‘I kept telling everyone no': Jenna Ortega opens up about almost turning down her iconic role in Wednesday

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

The modern gothic series Wednesday became a cultural juggernaut almost overnight, turning Jenna Ortega into a household name and redefining a beloved classic for a new generation. With her deadpan delivery and haunting stares, Ortega made Wednesday Addams not just iconic, but human. But in a surprising twist, the actor recently revealed she nearly said no to the role that would come to define her career.
In a candid new interview, Ortega reflected on her most popular role and the nuance of Wednesday Addams. 'We're incredibly desensitised and disconnected from real interaction,' Ortega said in the interview. 'I mean, God, if you could speak to everybody like Wednesday — just say what you truly mean — it would be amazing!' But Wednesday is not burdened by that. 'She doesn't care,' Ortega said. 'It's pretty funny, when you think about it. She's an outsider, but now she's on these mugs, cereal boxes, and T-shirts. You're just thinking, Oh, man, she would hate this!'
A post shared by Jenna Ortega (@jennaortega)
Fresh off her high-intensity performances in You and Scream (2022), the first in a string of horror films — Studio 666, X, and American Carnage — that showcased her acting prowess, she was hesitant to fall back into the little girl roles that she had been typecast in so often. 'I was getting to this point in my career where I was doing movies and getting in the rooms,' she said. 'So I kept telling everyone no. I almost didn't want to hear what Tim [Burton] had to say, and really like it, and feel like I needed to do it — which is kind of what happened.'
While filming X (2022) in New Zealand, Jenna Ortega connected with Tim Burton through a Zoom call. At the time, she was still wearing a prosthetic headpiece — the result of a gruesome scene where her character's head had been blown off — but Burton didn't even mention it. One memorable moment from their meeting was when she acted out a scene where Wednesday catches Thing spying on her and threatens to lock him away forever. Despite having been awake for 24 hours and planning to get some rest, Ortega found herself heading to the bathroom to shoot another take. 'I didn't want Tim to have that be his last impression of me,' she said. 'The next day, I was killing time in my hotel room, and I found myself thinking about her—like, maybe she moves like this. And then I realised, Oh, man, I think I'm stuck, because I really love this girl.'
Despite her concerns about being typecast or trapped in another long-term franchise, Ortega ultimately saw Wednesday as more than just another reboot. As for Burton, he had big plans for the young actor. "When I read this thing, I went, like, Oh my God, this is written for a 16-year-old girl, but I can relate. People have said I act like that sometimes,' Burton said about Wednesday. 'But it all hinged upon finding somebody to play Wednesday. It had to be somebody who just had it in her soul, and when we saw Jenna, there was just no question.'
Ortega was 18 when they started shooting season one, but those around her found that Ortega and Wednesday had more similarities than expected. 'What's so strange about a character like Wednesday is that Wednesday is an outcast and an outsider — but she's also a pop-culture icon,' said Ortega. 'So, in a strange way, I feel like I've become a pop actor — if that makes sense. And that's something I never saw for myself,' she said about the character and the fame, post her numerous, jarring (for herself) stints as a child actor.
'I'm very grateful for my audience, ' she said. 'And I want to be able to give back to them. But I also want to do things that are creatively fulfilling to me. So it's finding that balance of doing movies that they might be interested in and then doing movies that I'm interested in.' Right now, the plan is to pick up roles that are 'older and bolder'. Why? 'I want to be able to line up all of my girls and see something different in all of them.'