‘Wednesday’: Jenna Ortega Never Had a Hot Shower in 8 Months of Filming
To many, being a famous actor may seem pretty glamorous. Traveling to new places, photoshoots, high-fashion, and luxury experiences are often a part of a successful actor’s lifestyle. But making movies and TV shows is no cakewalk. This was especially true for Jenna Ortega and the cast of Wednesday when they were making the Netflix series. In fact, neither Ortega nor any of her castmates ever had hot running water during the duration of filming.
Where was ‘Wednesday’ filmed?
Though Nevermore is a fictional school, Wednesday was filmed in Romania, a very real place. Its preserved medieval towns seemed to offer the perfect backdrop for the supernatural show As the lead of the series, Ortega spent eight months in the European country. The bulk of the series was actually shot in the cold months. The Fallout actor has shared that when she first got to Romania, she had to use makeup to transform into Wednesday because her character is known for her “half-dead” appearance. However, when she was close to wrapping the show, she didn’t need any makeup at all, because she hadn’t been getting much sun.
Jenna Ortega and the entire ‘Wednesday’ cast never had hot water in Romania
While Ortega appreciates her time in Romania, her experience was hardly a glamorous one. In addition to 12-hour work days, she was constantly in lessons. In order to become Wednesday, the Scream actor studied cello, German, fencing, stunt work, and more. And if she wanted to relax after a hard day’s work, taking a hot shower was never an option. In fact, in a conversation with Christina Ricci for Interview Magazine, Ortega revealed that she never had access to hot water.
“People were going down with COVID left and right,” Ortega recalled. “The entire cast never had any hot water. The boilers in two of my apartments were broken, so I always took cold showers. Everything was closed because you couldn’t do anything. It feels like we survived something. I wear that as a badge of honor now. I won’t be able to compare that to anything else.”
Christina Ricci worried that the ‘Wednesday’ cast would die
The cast of Wednesday wasn’t in Romania long before the war between Ukraine and Russia broke out. This also contributed to the type of experience that they had. In fact, Ricci added that she was nervous that something terrible would happen to them when they’d finally wrapped the shoot. She recalls feeling relief when they left.
“I remember that morning at 4 a.m. when everybody was in the lounge leaving Romania,” Ricci recalled of Ortega and the Wednesday cast. “You guys were exhausted. I was crazed because I was sure that a nuclear power plant was going to be bombed somewhere near us, and we’d all die. I remember that feeling like we were escaping. We were getting out.”
Ortega enjoyed her time in Romania, but she was ready to go home after ‘Wednesday’ Season 1 wrapped
For her part, Ortega made deep connections in Romania and is still in contact with some of the people she met there. And while she referred to the country as “lovely” and “wonderful”, she admits that, after 8 months, “It was time to go home, for sure.”
