The star of Netflix’s upcoming show Wednesday, Jenna Ortega, has revealed that she unknowingly had Covid-19 when filming a pivotal dance scene for the show. This comes in the form of the segment where the titular character starts dancing to ‘Goo Goo Muck’ by psychobilly pioneers The Cramps.
“It’s crazy,” said in a new interview with the NME, whilst also disclosing that she choreographed the scene herself. “It was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film.”
The actor recalled that morning, saying she woke up with body aches, which she thought was strange as she’s rarely ever sick. “I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my oesophagus,” she said. “They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”
However, after her test returned positive, she was removed from the set in conjunction with the strict Covid-19 protocols. “I asked to redo it but we didn’t have time,” she continued. “I think I probably could have done it a bit better…”
MGM, the producers of Wednesday, then explained in a statement that “strict COVID protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from set.”
The actor then revealed that she took inspiration from the high priestess of all things goth, Siouxsie Sioux, for the scene after watching the video for ‘Happy House’. She continued: “There’s a bit in Wednesday’s dance where I’m jumping to the left and I have my arms to the side and that’s something that [Siouxsie] did on stage later in her career.”
Wednesday premieres on November 23rd on Netflix, with all eight episodes instantly available for streaming.
