The Emmy-nominated actress reflected on the backlash she received after she publicly claimed that some of the storylines and dialogue conceived for Wednesday Addams “made no sense.”
Speaking to Vanity Fair , Ortega admitted, “I probably could have used my words better in describing all of that. I think, oftentimes, I’m such a rambler. I think it was hard because I felt like had I represented the situation better, it probably would’ve been received better.”
She added, “Everything that I said felt so magnified … It felt almost dystopian to me. I felt like a caricature of myself.”
Ortega was candid about her experience on the Netflix series, noting that she felt she had to make several changes to her character while filming without consulting the writers.
During an appearance on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s Armchair Expert podcast in 2023, Ortega said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday .”
“Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense,” she explained. “There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’”
Photo: Everett Collection
Ortega went on to say that she changed her lines regularly while filming.
“There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things,” she said.
The 21-year-old actress will be returning for Season 2 , except this time, she’ll have more creative input as a producer. Ortega has already shared the show will be going in a darker direction and will “lean into the horror more” and ditch the romantic storylines.
“We’re ditching any romantic love interest, which is really great,” she said. “We’re going to get bolder, more dark.” She added that, as producer, she started working with the writers earlier on to prepare for Season 2.
“With a character like Wednesday, who is so beloved, I didn’t want to get her wrong,” Ortega said.
Wednesday will return to Netflix in 2025.
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