Wednesday Star Jenna Ortega Never Asked Christina Ricci for Advice

While Christina Ricci famously brought Wednesday Addams to life in the ’90s in the two iconic The Addams Family movies, the Netflix series Wednesday passes the torch to Jenna Ortega, who steps into the shoes of the beloved, creepy and kooky character for the new series. However, while Ricci has a role in Wednesday, bringing both performers together on set, Ortega says she never asked Ricci for advice. Speaking with MTV News (via Entertainment Weekly), Ortega says that she wanted to make sure that she wasn’t ripping off Ricci’s take on the character and that Ricci didn’t want to get in the way of Ortega’s take on the character, either.

“I think when [Ricci] was on set, neither of us said Wednesday once to each other,” Ortega said. “I don’t think she wanted to get in the way of my performance and feel like she was overbearing.”

She added, “I felt like I didn’t want to pull up something that she did 30 years ago. For the sake of my own benefit, but two, yeah, I didn’t want to rip her off and I didn’t want to be too much like her.”

Ortega also noted that while both her Wednesday and Ricci’s iconic version are based on the original Charles Addams’ cartoons, they are vastly different characters from one another.

“Our show has super powers and outcasts and evil ghost pilgrims,” Ortega said. “They’re two very different people.”

Even though Ortega didn’t ask Ricci for advice in playing Wednesday, Ricci has said that she is impressed by Ortega and calls her version of the character “the perfect Wednesday for this time.”

“She was just Wednesday, you know?” Ricci said. “I came on set — she’d been doing the show already for a couple months — and she was Wednesday, and I’m just so impressed with her as a person, as an actress. Really, she’s wonderful in the part and she’s a perfect Wednesday… She’s the perfect Wednesday for this time.”

What is Wednesday about?

Netflix describes Wednesday as “a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy, where she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town and solve the murder mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.” 

Ortega (Scream) leads a cast that includes Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) as Nevermore Academy Principal Larissa Weems, Jamie McShane (The Lincoln Lawyer) as Sheriff Galpin, Percy Hynes White (The Gifted) as Xavier Thorpe, Hunter Doohan (Your Honor) as Tyler Galpin, Riki Lindhome (Duncanville) as Dr. Valerie Kinbott, and Christina Ricci (1991’s The Addams Family) as Marilyn Thornhill. Also featured are Emma Myers (Girl in the Basement) as Enid Sinclair, Joy Sunday (Dear White People) as Bianca Barclay, Naomi J Ogawa (Skylines) as Yoko Tanaka, Moosa Mostafa (The Last Bus) as Eugene Ottinger, and Georgie Farmer (Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle) as Ajax Petropolus.

Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix.