In episode four of the first season of Netflix’s Wednesday, Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams performs a dance routine at her school’s Rave ‘N’ dance. The clip of the dance has gone viral on social media in the last couple of weeks, but some news has recently surfaced that has drawn attention to Ortega and the show.
Wednesday has been on the receiving end of backlash after many people discovered that Ortega actually had Covid when she filmed the routine. Ortega had danced with her fellow Nevermore Academy students to The Cramps’ song ‘Goo Goo Muck’. Discussing filming the part in ‘Woe What A Night’, Ortega said, “I’d gotten the song about a week before, and I just pulled from whatever I could… it’s crazy because it was my first day with Covid, so it was awful to film.”
She added, “Yeah, I woke up and – it’s weird, I never get sick, and when I do, it’s not very bad – I had the body aches. 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. They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result. I asked to redo it, but we didn’t have time. I think I probably could have done it a bit better.”
It sounds particularly irresponsible of the studio to firstly demand that a sick person work when they probably needed rest, and secondly, put other crew and last members’ health at risk by not isolating that person. MGM claimed that “strict COVID protocols were followed, and once the positive test was confirmed, production removed Jenna from set”.
Several viewers of the show have since taken to social media in criticism of MGM and Netflix, claiming that this instance was not a matter of perseverance; it was merely showing disregard for the well-being of its employees.
