Jenna Ortega has reflected on the controversy she sparked after criticizing the writing on her hit Netflix show Wednesday .
The series, which first aired in 2022, is a spinoff of the supernatural Addams Family franchise.
Ortega drew the ire of writers in 2023 when she told a podcast that she had been “almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines.”
“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 ,” she said on Armchair Expert , adding: “Everything that Wednesday does – everything I had to play – did not make sense for her character at all.”
Ortega’s comments sparked criticism, with Daredevil producer Steven S DeKnight calling them “toxic” and “entitled.”
During last year’s writers’ strike, Ortega became the subject of mockery . Variety noted that House Party writer Brandon Cohen’s sign reportedly read: “Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up!”
Reflecting on the situation in a new interview with Vanity Fair , Ortega, 21, said: “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 that becoming the center of a social media storm felt overwhelming. “Everything that I said felt so magnified… It felt almost dystopian to me,” she told the magazine. “I felt like a caricature of myself.”
Ortega went on to say that the furor surrounding her comments had taught her a valuable lesson. “You’re never going to please everybody, and as someone who naturally was a people pleaser, that was really hard for me to understand. Some people just may not like you…and that’s entirely fine.”
“ I got sick of myself last year,” Ortega added. “My face was everywhere… so it’s like, fair enough, if I were opening my phone and I saw the same girl with some stupid quote or something, I would be over it too.”
The Independent ’s Louis Chilton defended Ortega at the time, arguing that her criticisms weren’t ungrateful, they were refreshing.
Wednesday was a huge hit for Netflix. After just one week of release, it had been streamed for a total of 341.2 million hours, beating a record previously held by Stranger Things .
A much-anticipated second season is expected to arrive next year and is already breaking records.
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