‘Wednesday’: Tim Burton Handpicked Most of the Main Cast
On Wednesday, November 23, the Addams family returns to television for an eight-episode run on Netflix. Directed by the spooktacular Tim Burton and featuring a star-studded cast, Wednesday will focus on the now teenage daughter of the macabre but loving family. Jenna Ortega stars as the iconic goth girl confronting the social complexities of a new school and a murder mystery involving her family.
In 1938, cartoonist Charles Addams created The Addams Family as a satirical commentary on 20th-century American life, according to IMDb. His comic drew a following after appearing weekly in The New Yorker. ABC’s series followed in 1964.
Though it only aired until 1966, its enduring popularity spawned everything Addams from cartoons to feature films. Burton’s new version is much less cartoonish, and in order to create a sense of realism with believable characters, he wanted specific actors to play the principal roles.
Tim Burton’s ‘Wednesday’ has a stellar cast
For showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it was essential to make the series a new chapter rather than a reboot. That involved finding the right actors to play the iconic characters. Apparently, Gough and Millar let Burton take the lead in that department.
“Tim really elevated things with the cast of actors he was able to assemble in every role,” said Millar. The most crucial part was casting the lead character, and for Burton, Ortega was the perfect fit. A lover of horror films with a dry sense of humor, she began her acting career at age nine.
Ortega has appeared in a number of productions in the genre, including Insidious: Chapter 2, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and the Netflix original, You. “She’s like a silent movie actress in the sense where she’s able to convey things without words,” Burton said about Ortega. “…And that’s why we’re very lucky to have Jenna because I can’t imagine any other Wednesday.”
The award-winning character actor Luis Guzman, best known for playing villains and cops, portrays her father, Gomez, opposite the multi-talented Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia. Wednesday’s brother Pugsley is played by Isaac Ordonez, best known for his role in the 2018 film, A Wrinkle in Time.
Game of Thrones fans will be thrilled to see Gwendoline Christie appear as Larissa Weems, headmaster of Wednesday’s new school, Nevermore Academy. Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live fame plays her quirky Uncle Fester.
Tim Burton handpicked these main cast members of ‘Wednesday’
At Comic Con in New York, Ortega, Guzman, and Christie revealed how they found out Burton wanted to cast them. Ortega was working on a project in New Zealand when she got an email informing her that Burton wanted to speak to her about his upcoming Netflix project. “Obviously, I was excited at the idea of working with Tim and playing such an iconic character,” Ortega said, “so I got on a Zoom for maybe 10 minutes, and then I feel like it was kind of set in stone from there.”
Guzman was shooting a film in Cardiff, Wales, when he received an email saying that someone named Tim wanted to talk to him. “I go, ‘You know how many Tims I know?” Guzman said he gagged when he found out it was Burton.
“Yeah, and we did a Zoom meeting, and sure enough, Tim Burton shows up, and I go, ‘Oh wow, it really is you.’ And he told me about this project he was doing called Wednesday, and he asked me, ‘Would you be my Gomez?’ and I go, ‘If you be my Tim, I’ll be your Gomez.”
Christie said she found out via text message. “I think I was walking through a field at the time, and I was thinking about how I was enjoying being one with the universe,” she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
“And then I was reminded of what is really important to me in life, which is obviously Tim Burton,” Christie said she was so emotional that she turned bright red during their Zoom meeting. “It was embarrassing, but he gave me the part anyway.”
Tim Burton also asked Christina Ricci to play a role in Wednesday
In August, Collider reported that Christina Ricci is excited to appear in the series as Marilyn Thornhill, a sort of den mother to the girls at Nevermore. Ricci famously played Wednesday Addams in the 1991 film adaptation of The Addams Family and again in its sequel, Addams Family Values, in 1993.
“It’s Tim Burton, I was so honored to be asked by him because he is just, you know, a genius,” Ricci said,
“And then … to be asked to be a part of the new version of this thing that is a huge part of my identity and my history in my life. I mean, I know they didn’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts, but I was really touched by it, and I felt like it was very nice. And it’s such a fun world, and my character is outrageous and fun and different than anything I’ve done, and it was really great. And I just had a really lovely experience on that with Jenna, who is amazing, and I think now people have a taste of her Wednesday, and it’s gonna be fantastic. She is really incredible. And Gwendoline Christie, I love working with her. She’s my favorite.”
