In a recent interview with Variety, Jenna Ortega took time to clarify comments she made last year about “changing lines” in the script of her hit Netflix series Wednesday that caught some people off guard and received negative attention.
During an appearance on Dax Shepard’s podcast in March 2023, Ortega was criticized for admitting to being “unprofessional” on the set of Wednesday by rewriting parts of the script she didn’t feel fit her character.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday,” Ortega said at the time. “Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all.”
Now, Ortega is admitting “I probably could have used my words better in describing all of that.” She described herself as a “rambler” and said, “I think it was hard because I felt like had I represented the situation better, it probably would’ve been received better.”
“Everything that I said felt so magnified,” Ortega told Variety. “It felt almost dystopian to me. I felt like a caricature of myself.”
She added: “I got sick of myself last year. My face was everywhere … so, it’s like, fair enough, if I were opening my phone and I saw the same girl with some stupid quote or something, I would be over it too.” At the same time, she also said that the backlash taught her, “You’re never going to please everybody, and as someone who naturally was a people pleaser, that was really hard for me to understand. Some people just may not like you … and that’s entirely fine.”
During the Variety interview, Ortega said that during the first season of Wednesday, she felt protective of her title character and wanted “confirmation” that her voice would be heard on the set.
“I’m aware of my position as an actor,” Ortega said. “I know that I’m not in charge … but I think with someone like Wednesday, who is in every scene, it only makes sense for that person to be that involved in what’s going on behind the scenes because she’s on screen every second of the project.”