Actress Jenna Ortega (20) had a tough time when she lost her hit series Wednesday recorded. She worked very long days, didn’t sleep and pulled her hair out from the stress. It was previously announced that she also had a strong corona. “When I video called my father, he saw me crying hysterically.”
The American recently said this at a Netflix event, reports variety. The recordings themselves – eight months in Romania – were already intense, but everything was added to that. For her leading role, Ortega had to learn to fencing, playing the cello and canoeing, among other things. She also learned to speak German.
“I was on set two hours in advance, shot a 12-14 hour day, went home and then turned on Zoom for the class I had,” Ortega said. “Or I arrived at my apartment and my cello teacher was already waiting.” According to Jenna, that’s how it went all the time; if there was no sixth day of recording some weeks, that day would be full of lessons.
The actress had started the fencing and cello lessons a few months before shooting and continued once they were running. Especially her cello version of the song Paint it black proved difficult to master. She changed teachers when she left for Romania and had to play a piece with one cello that was actually intended for two cellos.
“I didn’t get any sleep at all,” Ortega said. “I pulled my hair out. There were so many FaceTime conversations that my father recorded while I cried hysterically.” She insisted on appearing good to any real cellists who would watch the series. Director Tim Burton assured her it would look fine, but she didn’t just take it for granted. “I didn’t even know where to put my hands and then I had to make the sound of two cellos with one cello, it was bizarre.”
With corona on the floor
The shots were also challenging on the detail level: to make the scenes extra intense, Burton wanted Ortega not to blink in front of the camera. Earlier, the much-discussed dance scene from the series already had a bad taste when it turned out that Ortega had corona during the recordings. She showed strong symptoms, but still went on set to await a test result. The makers assured that after the positive test everything went according to the rules, but critics thought it irresponsible.
The suffering paid off, as the series grew into a phenomenon, became one of the most successful shows on Netflix ever and the dance scene with Ortega’s zombie-like moves was called one of the best television moments of last year. Videos of the scene have been viewed tens of millions of times online, as have countless videos of people mimicking the choreography on TikTok. Lady Gaga also participated, as did figure skater Kamila Valieva (16):
Romance for Enid and Wednesday?
It was recently announced that the Addam’s Familyspin-off is getting a second season. Ortega does not yet know when the recordings will start. She also has no idea what will happen in the new series, but hopes for less attention to love intrigues and more to what her character Wednesday experiences herself.
Her co-star Emma Myers (Enid Sinclair) does not rule out a romance between the two characters, but hopes that Wednesday will be single next season.
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