Jenna Ortega criticizes ‘Wednesday’ script: ‘It did not make sense for her character at all’

Jenna Ortega, 20, has opened up about her experience filming Netflix’s smash hit Wednesday. In the Armchair Expert podcast, the California native spoke candidly, without mincing words, about how she felt working on the project directed by Tim Burton.

“Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all,” she said on the podcast. “Her being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about like, this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No, there’s no way.’”

In addition to complaining about the script of the series, Ortega said that in some scenes she simply tried to improvise and not say literally what the script said in an effort to make her character more believable, although she also called herself “unprofessional” for doing that too often. The actress also dedicated a few words to the famous dance scene, which was going to be a flash mob, but which she vetoed. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday.”

Although Ortega has been very critical of the Netflix production, she has also had words of praise for its director, Tim Burton. In an interview she gave to EL PAÍS on the occasion of the premiere, she said of the filmmaker: “Tim is wonderful. He’s so nice... [...] He’s a director who really appreciated what I was thinking, what I had to say. You don’t always find that when you’re working, especially when you’re shooting with people as popular as he is. It’s been very special to work with him.”

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