Jenna Ortega will still be giving script notes for Wednesday season 2
Jenna Ortega says she feels "really lucky" to be able to provide notes on scripts for season 2 of Tim Burton's Netflix Addams Family offshoot
Aux News Ortega
Don’t expect season 2 of Netflix’s Wednesday to involve any less writers’ room input from star Jenna Ortega. After revealing earlier this year she would often alter lines from the Netflix show after growing “very very” protective of Wednesday, Ortega again touched on her on-set experience on the Netflix show in this year’s edition of The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Comedy Actress Emmy Roundtable.
“When I went into Wednesday I really put my foot down and made it clear that everything that I had to say mattered and was heard,” Ortega shares. “And as the show went on, we all got a better feel for one another and it’s become a really collaborative experience, and I feel really lucky to be able to be in the room early next season and be talking about scripts and giving notes.”
Ortega’s positive spin on the “collaborative experience” in the Wednesday writers room hasn’t always reflected the outlook of TV writers themselves. As the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike soldiers on, more than a few clever writers have adopted Jenna’s comments about rewriting scripts as a poster-perfect rallying cry for the picket line.
Ortega was joined at the roundtable by The Bear’s Ayo Edebri, The Great’s Elle Fanning, Poker Face’s Natasha Lyonne, Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs, performers whose onscreen work has drawn some serious awards attention this cycle. Edebri specifically commended Ortega on putting her foot down on the Wednesday set.
“I was so impressed by you just expressing yourself and being like, ‘I have thoughts about this thing that I’m doing. You didn’t just hire me to be a vase. I have things that I can bring to this part and to this job. I’m not just here to smile,’” Edebri told Ortega. “We’re not doing that anymore.”
The official 2023 Primetime Emmy Nominations will be announced on July 12.
37 Comments
I think we sorta figured that, but thanks.
Can someone give her a not on, what is that, a wicker toreador’s jacket?
Don’t expect season 2 of Netflix’s Wednesday to involve any less writers’ room input from star Jenna Ortega.Can someone explain to me why this is a story? Actors provide input on their characters all the time. You kinda want that because it shows the star is engaged enough with the material to care about how the character comes across.Is it because she’s a successful young woman in Hollywood so they gotta slap the “hard to work with” label on her early before she realizes her worth and starts to leverage it?
As long as she doesn’t shit talk the writers this time around.
I feel similarly. In principle I’m ok with her speaking up for the character and sharing her creative perspective. I have to imagine a lot of the furor over this was related to her age and gender and if that’s the case, would the same people be rolling their eyes if Brian Cox had shared similar sentiment. Important to note she has a decade of show biz XP, and is probably a lot closer to the lived-in experience of Wednesday Adams than anyone else on set. But – it does kind of feel like she threw the writers under the bus a little bit.
The situation with Ortega seems to be an example of inexperience coming through regardless of what’s on paper. A more “seasoned” professional (like, oh, let’s say Alan Rickman) would have at least let some time go by before calling out the writers for their apparent misunderstanding of their character. I’d imagine that someone like Brian Cox would probably take the same approach if he gave a damn, but again, the seasoned aspect would determine timing and also process of implementing changes. But more power to her though, better to be exposed to this sort of hoopla sooner than later, she’ll learn all about the finesse required to navigate this business soon enough at this rate.
Agree, the problem isn’t that she has feedback for the writers’ room. It’s that she’s airing the grievance in a public forum. Recently came to terms that a coworker and I just will never get along. Not on a professional level and not on a personal level. Fine. We clash, he pushes, I push back, whatever. I ignore everything he says now. But at a recent meeting with some external VIP stakeholders present, he started talking shit about me and my team. You better believe I blew that shit up. Guess whose ass is in a sling? Not mine.
Why the fuck not, if she’s unhappy with their work???
She can say that if she wants, but she seems to think she knows how to write, and she doesn’t. Leave it to the professionals. She’s a clown for this in the same way tom cruise is for insisting on doing his own stunts when there are professionals far better than him right there.
Tom Cruise doing his own stunts along with the accompanying behind the scenes feaurettes before release are part of the sales pitch as for what makes this series different is for the movie promotion, though.
She’s a clown for this in the same way tom cruise is for insisting on doing his own stunts when there are professionals far better than him right thereThe stunts that Tom Cruise does look just as good as any other stunt. Tom Cruise films don’t have “less action” or whatever, because he’s doing the stunts. The only downside to the backers of Tom Cruise movies is the risk that one day Tom Cruise will jump a motorcycle into a canyon and die – the action sequences don’t look “worse” because he’s doing the stunts.
I mean… do they?!
How is she a clown for doing writing work that clearly helped make the show a massive hit? She clearly DID know how to write. The knotted underwear over this whole episode seems bizarre to me.
how do you know she doesn’t know how to write?
This is such a weird take, because Tom cruise doing his own stunts is the reason people see Tom Cruise movies. Also, the writers of Wednesday may know how to write, but they don’t know how to write a good show about Wednesday.
…because there are more professional ways to handle yourself as an adult.
I would imagine the whole vibe she gave off about being annoyed that it was successful and her perceived attempt to take credit as a savior of the show might not have been the best move if it was truly about the work and collaboration.
If you believe you profession is important enough to picket for the right pay (it is)Then your profession doesn’t need to be handled with soft words and no criticism.
Sure thing buddy, how about you go on the news and shittalk your coworkers and talk about how you had to fix all their fuck ups. Let’s see if anyone wants to work with you after that.
That couldn’t follow less if it tried, but I don’t think that was the point.
There’s a difference between criticism and shitting on a project. Her whole attitude of being annoyed when asked about popular aspects of the show and her positioning of her “putting her foot down” (as if she saved the project) display a lack of maturity and frankly a selfishness most people didn’t expect.Positioning it as being a collaborative environment where she was able to help make the story the story better would have still given her whatever it was she was looking for by making those comments that way. Going on a press tour and making a bunch of very public negative quotes about people you worked with isn’t tough love or criticism, it just makes her sound like a terrible person to work with.
I wouldn’t want to work with someone that collaborates with me in the office and then talks shit about me in the company break room and at Friday happy hours.
I’m sure the writers have a brand new circular filing cabinet they’d like to try out.
When I went into Wednesday I really put my foot down and made it clear that everything that I had to say mattered and was heardWasn’t the first season a tween school sitcom with little substance? That’s what I got from the reviews anyway.
OKAY SOImagine Harry PotterOnly instead of a hazy nostalgic fabrication of the British boarding school, it’s a hazy nostalgic fabrication of old-money East Coast boarding schoolsAnd it’s written by Moffat-era Doctor Who writers so 90% of the dialog is just people fluffing the protagonistAnd the whole show only exists because some folks at Hollywood wanted to spend a few million dollars of Netflix’s money processing the role 13 year old Christina Ricci played in their sexual development
exactly
“That’s what I got from the reviews anyway.”
I think it’s pretty cool the way you didn’t bother to read any of the reviews but somehow managed to be a rusty cunt about it. Well done.
People seem to like it but from everything I’ve seen yeah it’s another Harry Potter ripoff.
It was basically a mediocre CW show.
I didn’t hate Wednesday but I also speak the truth: It’s a worse, low-rent, twee version of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
“To the writers: I feel like season 2 relies too much on the hero’s journey as the overall narrative framework. I mean, what next, are Wednesday’s parents going to serve as some kind of ad hoc Greek chorus? Has no one in this writer’s room read Artaud’s The Theater and its Double?”
I honestly did not get why the show made the decisions it did with Morticia and Gomez. Catherine Zeta Jones is probably one of the few actors who can channel Angelica Houston as Morticia, so it makes sense she did that, but she was constantly undermined by the writing.
I mean, it’s set up as a mother/daughter battle of wills on one level, with Wednesday claiming her mother just wants to make her into a mini version of herself and “mom doesn’t understand who I really am”… which for a start I don’t think of as something Wednesday would even deign to notice, but worse they have Morticia be this sort of “stern on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside” character who deep down does care about her daughter’s independence and individuality but has to maintain this outward sternness for… AAAAAGH.IMHO Morticia should have been played simpler – all her emotional responses are “backwards”, that’s the gag right? (“Unhappy darling?” “Oh yes… desperately unhappy” etc). So every time Wednesday says “I hate you!” Morticia should have just responded “That’s my girl!” and gone off home looking pleased with herself. Not be shot in closeup barely holding back tears because blah de blah…
…not that Wednesday would ever say she hated her mother, because she shouldn’t be obsessing over her parents making her go to a school she doesn’t like.Which brings me to what I fundamentally don’t understand about the premise of this show: Why would Wednesday Friday Addams NOT want to attend Nevermore?
Gomez… I mean, fair play to Guzman he looks amazing. But under the shadow of Raul Julia, it just made me wonder if Morticia was the victim of a bait-and-switch scheme where she woke up one morning and was like “oh okay I guess this is Gomez now…”
The show was a success, the notes worked, this should not be a thing.
Yeah, except for the fact that she was dismissive of popular aspects and framed it as her input saved the show.
I never got a “saved” vibe as much as an “significantly improved” vibe. Which really appears true.
“Whenever Wednesday’s not on screen, all the other characters should be asking ‘where’s Wednesday?’”
Ortega: “Okay guys, I called this meeting to clear the air. I want to have a respectful and transparent relationship. Let’s do the best we can together and make this next season amazing!”
Writers: “This is the goddamn picket line!”
Oof really she got commended for her comments? “she didn’t get hired just to be a vase” ummm being an actor and being a writer are two separate jobs…. it sounds like she’s so big right now that they’re trying to cover up shitty comments she made by giving her a longer leash. Gross.
There’s no way to convince me that Jenna walking on set and being like “I have a better idea for some lines” isn’t stepping on toes in the workplace. There is no way I can be convinced of this. That’s so cringy. More so that she’s as young as she is and she’s being told that’s acceptable oof.
Every millennial who knows a zoomer who thinks they should have their job because they’re the “better” generation just took a deep deep shutter….
Ugh I didn’t like that comment either, and I really like Adebiri. You’re an actor, not a writer. Collaboration is fine, but Ortega’s complaints sounded whiny and pretentious.
Yeah, makes me wonder if she’d extend that same respect to everyone else. Like if a writer came on set and was like “Well that’s not how I’d act those lines, stand aside please” would she be down? After all, they weren’t just hired to be a printer.