Jenna Ortega Felt People Didn’t Always Trust Her With Wednesday’s Arc
Jenna Ortega is certainly having a moment. Her new show, Wednesday, has quickly become one of Netflix’s most popular series. Viewers and critics alike have praised Ortega for her performance in the comedy series. The 20-year-old was able to successfully re-imagine an iconic character for a new era and audience. But filming the hit show was far from a cakewalk for Ortega.
Jenna Ortega put in tons of work to become Wednesday Addams
To say that filming Wednesday was hard work would be a gross understatement. The show took Ortega to Romania for eight months. In addition to her 12-hour workdays, The Scream actor had lots of lessons and training to complete in order to become her character. Cello lessons, archery lessons, and German lessons were all a part of Ortega’s already bloated schedule. And since the actor did all of her own stunts, she also had to do stunt training.
Every director of the Netflix comedy series had a different vision for the actor’s character
But playing Wednesday Addams wasn’t just physically demanding for Ortega. It was a mental sport as well. She had to keep track of her character’s arc constantly. This was made more difficult by the number of creatives involved in the project. While executive producer, Tim Burton, directed the first four episodes, other directors (with unique visions of her character) directed the other four. Ortega admits that she sometimes felt that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and initially, she struggled with making her voice heard.
Ortega admits that she didn’t always feel like people trusted her to create Wednesday’s arc
“I felt like everybody wanted different things from her,” Ortega shared about her character in a conversation for Interview Magazine. “I remember Tim did not want me to have any expression or emotion at all. He wanted a flat surface, which I understand. It’s funny and great except when you’re trying to move a plot along, and Wednesday is in every scene. There were a lot of battles like that because I felt like people didn’t always trust me when I was creating my path in terms of, ‘Okay, this is her arc. This is where she gets emotional.'”
Tim Burton was a great collaborator for Ortega
In the first month of filming, Ortega was so overwhelmed that she called her parents nightly in a panic. However, as the shoot went on, The Fallout actor learned to advocate for both herself and her character. She also found support by confiding in Burton and other collaborators on the Wednesday set. This gave her the opportunity to fight to keep her character unique and to have more agency over her arc.
“I felt like sometimes, in the attempt to make her a human girl, they were trying to make her any other teenage girl,” Ortega shared about Wednesday. “I remember Tim being really wonderful about things like that and calling me to his trailer in the mornings and saying, ‘What are you uncomfortable saying? What do you want to say?’ When you have supportive collaborators like Tim, it makes it a lot easier. There were a couple people like that on set who were my rocks, for sure.”
Clearly, filming Wednesday wasn’t an easy road for Ortega. Still, the actor managed to do a great job with the role. Hopefully, if the show is renewed for season two, she’ll continue to wield the agency she found while filming season one.
