of Netflix WednesdayThe viral hit that made Jenna Ortega’s Hollywood stardom famous succeeds in a very specific tone: the series moves on its mundane, mundane characters. to become a supernatural teenage drama This allows viewers to watch her playfully writhe through twisted emotional discomfort. It’s not easy to strike that balance. At least, as Ortega said during a recent podcast interview.
“I don’t think I had to put my foot on the set the way I had to. Wednesday” the actress said this week. “Everything you do Everything I have to play It just doesn’t make any sense for her character.”
During her appearance on Monday Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, The host noted that Ortega and Wednesday There’s a “smallest needle in threading” between audience expectations for teen performances and staying true to the character, as Ortega said during her interview. Much of what Wednesday does in the series doesn’t feel like the character. “She’s in a love triangle for no reason at all,” explains Ortega. “There was a quote about the dress she had to wear to the school dance and she said, ‘Oh my god, I love it, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hated myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No.’”
Sometimes, Ortega says, she takes change in her own hands. “I’m almost unprofessional in some sense. Because I was just starting to change careers,” she tells Shepard. “The script supervisor thought I had to do something. Then I had to sit down with the writer. And they’ll say, ‘Wait, what happened to this scene?’ and I’m going to have to explain why I can’t do something.”
Ortega later said she would “oppose” initial plans for Wednesday’s trending dance scene. which was originally written as a flash mob where everyone started dancing with her: “I said cut it out or let Wednesday knock somebody. Come out and you’re done.”
“I grew up a lot. Very protective of her,” Ortega said of her character. At the same time, she allows, “You can’t lead the story and not have an emotional arc. Because it’s boring and no one likes you.”
During a previous interview about the dance scene, Ortega revealed that she would have to shoot the entire scene with Covid. The actress told NME that she woke up the morning of the shoot feeling “It was like I was hit by a car and a little goblin slipped into my throat and scratched the walls of my esophagus.” Wednesdaytell Non-NFE At a time when “strict COVID protocols were adhered to and once the positive test was confirmed, production removed Jenna from set”), Ortega said she was given the drug between hours while she awaited test results. COVID positive but didn’t have time to reshoot the scene.
Ortega holds a press conference as she prepares for the premiere of her latest film. Scream VI. in Ellie Profile published on Tuesday. Wednesday Creator Tim Burton muses that to be successful in the role, “you have to ‘be’ Wednesday—and that’s what Jenna is. Whether you like it or not You have that in your soul and as a person.”
