‘Wednesday’ Star Jenna Ortega Had No Reservations Changing the Script – Sparking Outrage
While Tim Burton was behind Netflix‘s Wednesday series, Jenna Ortega brought the macabre teen character to life. The actor and crew spent a long time getting every meticulous detail right. Everything from her hair to Ortega’s blinkless expression. But when it came down to the Wednesday script, Ortega admitted to not being happy about the love triangle and further revealed she had no problem changing a few lines.
Jenna Ortega felt Wednesday having a love triangle was too far out of character
The Addams family goth character is infamous for a reason. She was cold, deadly, bizarre, secure in who she was, and did not care what others thought. While Christina Ricci made Wednesday a pop culture icon in the 90s, Ortega gave Wednesday a more modern spin with a supernatural twist. Unlike the movies, Wednesday Addams is a teen forced to attend Nevermore Academy after being expelled.
Along the way, her psychic abilities push her to investigate her parent’s past at Nevermore. Also a series of local murders and her ancestry. But one of the biggest changes was that Wednesday would give Ortega’s character a love triangle. Xavier Thorpe and Tyler Galpin show interest in her, but only one captures her heart by the Wednesday finale. The actor fought against the love triangle and made her opinion known.
“I told them very early on that I did not want her to be in the middle of a love triangle,” explained Ortega on ExtraTV. “I think she is so competitive, and she is so obsessed with this monster roaming around town. I think the romance aspect of the show, yeah, because it’s a teen show, I think it’s kind of entertaining for her in that sense. But I don’t think it’s something that she obsesses over. She’s not boy-crazy in any sense.”
But the actor has also come clean about how stressful starring in the series was. Ortega revealed that she often called her parents crying while working on Wednesday. She also explained how she felt the crew did not usually trust her judgment of her character.
Jenna Ortega’s honesty about changing the ‘Wednesday’ script did not sit well with fans
Ortega has often been very dedicated to her on-screen roles. She became critical of Wednesday because she bonded with the character and became “protective.” Ortega spoke with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast about how she changed the script or certain lines in Wednesday to fit her character better.
Ortega reiterated her distaste for the love triangle and commented that it “made no sense.” She admitted, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday.” There is one specific scene that Ortega used as a reference: the Rave’N dance.
Fans will remember how Wednesday planned to investigate with Euguene in the woods. But Tyler shows up at her door as her date. Thing had “stolen” a unique black dress that caught Wednesday’s eye in town. Ortega explained how the Wednesday script had her say how much she loved it before playing it cool. “I had to go, ‘No.’ There was times on that set I almost became unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines,” said the actor.
Ortega’s simple comment about how she changed the script sparked backlash. Some people felt she was being petty and disvaluing the writers. According to People, Writer Michael Sheridan commented, “Yeesh… now I get why writers are getting a bit upset about her comments. The way this is framed… it appears she claims she knew better than the writers, better than Tim Burton, & she’s why the show was a hit. I don’t know if she meant that, but that’s how this reads.”
‘Wednesday’ Season 2 will have the actor credited as a producer
Since her appearance on the podcast, Ortega deleted her Twitter account. While some ridicule her choice of words, others claim they see it another way. One fan commented that Ortega is a young woman who made changes to a female teen character written and directed by men.
Whether people take Ortega’s comments the wrong way, there is no denying that Ortega embodied the role in a way no one could have imagined. And it will only continue as Netflix greenlit Wednesday Season 2.
But it seems that Ortega will have more control over how Wednesday will be portrayed on-screen and possibly the script. In an interview with Elle, Ortega revealed she would serve as an executive producer for the new season.
