Jenna Ortega publicly criticized the writers for the Netflix remake of The Addams Family, Wednesday, earlier this year. A producer tagged her “toxic” for her public criticism of the show writers.
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Wednesday
Wednesday is an American supernatural comedy-horror series released on Netflix last year. Its director is Tim Burton, and it was produced by Carmen Pepelea. The characters were put forth by one of its writers, Charles Addams. Other writers included Miles Millar, Alfred Gough.
Jenna Ortega played the lead role as Wednesday Addams. Wednesday is a smart, sarcastic, and dead-looking girl who attended Nevermore, a school for super naturals. She wants to improve her psychic skills, and attempts to solve the murder mystery that entangled her parents 25 years ago. She investigates a murder spree while making friends and enemies along the way.
Jenna Ortega’s Criticism
Jenna Ortega started her career as a child star and has acted in many series while growing up. When she was offered the role of Wednesday Addams, she initially turned it down because she wanted to start her career in movies. However, the director, Tim Burton, was keen on casting Jenna as Wednesday, so he pursued her. Jenna claims that she later accepted the offer, considering the talent of Tim Burton alone.
She decided to get more intimately involved with the writing process as the hit show didn’t leave much room for Ortega to express her own take on the character. She said that her character did not make sense because everything Wednesday did, and everything Jenna played was out of sync.
She also added that the triangular love story and the lines about the dress she had to tell, made no sense to her. She concluded that she even became unprofessional, as she started changing her lines in the script by herself. The script supervisors would question why she changed her lines, and she had to explain them later, she said.
Labeled as “Toxic”
However, not everyone was happy about this openness, though it was appreciated by many. When Steven DeKnight, a screenwriter and producer, was asked whether Jenna’s criticism was misunderstood, he answered on Twitter that he was doubtful since she had clearly slammed the showrunners and writers in public.
He added that she’s young, so maybe she didn’t know any better, which she must have, and she should also ask herself how she would have felt if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how troublesome she was and refused to perform the material. He said that that kind of statement was beyond entitled and labeled her “Toxic”. However, he concluded that he loved her work but that life is too short to deal with people like that in business.
