Jenna Ortega has been branded "selfish" by Steven DeKnight, whose writing credits include Buffy The Vampire Slayer, after she admitted in a podcast that she "changed lines" during filming of Netflix's Wednesday because nothing about her character "made sense".
On March 6, she told Dax Shepard 's podcast: "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."
Steven tweeted: "I love talking with actors about their lines/stories. But by the nature of the beast, they don’t have the full picture (in TV) of where the story is going and why some lines are needed for the whole to make sense.
"She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material."
"This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business," he added.
On the podcast, Jenna spoke about her experience on set of Wednesday as she revealed she would "change lines" when she felt something didn't sit right with her character.
Ortega told Shepard: "When I read the entire series, I realized, 'Oh, this is for younger audiences.' When I first signed onto the show, I didn't have all the scripts. I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn't… I didn't know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like."
Speaking about the storylines, she continued: "Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense. There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, 'Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh — I can't believe I said that. I literally hate myself.' I had to go, 'No.'"
"There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines," he added.
The actress revealed she changed the script because she was worried it was "boring" and "nobody [would] like" Wednesday."
