Jenna Ortega And Christina Ricci Had An Unspoken Rule On The Set Of Wednesday
This post contains spoilers for "Wednesday."
Tim Burton's popular series "Wednesday" stars Jenna Ortega in the titular role, and her portrayal in the Netflix show pays obvious homage to Christina Ricci's performance in the 1991 film, "The Addams Family." Ortega was tasked with respecting the beloved character and growing with her as a teenager, and she did so flawlessly. Ricci also was in the series as Wednesday's teacher, Ms. Thornhill, so it would stand to reason that the older actor acted as a mentor for Ortega. Surprisingly, however, the pair did not communicate about their shared character until after filming had wrapped.
"I did not pick her brain," Ortega revealed to Entertainment Tonight. "It was weird, it was like an unspoken agreement that we had. When we first locked eyes, we were just, 'Let's never talk about her.' I don't think I've ever really said the word, 'Wednesday,' around her actually until a couple of weeks ago."
Ortega was understandably intimidated to perform with Ricci on set. "It was scary," she admitted. "Because it's like, she's observing what it is, what you're doing and it is one of her more popular characters and ... she's created quite the legacy to live up to. And the show is very reminiscent of her take. It just goes to show that there's respect there."
Ortega's Wednesday, however, is different in certain ways from Ricci's depiction. "There were a lot of challenges because we've never seen her as a teenage girl before," Ortega explained. "We've never spent so much time with Wednesday as a character doing an emotional arc with someone who's usually the one-liner, you know?"
The first rule of being Wednesday is don't talk about Wednesday
Christina Ricci and Jenna Ortega did eventually talk about their respective experiences of playing Wednesday. "I think we had that conversation a little bit later," Ortega told E! News. "And she related to a lot of struggles or interesting challenges that made the job more fun or exciting in certain aspects, and that I really appreciated."
The two actors also found that they had a lot in common with each other — and their shared character. "I think naturally, too, we both are a bit dry," Ortega shared. "And if we're talking to each other neither one of us can tell if the other one's being serious or not, which is kind of a fun game."
Ricci also feels a lot like Wednesday in real life. "I've always viewed myself as a natural contrarian," the actor explained to Collider. "And so being in a world where everybody's just thrilled to be doing the wrong thing is just great for me, I love it."
The last time we saw Ms. Thornhill, she was under Wednesday's boot. If she doesn't return for another season, the actors may share the screen again, if Ortega has anything to say about it — when talking to E! News, she expressed interest in joining her "Wednesday" co-star on Ricci's other series, "Yellowjackets." "That'd be so much fun," she beamed. "And it's cannibalism, right? That'd be so interesting." When asked who she would want to play, she replied in true Wednesday fashion: "One of the cannibals."
Making the character her own
The character of Wednesday Addams has been a fixture of pop culture spookiness since her introduction in Charles Addams' cartoon strips and has been interpreted in a variety of ways for over half a century. While Christina Ricci's Wednesday may be the definitive example for some generations, Jenna Ortega's performance in the "Wednesday" Netflix series has certainly served as the next step in the character's cultural evolution. Thanks to an improvised dance performance in the season 1 episode "Woe What a Night," Ortega helped once again turn the character into a phenomenon, as the "Wednesday Dance" became the hottest trend on TikTok, and brought a resurgence of popularity to The Cramps as Wednesday dances to their song "Goo Goo Muck." It seems as if Ortega and Ricci's decision to actively avoid discussing the character was to Ortega's benefit, as her performance was able to stand on its own in the legacy of Wednesday portrayals.
The show was such a massive success, Netflix has already greenlit a second season, which will surely continue the Wednesday craze. While there's certainly no way to prove the hypothesis, perhaps the reason everyone's favorite creepy, kooky gal has been an iconic presence after all these years is because of how well the character is able to speak to the "othered" folks of a specific time period, which can only be accomplished by avoiding copying the characterizations that came before. Thankfully, the world was blessed with multiple, wonderful Wednesdays, and her influence will continue for decades to come.
The first season of "Wednesday" is now streaming on Netflix.