According to Variety, when it came to Netflix’s second biggest English-Language series Wednesday, Jenna Ortega (You) had to put her foot down in manner that she has never had to undertake on a film or television set. On a recent episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, Ortega revealed that many of the scripts made no sense to her from a character perspective and that she went ahead and changed the dialogue in them. She did this without consulting any of the writers on the series.
Ortega said, “When I read the entire series, I realized, ‘Oh, this is for younger audiences. When I first signed onto the show, I didn’t have all the scripts. I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn’t… I didn’t know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like.”
She continued to say, “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. 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.’ 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.”
Variety reports that Ortega wanted to make the character of Wednesday have more to them and have her gain more character growth as the story progressed. She didn’t want the character to be constantly monotonous and morbid.
“I grew very, very protective of her,” Ortega said. “You can’t lead a story and have no emotional arc because then it’s boring and nobody likes you. When you are little and say very morbid, offensive stuff, it’s funny and endearing. But then you become a teenager and it’s nasty and you know it. There’s less of an excuse.”
This is also not the first time that Ortega has fought for her ideas on the Wednesday set. Last year, she opened up about how director Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas) didn’t want her to have any expressions or emotions. She said, “He wanted a flat surface, which I understand. It’s funny and great except when you’re trying to move a plot along, and Wednesday is in every scene.”
She added, “There were a lot of battles like that because I felt like people didn’t always trust me when I was creating my path in terms of, ‘Okay, this is her arc. This is where she gets emotional. I was completely lost and confused. Typically I have no problem using my voice, but when you’re in it — I just remember feeling defeated after the first month.”
Ortega’s battles on set paid off as Wednesday has been a great success and has been renewed for a second season.