Jenna Ortega on ‘Wednesday’: ‘I Don’t Know If I Did a Good Job’
Jenna Ortega has been acting for a decade, but Wednesday Addams is undoubtedly her most high-profile role to date. Though she’s starred in You, another popular Netflix show, nothing could’ve prepared her for the success of Wednesday. The show has quickly become a hit. In fact, the streaming platform reported that the comedy-horror series is their second most popular English language show of all time, second only to Stranger Things.
Jenna Ortega didn’t expect ‘Wednesday’ to be so popular
The extreme popularity of Wednesday is likely due to a number of factors. One reason is undoubtedly due to how beloved the titular character is. The character has been around since 1938, thanks to the cartoonist, Charles Addams. Tim Burton can also take credit for some of the interest in the Netflix show. Wednesday marks his TV directorial debut, so naturally, fans of the filmmaker wanted to see how his work would transfer to the small screen.
But even with an iconic character and a well-known filmmaker, it’s still impressive that over a billion hours of Wednesday has been streamed thus far. And it seems that Ortega is more surprised than anyone about the show’s popularity. “I didn’t realize it at the time, and maybe that’s me being naive and lame because Tim Burton is attached to it, but I didn’t realize that so many people were going to care about the project,” Ortega revealed to The Face.
The actor admits that she doesn’t know if she did a good job embodying her character
Continuing on, Ortega explained that she felt retroactively nervous about her role in Wednesday, especially since it’s become popular. She shared that she continues to think of ways she could’ve enhanced both the character and her performance. The nerves are so intense that they sometimes keep her up at night.
“I feel like the nerves are coming back even more because I don’t know if I did a good job,” the Wednesday star shared. “I am in almost every scene. I feel like I’m still learning things about her every day – I lay up all night staring at the ceiling like, I could have done this, why didn’t I do that? It’s kind of a nightmare.”
Ortega put a lot of pressure on herself to reimagine the role of Wednesday Addams
But Ortega’s nerves weren’t the only feelings she had about Wednesday. The actor also put a lot of pressure on herself to create her own unique version of the role. Because the character is so iconic, she wanted to stay true to Wednesday’s essence. However, she wanted to do that without mimicking other actors who’d embodied the character in the past.
“Christina Ricci is a legend,” Ortega shared of her Wednesday co-star who played her character in the 90s. “The character wouldn’t have been as big if it hadn’t been for her performance. I know that I can’t knock anyone off, and I have to do it differently, but the script was also very reminiscent of her, so how can I take this and shift it in my manner?”
Ortega may have felt pressure and nerves, but millions of people are praising her portrayal of Wednesday. Hopefully, the talented actor will be able to put some of those incessant late-night thoughts into future performances if the show is renewed for season two.
