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What Jenna Ortega Wanted to Change About Wednesday

Jenna Ortega pushed for a Wednesday who stayed dark and deadpan but had enough emotional movement to carry a story. Her objections included a love triangle, a dress line and a proposed flash mob.
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Jenna Ortega wanted Wednesday Addams to stay dark and socially awkward without becoming merely cruel—or getting pulled into a romance that felt wrong for her. She objected to a love triangle and a line about loving a dress, rejected an initially proposed flash mob for the dance scene, and argued that the teenage lead needed an emotional arc.

Why Ortega thought Wednesday needed more than a flat performance

Ortega’s concern was not that Wednesday should become openly warm or conventionally expressive. She wanted the character’s familiar deadpan surface to leave room for insecurity, frustration and uncertainty—enough emotional movement to carry a story without losing Wednesday’s dark, socially awkward identity.

In an October 2022 conversation with Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the 1990s films, Ortega said the challenge changed when Wednesday was portrayed as a teenager rather than a child. A morbid remark can seem funny or endearing from a little girl; from a teenager, it can come across as knowingly nasty. As Ortega put it, “When you are little and say very morbid, offensive stuff, it’s funny and endearing. But then you become a teenager, and it’s nasty and you know it. There’s less of an excuse.” Ricci said she had faced a similar challenge when her own Wednesday became a teenager. Interview Magazine

Ortega also described tension between a very flat interpretation and the need for the lead character to move the story forward. She recalled that Tim Burton initially wanted a particularly flat performance, while she believed some emotional expression was necessary. The process was stressful, she said, with filming and training beginning quickly and little rehearsal time. Her broader argument was that a protagonist needs some development: “You can’t lead a story and have no emotional arc, because then it’s boring and nobody likes you.” Interview Magazine

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What she objected to in the script

The love triangle

Ortega said Wednesday’s involvement in a love triangle did not make sense to her reading of the character. Her objection was about characterization: she did not think a romantic plot of that kind fit the Wednesday she was playing. TVLine

The line about loving a dress

She also objected to a line in which Wednesday was meant to say she loved a dress for a school dance. Ortega said she could not deliver the line as written because it did not feel true to the character. TVLine

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The dance and the proposed flash mob

Ortega said the dance scene was initially conceived as a flash mob, with other students joining Wednesday. She rejected that idea as inconsistent with the character. In her account, she proposed either cutting the group moment or having Wednesday knock someone out instead. The scene ultimately became an individual dance rather than a moment in which Wednesday joined a crowd. Vanity Fair

How Ortega described changing lines—and what she later clarified

In a March 2023 appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, Ortega said she sometimes changed lines before discussing them with the writers. She described a process in which the script supervisor might expect one version, after which Ortega would explain her reasoning to the writers. She called herself “almost unprofessional” in how far she went. These are Ortega’s recollections of the process, reported by TVLine and Vanity Fair; they do not establish that she independently rewrote the series or made every change on her own.

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In 2024, Ortega said she could have described the situation better and that her comments had felt magnified in public: “To be fair, I probably could have used my words better in describing all of that.” She also said she had wanted more agency over the character and had unsuccessfully sought a producer role for Season 1. That context matters: her account was about wanting a stronger voice in shaping a character who appeared in nearly every scene, not a claim that she alone controlled the production. Teen Vogue TVLine

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What her changes were meant to protect

The examples point to one consistent aim: preserve Wednesday’s recognizably dry, dark outlook while making the behavior credible for a teenage lead. For Ortega, the difference between a child’s morbid joke and a teenager’s deliberate insult affected how the character’s lines landed. She wanted enough emotional range for Wednesday to have an arc, but not so much conventional romance or group participation that the character stopped feeling like herself.

Her approach was also an interpretation, not a claim that there is only one valid way to play Wednesday. Ortega said she explored flatter, more expressive and more energetic performances before finding a balance. The aim was to make this version feel like a teenager while retaining the character’s established deadpan qualities. Netflix Tudum

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