Summary
- Lead star Jenna Ortega reflects on controversial comments from season one during filming for highly anticipated season two.
- Ortega owns up to "unprofessional" behavior on set regarding character writing, sparking backlash and negative publicity responses.
- Despite past missteps, Ortega's changes to the script and new role as producer promise a bigger, better, and more macabre second season.
Wednesday is currently in filming for its highly anticipated second season, and lead star Jenna Ortega has recently taken some time to think back on one of her more controversial moments from the news cycle of the show’s first season.
Wednesday is one of the most successful shows on Netflix, emerging from the popular Addams Family franchise to give a more modern, narrative spin on the previous iterations shown in films and TV shows. Debuting on the streamer, the show would become an instant hit, with fans fawning over the leading lady Jenna Ortega’s perfect portrayal of Wednesday Addams. While it was a massive success and cemented Ortega’s version of the titular character in the popular consciousness, the second season does have a few problems to fix from the first.
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There was one problem from the show’s first season that had nothing to do with the plot, though. In an interview, Ortega would own up to 'unprofessional' behavior on the set of Wednesday, specifically in regards to her treatment of the writing for her character, and described having to rewrite swaths of it in a way that rubbed many people the wrong way at the time. During an interview with Vanity Fair discussing Wednesday season two and the upcoming sequel film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ortega discussed her retrospective thoughts on the matter, as well as he regrets concerning the statements she made. “I probably could have used my words better in describing all of that. I think, oftentimes, I’m such a rambler.” the actress confessed. “I think it was hard because I felt like had I represented the situation better, it probably would’ve been received better.”
The comments were certainly not received well, sparking a whole host of responses and scathing retorts from all corners. “Everything that I said felt so magnified…. It felt almost dystopian to me,” she recalls of the ensuing storm of negative publicity. “I felt like a caricature of myself.” Ortega was heavily criticized amidst the Writer’s Strike for her Wednesday comments, with some going so far as to use her as material for signs on the picket line. The on-set behavior, which the actress attributed to her then-burgeoning protectiveness around the iconic character she was inheriting, was just as much cause for the backlash as the attitude attributed to the comments themselves.
As the interview notes elsewhere, the whole situation was something of an initiation into the nature of these sorts of comments and will help the young star grow as an actress. Ortega’s changes to the script were certainly the right move, and the fan reception to the character has borne this out. While this doesn’t excuse self-admittedly unprofessional behavior, it should be taken into consideration when assessing her new role as producer on the show. With the passionate star running double duty as lead and producer, it can only mean an even more morbidly appealing iteration of the character coming in season two. While production started earlier in the year, there’s still no news on a release date for the upcoming season, which is hopefully indicative of a substance-over-speed approach to crafting the content for fans.
As the upcoming second season of Wednesday has already broken records with its budget and scope of filming, there’s no doubt that it’s going to be a bigger and better installment than the first. Fans will have to wait patiently until the second season’s premiere to see what delightfully macabre improvements and storylines it brings to the franchise.
Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix
Wednesday
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- Release Date
- November 23, 2022
- Cast
- Jenna Ortega, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Hunter Doohan, Moosa Mostafa, Christina Ricci, Georgie Farmer, Percy Hynes White, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Naomi J. Ogawa, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Isaac Ordonez, Iman Marson, Max Pemberton, George Valentin Burcea, James Clay, Caroline Lawrie, Johnna Dias-Watson, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Calum Ross, Cezar Grumazescu, Simon Furness
- Showrunner
- Miles Millar, Alfred Gough
- Directors
- Tim Burton, James Marshall
- Writers
- April Blair
- Franchise(s)
- The Addams Family
- Seasons
- 2
- Story By
- Charles Addams
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
.
Source: Vanity Fair