One of the better shows to come into production from Netflix in the recent past was Tim Burton’s Wednesday. Starring Jenna Ortega in the lead, the show was not only critically acclaimed and commercially successful but also reinstated the Beetlejuice director to his universally acknowledged post as Goth royalty. However, besides reaffirming what the world already knows of Burton, there was a spectacular new find in the genre of horror and the macabre – one who doesn’t flinch from admitting on television that she may be just as psychopathic as the character she portrays on-screen.
Jenna Ortega was perfect as the pale-faced, black-eyed, and raven-haired Wednesday. And even as the actor stunned her audience with the role she embodied, she herself was not entirely satisfied with bits and parts of a lot of aspects that were depicted on the screen.
Jenna Ortega Eviscerates Wednesday Writers on Air
It’s not every day that an actor as young and emergent as Jenna Ortega steps forward to outright deny playing a part a certain way or deliver a dialogue in a specifically phrased manner. But Ortega did and she admitted the lengths she went to in order to secure her Goth-queen alter-ego and her modernized personality.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday because it’s so easy to fall into that category, especially with this type of show. Everything that [Wednesday Addams] does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about like, this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No, there’s no way.’
There were times on that set when I even became almost unprofessional, in a sense, when I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought that I was going with something, and then I would have to sit down with the writers and they would be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would have to go through [the scene] and explain why I couldn’t do certain things.”
Also read: Jenna Ortega Demands More Horror, Less Love Triangle Romance Drama in Wednesday Season 2
It may not be difficult or deemed important to want to preserve the authenticity of one’s character, but it is a necessity in these times when so many writers and showrunners want to imprint a project with their own signature. Shows which are adapted from established works of art, literature, or game are the ones especially at risk here, and one misstep could derail a project horribly off-track (re: The Witcher vs. The Last of Us).
Steven DeKnight Blasts Jenna Ortega For Speaking Out
Steven DeKnight, writer of great series and films like Pacific Rim: Uprising, Spartacus, and Netflix’s Daredevil, has recently tweeted out against Jenna Ortega’s comments against the show’s writers.
“She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material. This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business.”
Ortega recently made headlines after news broke about her serving as the executive producer on the show’s upcoming Season 2 with fans hailing her decision to stake an authority over her on-screen character. Her earlier rant and advocacy for Wednesday’s core ideology convinced many in the fandom of her devotion to the creation borne out of Charles Addams’ imagination. Keeping the best interest of the literary anti-hero in mind seems to be Ortega’s top priority and as such, fans cannot complain as far as the show’s creative output is concerned.
Wednesday is available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Twitter | Steven DeKnight
