Jenna Ortega starred in the new Netflix series Wednesday but viewers recently discovered that she shot a scene whilst having COVID…
Ortega was born in 2002, making her just twenty years old!
But she’s certainly achieved a lot in her formative years.
She began her career as a child actress.
Ortega’s first role was as the child Jane on CW’s Jane the Virgin, back in 2014.
She then made the move to becoming a Disney Channel kid.
Ortega was cast as Harley Diaz in the Disney original Stuck in the Middle from 2016-2018.
This role was her real breakthrough, and she won the Imagen Award for her efforts.
Ortega then went on to gain the voice role of Princess Isabel on Elena of Avalor, which she held until 2020.
However, she really made her breakthrough to the mainstream in 2019.
This was when she appeared in a guest role in Netflix’s smash hit thriller, You.
Ortega played the overconfident teen Ellie Alves.
Her relationship with creepy comedian Henderson was at the center of the storyline for the show’s second season.
Ellie met a sticky end in the show…
But her loss was Ortega’s gain, as this role became a jumping-off point for the next stage of her career.
She followed it with starring roles in X and Scream.
Her incredible performances in these slasher pics established Ortega as one of the next generation of scream queens.
But it’s her latest role that really has Ortega fans feeling excited…
She’s playing the titular role in the Tim Burton-directed fantasy series Wednesday.
In it, she’s starring as the infamous character, Wednesday Addams.
She’s a major part of the Addams Family franchise, having famously been played by Christina Ricci.
But this time, it’s Ortega’s turn to bring the role to life!
She has previously stated she hoped to “do Wednesday Addams justice.”
Ortega also underwent a physical transformation for the role!
She explained: “It’s the most physical transformation I’ve ever done; I cut my hair, and it’s black, and mannerism-wise, speaking cadence-wise, expression-wise, I’m trying to pull from a different toolbox this time around.”
“I think it’s a surprise to the audience, but myself as well.”
But this week, Ortega has made another admission about the role that has certainly raised a few eyebrows…
She’s explained that, like Wednesday, she has an interest in all things macabre.
The actress has said she is a huge fan of true crime and murder podcasts in the past.
And in an interview with WIRED, she certainly proved her dark side!
“Are Jenna Ortega and Maddie friends?” Ortega was asked.
“I’m assuming they’re talking about the beautiful, wonderful, baby angel face Maddie Ziegler.
“And the answer is yes,” she replied.
Ortega continued: “She’s one of my greatest friends ever, she was somebody that I instantly clicked with.
“We did a movie called The Fallout a couple of years back and I feel like Maddie and I are the same person in different fonts.”
She then described Maddie as “such a weirdo.”
Admitting that she, too, falls into the weirdo category.
And one example of this weirdness?
“I used to perform autopsies on little animals when I was younger,” Ortega admitted.
Umm… what now?
“Like little lizards that I found that were dead in my backyard,” she explained further.
Honestly, we are none the wiser.
But we guess she really is well suited for her upcoming role.
Wednesday is available now for streaming on Netflix!
Since then, Ortega has revealed something else about her role in Wednesday…
Although Ortega plays the leading goth girl in the show, it’s worth noting that the show also stars Ricci, who played the titular character in the 90s hits The Addams Family and Addams Family Values.
In the series, however, Ricci plays Marylin Thornhill, a teacher at Nevermore Academy who holds classes on the wonders of carnivorous plants.
In a different interview with MTV News, Ortega revealed some interesting things about her and Ricci’s camaraderie.
“I think when she [Ricci] was on set, neither one of us said ‘Wednesday’ once to each other.
“I think because she knew not to say anything to me because what is she going to say or do and I don’t think she wanted to get in the way of my performance and feel like she was overbearing.
“And then I felt like I didn’t want to pull up something that she did 30 years ago, for one, the sake of my own benefit, but two, I didn’t want to rip her off and I didn’t want to be too much like her,” she said.
“Our show has superpowers and outcasts and evil ghost pilgrims so they’re two very different people, our Wednesdays,” Ortega added.
But that’s not all…
She said she felt an “immense pressure” to get the character right as she’s so beloved amongst the fans.
“I’ve never played someone who’s been done before so I think that that was a really interesting thing for me,” Ortega said.
“I have a lot of respect for the character. We’ve never spent as much time with Wednesday on camera before. I think there’s gonna be some more depth or some more emotional range that we haven’t really seen from her before.”
However, some recent news about Ortega has left the internet feeling confused.
“Dumbest rule ever,” wrote one.
Following her success in the role of Wednesday, many have been wondering if Ortega will be the latest addition to the MCU.
However, Mia Khalifa has pointed out that this can’t ever happen.
“Life is unfair, and I stand by that because Jenna Ortega had a cameo in a Marvel movie years ago which means we’ll never be able to see her as a lead in a Marvel movie,” she said.
Yep, Ortega had a minor role in Iron Man 3.
She played the fictional U.S. Vice President Rodriguez’s daughter.
Marvel does tend to have a rule not to recast any actors in their movies.
However, it’s not totally unheard of — so maybe Ortega could enjoy a superhero role in the future…
But recently, her new comedy horror series Wednesday has been getting a lot of attention after viewers discovered this major detail about what went on behind the cameras.
In an interview with NME, Ortega revealed that whilst she was shooting the now-iconic dance scene, which got everyone talking, she was ill with COVID.
“I choreographed that myself! I’m not a dancer, and I’m sure that’s obvious,” she said in an interview that has since gone viral on TikTok.
“I’d gotten the song [The Cramps’ 1981 single ‘Goo Goo Muck’] about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could… it’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film.”
She added: “Yeah, I woke up and — it’s weird, I never get sick and when I do it’s not very bad — I had the body aches.
“I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus.
“They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.
“I asked to redo it but we didn’t have time. I think I probably could have done it a bit better.”
MGM, the production company for the series, sent an email to NME, claiming that “strict COVID protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed, production removed Jenna from the set.”
Despite the claims made, many fans were still not happy that she still had to shoot scenes whilst experiencing COVID-like symptoms and took to social media to slam the series.
One user commented: “Disappointed to learn that Jenna Ortega had COVID symptoms on set but was still allowed to film the Wednesday dance scene while she waited for her positive test result. I wonder how many people got sick? And how many people those people got sick?”
A second added: “Yes, this is a very bad thing. It was dangerous, unethical, and extremely selfish thing to do, both on her part, and on the part of the directors and producers. There’s absolutely no positive way to spin an actress knowingly exposing hundreds of cast members and crew to COVID.”
While a third said: “This is a bad thing right? we all agree that this is not some ‘persevering through hardship” moment, its a why the f*ck didn’t she get sent home, she could get horrendously sick or infect others kinda moment.”
What do you think?