Jenna Ortega, the star of the surprise Netflix hit Wednesday, has reported that whilst preparing for one sequence on set, she was left “hysterically crying”.
Diverting from the plot of the original series, Wednesday tells the story of the emotionally reserved Wednesday Addams (Ortega), who tries to navigate a tumultuous school life. Starring the rest of the Addams Family characters, including Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia and Luis Guzmán as Gomez, the cast also includes the likes of George Burcea, Gwendoline Christie, Isaac Ordonez, Georgie Farmer, and Riki Lindhome.
When speaking at a Netflix Q&A panel, Ortega spoke about the physical and mental stress of filming the series, recalling long days and demanding requirements.
“It was show up to set two hours early, do that 12-14 hour day, then go home and then get on a Zoom and have whatever lesson that I had,” she stated, “Or show up to my apartment, my cello teacher was already waiting for me”. Continuing, she adds, “It was just constantly going, and if you could on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting the sixth day that week, it was, ‘All right, well then, we’ll get your lessons in on that day’”.
Difficulty for Ortega came when she started learning the cello for the role months before filming, “I did not get any sleep. I pulled my hair out…There’s so many FaceTime calls that my dad answered of me hysterically crying…I didn’t know where my hands were even supposed to go and then I had to make two cellos come out of one cello, which was ridiculous”.
Directing all eight episodes of the upcoming series, the mind behind Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish and Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton, left screenwriting duties to five different writers, including Alfred Gough. Take a look at the trailer for the series below.
