Jenna Ortega, the star of Netflix’s most recent hit series Wednesday, had a major part to play in crafting her character by avoiding some of the lines written for her.
The former Disney Channel actor, 20, stars as the titular character Wednesday Addams in the eight-episode comedy about the oddball teen who starts a new academy after she’s expelled from high school.
Wednesday is adored for her emotionless demeanour and constant poker face, and the Scream star has had rave reviews for her performance.
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And now, the actor has explained how she was able to make some changes to her lines to perfect the Wednesday character, including how she refused to say a ‘cringe’ line intended for the show’s fourth episode.
In said episode, Wednesday admires a gown on display in the window of an antique shop, with Thing perched on her shoulder.
Later on, Tyler (Hunter Doohan) arrives to whisk her away to the school's annual dance and as she scours her room for something to wear, Thing directs her to her bed where the dress she saw earlier is now lying.
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Now that Thing has saved her from a wardrobe catastrophe, Wednesday gives the disembodied hand a thankful look without saying anything – and this was a choice Ortega made during production.
“I remember there’s a line where I’m talking about a dress and initially she was supposed to say: ‘Oh my God I’m freaking out over a dress, I literally hate myself’,” Ortega shared during a Netflix Q&A.
“And I was blown away because that sounded like… it was just a bunch of little things like that,” she explained. “Where I felt like we were able to avoid a lot of dialogue in an attempt to make her sound human.”
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A video of the Q&A was shared on TikTok with the caption: "Jenna says she got to change some of Wednesday script [because] some of the lines were cringe."
In other news, Ortega said she suffered ‘one of the most awkward experiences’ with Christina Ricci onset, who played Wednesday in the live-action Addams Family films in the ‘90s.
In the Netflix series, Ricci plays new character Marilyn Thornhill in what was a surprise inclusion for many fans of the old films.
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month, Ortega recalled how her 'dark sense of humour' shocked Ricci.
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"I feel like I personally made it a little weird. She was really sweet about it. Me? It was one of the most awkward experiences I've ever had,” she said.
"You know, I'm dressed up the way she was 30 years ago, and she's getting to watch me, but I know her as Wednesday in my head, and I think, socially, I can be kind of hard to communicate with at times.
"And sometimes I would say something as a joke, and I think I have a very dark sense of humour, and she would go, 'Uh, that's dark.'
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"But she's a sweetheart. Like, if it hadn't been for her being so generous and professional and impressive as an individual... I think I was able to get over myself within the first couple of days."
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Celebrity