Jenna Ortega ‘Became Almost Unprofessional’ Filming Wednesday by Secretly Changing Lines

Wednesday star Jenna Ortega fit right in as the titular character in Netflix’s Addams Family series, but the actor revealed she made some changes to the script to make the character more in line with her taste.

Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast (via Variety), the star shared some of the ways the original script didn’t fall in line with what she expects from Wednesday as a character.

“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,” Ortega said. “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 that 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.’ And 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 that I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they would be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things.”

Ortega continued on to say that a constantly monotonous, morbid performance with no discernable arc wouldn’t work for Wednesday as a teenager.

“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. And Wednesday’s a teenager. When you are little and say really morbid, offensive stuff, it’s funny and endearing, and ‘Aww, you don’t know any better,’ but then you become a teenager and it’s, ‘Well now you’re being nasty and you know it.’ There’s less excuse.”

Wednesday was hugely successful for Netflix, as it rapidly became one of the streamer’s most-watched shows ever. In our review of Wednesday, we said it “introduces a whole new generation to the Addams family with creepy and kooky hijinks and an incredible performance from Jenna Ortega. Some tertiary characters struggle from weak writing while more interesting players are kept on the sidelines, but it’s not enough to bog down the series too much.”

For more on Wednesday, check out everything we know about the show’s Season 2 renewal, along with some ideas for how Netflix can make the series even weirder.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.