Jenna Ortega Says she was "Almost Unprofessional" by Rewriting "Wednesday" Scripts

[JamesG]

Jenna Ortega Rewrote "Wednesday" Scripts without Asking Writers, Says she was "Almost Unprofessional"
by Andy Swift
March 7, 2023


Jenna Ortega says she’s never had to “put my foot down” more on a set than she did while filming the first season of Netflix’s "Wednesday" — and she’s not talking about the fancy footwork in her character’s viral dance number.

During her March 6 appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Ortega admits to completely changing lines of dialogue in the show’s scripts without consulting the writers beforehand.

“Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all,” Ortega says. “Her being in a love triangle 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.'”




Ortega recalls moments on set when she “became almost unprofessional” in how much she changed 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?'” she says. “I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”




The actress says she “grew very, very protective” of her character, which inspired script changes to ensure both the show’s believability and Wednesday’s likability.

As Ortega explain, “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.”




Prior to reading all of the scripts, Ortega thought the show “was going to be a lot darker” than it turned out to be.

“When I read the entire series, I realized, ‘Oh, this is for younger audiences,'” she says. “I didn’t know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like.”

https://tvline.com/2023/03/07/jenna-...ges-explained/

[JamesG]

Jenna Ortega Looks Back on Controversial "Wednesday" Writers Comments
by Denise Petski
August 6, 2024


"Wednesday" star Jenna Ortega is reflecting on some controversial comments she made in a March 2023 interview about changes she made to her character’s lines while on-set.

“I probably could have used my words better in describing all of that. I think, oftentimes, I’m such a rambler,” she tells Vanity Fair. “I think it was hard because I felt like had I represented the situation better, it probably would’ve been received better.”



Ortega said she was “protective” of the character she was portraying and although she didn’t like some of the “emotional” arcs on the show, she knew it was necessary.

“Everything that I said felt so magnified…. It felt almost dystopian to me,” she told Vanity Fair of the controversy. “I felt like a caricature of myself…. 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.”



She said she even “got sick of myself last year. 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.”

https://deadline.com/2024/08/jenna-o...ts-1236032821/