Through the course of 2022, Jenna Ortega looks set to secure a serious reputation as Gen Z’s premier scream queen. After slaying in the latest Scream sequel, she’ll next be scaring up a storm in Foo Fighters fright-fest Studio 666 and Ti West’s X – and beyond that, she’s been stepping into the shoes of legendary character best known for being creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky. Ortega bagged the central role in Tim Burton’s upcoming Netflix series Wednesday, digging into the interior life of The Addams Family’s deadpan daughter, Wednesday Addams. The show is hitting the streaming service later this year, and Ortega looks set to put her own stamp on the ultimate troubled teenager.
Speaking to Empire, Ortega heaped praise on previous incarnations of the character – memorably played by Christina Ricci in the ‘90s movies, Lisa Loring and Cindy Henderson in the ‘60s and ‘70s TV series, and voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz in the recent animated movies. “Wednesday has been done so perfectly. Like there's nothing that you could do to make it – it can't get any better,” she says. The challenge, then, is to do something different while remaining distinctly Wednesday. “There's that pressure. I knew that I could not be ripping anybody off. She’s a deadpan character. She's sarcastic and she's tough. I think there are several different paths that I or anyone could have taken to this part. It's been really incredible because our director, Tim Burton, is very collaborative.”
Ortega says she worked closely with Burton to craft this version of Wednesday – from her smile, to her sarcasm, to her teenage identity. Plus, there’s the fact that this time she’s centre stage in this story. “We've never seen her on screen so often,” she explains. “She's always been the one-liner. How do we keep that kick, that fire, while also giving us enough of an emotional range to carry a story without losing the emotionless character she is at her core?”
But for all the challenges, there was a clear motivation for Ortega to step into Wednesday’s impeccably-laced shoes. “A big part of the reason I signed on is because she’s technically a Latina character and that’s never been shown or represented,” she says. In Burton’s series, Wednesday’s father Gomez is played by Luis Guzmán, while brother Pugsley is portrayed by Isaac Ordonez. “As someone who struggled, and still struggles to this day, with some sort of feeling of representation or relatability in mainstream media and film and television, I recognised this was an opportunity for me to… give that relatability to other girls like myself,” Ortega explains. “Looking the way I do and having the cultural background I have, there aren’t many iconic characters out there. So when an opportunity like this comes up – she’s someone I’ve been compared to my whole life, just because of my humour and dry nature, so it just seemed fitting. I thought that would be a nice way to flex my muscles in a different way.”
The series also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as matriarch Morticia, while Gwendoline Christie has been cast as school principal Larissa Weems – and regular Burton collaborator Danny Elfman is on board to contribute an original score.
Read more of Empire’s Jenna Ortega interview in the Moon Knight issue – on sale Thursday 17 February, and available to order online here.