Jenna Ortega reveals she “became almost unprofessional” on ‘Wednesday’ set
(Credit: Netflix)

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Jenna Ortega reveals she “became almost unprofessional” on ‘Wednesday’ set

Jenna Ortega, the cool, calculated star of Tim Burton’s hit Netflix series Wednesday, has revealed in a new interview that she “became almost unprofessional” while working on set for the blockbusting show, which arrived in late 2022. 

During a recent episode of the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, Ortega revealed that, during filming, she got involved with the script-writing and occasionally clashed horns with the script supervisor because she felt “very, very protective” of her character.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday because it’s so easy to fall into that category, especially with this type of show,” Ortega said of her initial scepticism over the script.

“Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. 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.’”

“There was times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional, in a sense, where I just started changing lines,” she continued. “The script supervisor thought that I was going with something, and then I would have to sit down with the writers, and they would be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would to have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things,” she said.

“I grew very, very protective of [Wednesday], but you can’t lead a story and have no emotional arc because then it’s boring, and nobody likes you. Wednesday is a teenager. When you’re little, and you say morbid, offensive stuff, it’s funny and endearing. ‘Aww, you don’t know any better.’ But then you become a teenager, it’s, ‘Now you’re being nasty, and you know it.’ There’s less excuse.”

The one major change Ortega made to the script involved the iconic dance scene, where she throws intriguing shapes to The Cramps’ ‘Goo Goo Muck’. “Initially, it was supposed to be a flash mob, and she was supposed to start dancing, and everyone was supposed to pick up on it and start dancing with her. And that, I vetoed because why would she be OK with that? I said, ‘Either cut it or have Wednesday knock someone out, and then it’s done.’”

Watch the dance scene below.