Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Controversy Is Behind Her

Summary

Jenna Ortega takes on a bigger role in Wednesday by serving as an executive producer, aside from playing the lead role.
Ortega recounted the 2023 controversy about her Wednesday statement and said she should have used the word "improvised."
Ortega's controversy did not affect her relationship with the Wednesday creators and writers, as they trusted her with her role.

Jenna Ortega is taking a more significant role in Wednesday Season 2, aside from playing the lead role. She got candid about how her new role off-camera empowered her to speak her mind on set.

Ortega started her acting career at a young age. She previously appeared on shows like CSI: NY and Days of Our Lives. Ortega also appeared in Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man 3. However, she only had a brief appearance and was not fully credited in the film. Her name and lines were removed, and she was only credited as "Vice President's Granddaughter." After these early roles, she gained wide recognition for playing the Young Jane in Jane the Virgin. However, she became even more popular after starring in Netflix's Wednesday. She has also appeared in several horror and drama films like The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020), Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023), X (2022), and The Fallout (2021). In a recent interview, she recounted the 2023 controversy involving her for not presenting her idea accurately.

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By Catherine Armecin Martin

Ortega sat down for an interview with The Cut, where she spoke about regaining her confidence in speaking her mind. She reprises her titular role in Netflix’s Wednesday Season 2. Additionally, she executive-produced the series. With a bigger role behind the camera, Ortega is more confident in sharing her thoughts on the set. "I feel a bit more empowered to speak my mind," she told the magazine. In 2023, Ortega raised eyebrows due to her interview on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, where she admitted to being "almost unprofessional" for changing her lines and not following what was in the script. According to her, she sometimes had to sit with the writers and explain why she could not do some of the scenes they wrote. Her statement attracted criticism, and the actress received an intense backlash because many felt that she was disrespectful to the writers. In the recent interview, Ortega explained:

I used my words really poorly. All I had to do was say 'improvised.' You live and you learn.

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This isn't the first time Ortega has addressed the issue by admitting that she used the wrong words. In an interview with Vanity Fair in August 2024, she also admitted that she could have used better words to describe what she did and that it "probably would have been received better." Although many took Ortega's statement against her, it did not affect her relationship with the Wednesday creators and writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and Tim Burton, who executive-produced and directed Season 1. "They trust me enough to know what Wednesday would think and do," she added. Both Millar and Gough also defended Ortega during the controversy. Gough asked the people to give Ortega grace for the "misstep." Meanwhile, Millar, who also worked with Ortega on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), said they always had "an incredibly collaborative and joyful experience" working together, ScreenRant reported.

It's clear that Ortega didn't mean to disrespect the writers with what she did on set because they didn't take offense at her statement. In fact, they trust her to improvise and even welcome her to executive produce Wednesday Season 2. The writers also took the time to defend her from the critics. Ortega improvising her lines only shows how dedicated she is to portraying Wednesday Addams. Apparently, the audience approves of her approach because they love Wednesday. Improvising is a technique that some actors adopt to make their dialogue feel natural and more spontaneous. This helps them react genuinely. When actors improvise, it elicits authentic reactions missing from the script. Ortega did enough because her character on Wednesday felt natural.

Wednesday Season 2 will drop on Netflix in 2025.