Jenna Ortega candidly explains how she changed certain lines of dialogue while filming Wednesday. Released in November 2022 to immediate success, the Tim Burton-helmed show follows the misadventures of the iconically morose Addams Family daughter as she hones her mystical abilities at Nevermore Academy while uncovering who has been murdering her peers. Praised for her ability to both maintain the melancholy core of the beloved character and differentiating her take on the role from those of her predecessors, Ortega’s apparent dedication to Wednesday has been met with acclaim.
While appearing on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Ortega explains how she fought to change certain Wednesday lines to make the show’s dialogue more authentic to the character.
Opening up about her protectiveness over the largest role of her career to date, Ortega reveals that her passion led to occasional arguments with the show’s writers regarding some of the scripted dialogue not reflecting Wednesday’s rich internal life. Check out what she had to say below:
“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 [the teen] category, especially with this type of show. 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 this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god, I love it! I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No, there’s no way.’ There were times on that set where I even became unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I would have to sit down with the writers and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things. I grew very, very protective of her.”
Why Jenna Ortega is The Perfect Wednesday
