would Have Said No
Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman‘s latest Miller’s Girl is an American black comedy featuring an extraordinary young student and a failed writer, yet accomplished teacher, who gets entangled into a complex relationship leading to some pretty unfortunate events. Written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett, the film was her first screenplay and hence was understandably long.
In an interview with Bleeding Cool, the actor-writer-director was asked about how the film was developed and what hurdles she had faced and Bartlett revealed,
“Adapting it to screen was…it was the first screenplay I’d ever done. My draft was 168 pages long. The current draft is 103.”
Seeing that the average length of a script is mostly between 90-110 pages (unless it’s a Chris Nolan film), 168 pages would have been too long. Yet, even though each page of the script usually represents a minute of screen time, a 168-page-long script for a first-time directorial film seems okay.
Despite Backlash, Jenna Ortega Felt Comfortable Filming Intimate Scenes With Martin Freeman
While we reckon that a 168-page-long script might have been too much for Jenna Ortega or any other actor starring in a director’s first movie, the actress was apparently fine with filming intimate scenes with Martin Freeman despite their age gap.
Fans and netizens felt pretty ‘disturbed’ and ‘uncomfortable‘ seeing the two actors (since Ortega is 21 and Freeman is 52) engage in intimate scenes (via The Independent). However, the young actress was comfortable and undeterred.
The intimacy coordinator for the film, Kristina Arjona, while talking to the Daily Mail, clapped back on the countless negative and hate comments stating that the film’s intimate scenes were gross. Arjona revealed the safe and comfortable environment on the set, while also remarking that the actors were allowed to change the script or certain elements in case they were uncomfortable at any point.
And so while the fans are concerned about the actress, it must be noted that Jenna Ortega is a 21-year-old adult, capable of making her own independent choices and roles.
Miller’s Girl is in theatres now.
