Wednesday Addams is truly “not like other girls.” Her acerbic nature and bizarre hobbies have made her a complex yet beloved character for decades on end. Recently, Jenna Ortega reimagined the iconic character for the Netflix series, Wednesday. The actor has received praise for putting her own flair on the character while also remaining true to what audiences have always loved about the Addams daughter. But striking such a delicate balance wasn’t always easy for Ortega. In fact, she often had to fight to remain true to her character.
Jenna Ortega wasn’t initially interested in joining the ‘Wednesday’ cast
Despite being compared to Wednesday her whole life, when Ortega first learned about the Netflix series, she wasn’t super interested in joining the cast. The actor had finally broken into the film world and wasn’t exactly interested in returning to her TV roots. However, when she learned that Tim Burton was interested in her for the titular role, she couldn’t turn down an opportunity to meet with the acclaimed director.
In Ortega’s meeting, she read through the sides for Wednesday once. The director also told her about his concept for the show. While speaking with Christina Ricci for Interview Magazine, Ortega recalled how the show was initially pitched to her.
How was the Netflix series was pitched to the talented actor?
“They told me that Wednesday was going to boarding school, and she got in trouble,” Ortega remembered. “It’s like Nancy Drew–esque in the sense that she’s into mystery and is doing this detective thing. She gets into a school with all of these people that have special powers, but she remains an outcast in a sea full of outcasts.”
As Ortega had been a fan of Wednesday Addams for years, she was happy to hear that the character would remain an outcast. However, while filming the show, she sometimes felt as though she had to fight to keep her character abnormal. During the eight months that she filmed the series, Ortega worked with five different directors. Each one had their own unique vision for her character. This often led to Ortega feeling like there were too many cooks in the kitchen and that people weren’t trusting her with Wednesday’s emotional arc.
Ortega had to fight to keep her character, Wednesday Addams, from becoming a typical teenage girl
“It’s like a fight, and you get to a point where, when you love and respect a character enough, all you want to do is protect them,” Ortega told her Wednesday co-star, Ricci. “Another way they pitched the show to me was, ‘Oh, we’re trying to humanize her and make her so that she’s still relatable. But this isn’t like some cartoon.’ But it kind of is. I felt like sometimes, in the attempt to make her a human girl, they were trying to make her any other teenage girl.”
Ortega admitted that sometimes she felt overwhelmed with how many people were weighing in on her character. She admits to feeling both defeated and disheartened in the first month of filming Wednesday. Fortunately, working on the show taught her to really speak up and voice her opinions. With the help of Burton, she learned to fight for her version of the character.
How Tim Burton helped Ortega find her voice while filming ‘Wednesday’
“I remember Tim being really wonderful about things like that and calling me to his trailer in the mornings and saying, ‘What are you uncomfortable saying? What do you want to say?’” Ortega recalled. “When you have supportive collaborators like Tim, it makes it a lot easier. There were a couple people like that on set who were my rocks, for sure.” Clearly, making Wednesday wasn’t always smooth sailing for Ortega; however, she still managed to give a standout performance.
