Just months after Jenna Ortega became a huge star once Wednesday gave Netflix the best debut ever for an original series, the actress’ reputation was kicked down a couple notches when she made some controversial comments about the show’s writers room. Ortega went viral for her words and was even roasted a few times on the writers strike picket line for what she said, including a sign that read “Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up!” Now, the 21-year-old has reflected on what happened.
In March 2023, when Ortega guested on the Armchair Podcast, she spoke about putting her “foot down” on set when she felt Wednesday Addams was not being well represented in the scripts. The Wednesday star admitted to becoming “almost unprofessional” by changing lines and refusing to read what was originally written. It famously led a Daredevil writer to go on a lengthy tirade calling Ortega “beyond entitled and toxic”. Here’s how Jenna Ortega thinks of what she said about the series now:
To be fair, I think I probably could have been…. 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.Everything that I said felt so magnified…. It felt almost dystopian to me. I felt like a caricature of myself.
In a new interview with Variety, Jenna Ortega was honest about perhaps not going about the topic on the podcast in the best way. On the positive end of things, the Scream star feels she learned a valuable lesson, thanks to all the buzz surrounding her. As she continued:
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. 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.
Created By: Alfred Gough & Miles Millar
Starring: Jenna Ortega, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, Emma Myers, Christina Ricci, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán
Where To Stream: Netflix subscription
When it comes to the upcoming Season 2 of Wednesday, executive producer and director Tim Burton has said that the actress is “very direct” and “no-nonsense,” which he finds “very refreshing and beautiful and artistic.” Burton also shared that Ortega was “very aware” from the start of shooting and he believes she could direct the series if she wanted to. As a producer herself in Season 2, she’s encouraged to give notes on the plotline and the character’s lines.
Since Ortega went viral for her thoughts on the Season 1 Wednesday writer’s room, it was also rumored for a time that she was a “diva” on the set of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which is where audiences will see the actress next. Ortega plays the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz in the long-awaited sequel next to Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci. The Beetlejuice sequel hits theaters September 6 and Wednesday Season 2 is expected to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2025.
