You have to watch what you say if you’re famous these days. This week, Wednesday star Jenna Ortega has been both lauded and criticised for an interview she gave with Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. Speaking about Netflix’s record-breaking Addams Family adaptation, she described aspects of the original script as not “making sense”, claiming that she “became almost unprofessional” and “started changing lines” while on set. “I can’t watch my work, but I can go home from set and say, ‘The scene that we shot today felt good,’” Ortega said. “[On] Wednesday there was not a scene in that show that I went home and was like, ‘OK, that should be fine.’”
Her comments drew the ire of some: suffice to say, she is not the most popular figure on screenwriting Twitter at the moment. Pushing back against others’ work on set is one thing. Discussing it on a podcast surely salts the wound. But in this day and age, when actors are usually so neutered in interviews by rigorous media coaching and PR obligations, there’s something undeniably refreshing about Ortega’s candour. The 19-year-old’s expertly deadpan turn as Wednesday Addams turned her into one of the world’s buzziest young actors more or less overnight. (She’s hosting Saturday Night Live this evening and can currently be seen in Scream VI, out in cinemas.) No one would have forgiven her for taking the road of bland wide-eyed gratitude. But a bit of frankness is exactly what the industry needs.
