‘Wednesday’ Actor Percy Hynes White Says Living With Jenna Ortega in Romania Was Like ‘Summer Camp’
Wednesday actor Percy Hynes White, who plays Jenna Ortega’s love interest Xavier Thorpe in the Netflix series, opened up about what it was like living with his co-stars in Romania during filming. Here’s what White said about the experience and Romanian culture.
‘Wednesday’ actors Jenna Ortega and Percy Hynes White lived in Romania during filming
Most of Tim Burton’s Wednesday, a Netflix spinoff of The Addams Family, takes place at the fictional Nevermore Academy. The spooky series was filmed in Bușteni, Romania, from September 2021 to March 2022.
Much of the action took place in Cantacuzino Castle, nestled in the tree-covered hills and valleys of the Bucegi Mountains. The castle, which was built in 1911 by Romanian politician Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, is open to the public, along with its neighboring parkland full of fountains and grottos (per TimeOut).
But the actual castle isn’t nearly as gothic and creepy as it appears on Wednesday. CGI helped transform Cantacuzino Castle into the setting of the show’s mysterious killings, as well as the love triangle between Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan), and Xavier Thorpe (Percy Hynes White).
‘Wednesday’ actor Percy Hynes White says living with Jenna Ortega in Romania was like ‘summer camp’
Actor Percy Hynes White played Xavier Thorpe, a tortured artist and one of Wednesday Addams’ (portrayed by Jenna Ortega)’s love interests. The actor revealed that he lived in a building with some of his other co-stars, including Ortega, while filming in Romania.
“It was weird, yeah,” White told Hollywire when asked what it was like to move to another country for several months. “We all like, me and Georgie [Farmer] and Jenna lived in a building together where we each were renting an apartment, just stacked on top of each other, and that was really fun.”
White said the sleeping arrangements and learning new skills for the role made him feel like he was at summer camp. “So, I don’t know, it kind of felt like summer camp. We got to do all these crazy sports activities and learn all these, like, archery and canoeing and all this stuff,” he said. “And yeah, we were over in Eastern Europe. So it was really like sleepaway camp for eight months.”
The Xavier Thorpe actor said he got an ‘authentic experience’ of what the Eastern European country was really like
Percy Hynes White said he and the Wednesday co-stars he lived with, Jenna Ortega and Georgie Farmer (who played the snake-haired Ajax Petropolus), got to experience what Romania was truly like while filming the Netflix series.
“I think we got a more authentic experience of Romania working there than we would have if we were there being tourists because we really got to see what the people were really like for a long amount of time,” the Xavier Thorpe actor said in a red carpet interview with Hollywire. “And honestly, it might not sound like the most glamorous thing, but everyone there is so welcoming and so great, and I had a great time.
He also addressed the stereotype that people in the area are “harsher.” “There’s definitely a stereotype about Eastern Europe in general being this sort of drab place, but it has an extremely rich culture,” White shared. “It’s cool.”
