Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega was already enjoying a banner 2022 before the series debuted on Netflix last fall. But when her take on the iconic Addams Family character finally arrived, it immediately catapulted her to the top of Hollywood’s A-list. Ortega’s performance has earned her several award nominations over the last few months, largely thanks to her commitment to nailing Wednesday’s personality and mannerisms. But as Ortega explains in a new interview, that same dedication extended behind the scenes as well, almost to a fault.
While appearing on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast (via Variety), Ortega discussed her own contributions to Wednesday’s writing process, reiterating that she had her own ideas about the character before signing onto the show. Because of this, she wasn’t afraid to “put her foot down” when it came to story and dialogue choices she didn’t agree with.
“Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all,” recalled Ortega. “Her being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about like, this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No, there’s no way.’”
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“There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines,” continued Ortega. “The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”
Regardless, she felt it was still important to give Wednesday a little bit of depth in order to make the series more watchable.
“I grew very, very protective of her,” admitted Ortega. “You can’t lead a story and have no emotional arc because then it’s boring and nobody likes you. When you are little and say very morbid, offensive stuff, it’s funny and endearing. But then you become a teenager and it’s nasty and you know it. There’s less of an excuse.”
Earlier this year, Netflix officially renewed Wednesday for season 2. However, the streaming service has yet to announce when the new episodes might premiere.
Do you think Ortega made the right creative choices for her character? Let us know in the comment section below!
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