Wednesday Star Jenna Ortega Reveals She “Vetoed” Flash Mob Scene

Jenna Ortega is currently having quite the moment. Not only can you catch her on the big screen in Scream VI, but the actor just hosted SNL for the first time last night, and her recent portrayal of Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s Wednesday earned her Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. Recently, Ortega made headlines for saying she made a lot of changes to the Wednesday script during production. During the interview with the Armchair Expert podcast, she also shared that she made a big change to the show’s iconic dance scene. 

“Initially it was supposed to be a flash mob,” Ortega shared. “She was supposed to start dancing, and everyone was supposed to pick up on it and start dancing with her. And that I vetoed, because why would she be okay with that? I said, ‘Either cut it or have Wednesday knock someone out, and then it’s done.’”

Ortega also talked to ET about the dance and admitted she has some regrets about how the viral dance turned out. 

“No, even that, I still can’t believe. Some of the moves I had planned, some of it was improved. That was one of the scenes that I stay awake at night thinking about,” Ortega revealed. “There was so much I could have done and should have done. So, the fact that anyone has shown any appreciation or even tried it themselves is unfathomable to me.”

“I actually felt really insecure about this,” Ortega told Vulture. I choreographed that myself and I think it’s very obvious that I’m not a dancer or choreographer. I just pulled inspiration from videos of goth kids dancing in clubs in the ’80s,” Ortega revealed. “Lene Lovich music videos, Siouxsie and the Banshees performances, and Fosse.”

Was Wednesday Renewed For a Second Season? 

It was announced in January that Wednesday has officially been renewed for a second season. “Thanks to everyone who made this upcoming season possible. This has all been pretty surreal,” Ortega shared across her social media platforms. Recently, Ortega talked more about the challenges of playing the character.

“We’ve never seen her as a teenage girl,” Ortega told Entertainment Weekly. “You know, it’s funny and sweet and almost charming to hear this eight-year-old’s obsession with murder and blood and guts. As she gets older, that nasty attitude or [those] biting remarks, it’s almost kind of hard to not make it sound like every other teenage girl. So, it’s like, how do we establish this character and give her the same fire without letting her become something that she’s not? Also, it’s eight-hour series so, for an emotionless character, there has to be some sort of an emotional arc.”

The first season of Wednesday is streaming on Netflix.