Jenna Ortega Changed Wednesday Scripts

Television

Jenna Ortega recently appeared on the Armchair Expert podcast and spoke about her work on Netflix’s Wednesday – namely, she re-wrote parts of the show’s script. Check out an excerpt here:

“When I read the entire series, I realized, ‘Oh, this is for younger audiences… When I first signed onto the show, I didn’t have all the scripts. I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn’t… I didn’t know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like.”

“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… 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 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.’ 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 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?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”

I saw about half of Wednesday, and while I didn’t hate it, it felt like a teen drama. I mainly enjoyed the performances of the older actors. At the same time, much of the comedy and school drama fell flat for me. Based on that, it’s easy for me to believe the script was initially even worse. I think Ortega’s performance is good, and I commend her for improving the script. 

But what do you think? Sound off in the comments!