Jenna Ortega Shared The Downsides To Her Wednesday Role

As the titular star of Netflix’s Wednesday, Jenna Ortega has been nothing if not fully committed to her role. She boned up on her Addams family history, learned to fence and play the cello, and even choreographed her character’s viral dance scene. Her dedication has paid off in spades professionally, but on the personal side, there have been some downsides to her wild Wednesday success and to her role.

The Fame Monster

In her new cover story for Harper’s Bazaar, Ortega admitted she still hasn’t processed her newfound fame. It’s been very difficult for her at points, and she said she felt “incredibly misunderstood” amid the criticism she got after sharing in her 2023 Armchair Expert podcast appearance that she “just started changing lines” to better capture her interpretation of Wednesday Addams and was “almost unprofessional.”

“To be quite frank, after the show and trying to figure everything out, I was an unhappy person,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “After the pressure, the attention — as somebody who’s quite introverted, that was so intense and so scary.”

She found herself becoming something she’d never imagined: “a pop actor.” Ortega credited it to Wednesday being a “pop-culture icon” and added that taking on multiple other film roles in quick succession made her “feel like an actor again.”

Trying To Be Taken Seriously

The struggle of being a Hollywood starlet is real for Ortega, and she suggested it’s made harder by specific aspects of her Wednesday role. “I’m doing a show I’m going to be doing for years where I play a schoolgirl,” she said. “But I’m also a young woman.”

She pointed to some of the elements that she finds make it harder for her to be taken seriously, including her character’s Nevermore Academy uniform. “There’s just something about it that’s very patronizing,” Ortega said of being “dressed in the schoolgirl costume.” She added, “Also, when you’re short, people are already physically looking down on you.”

Ortega doesn’t want to be pigeonholed and noted that while she’s “grateful for [her] audience,” she wants to make sure she does work that is “creatively fulfilling to her.” She hopes to find a balance that satisfies both. As for what interests her right now, it’s roles that are “older and bolder and different,” she said.

Growing Her Wednesday Role

Wednesday Season 2 will bring the “bolder” part. She told Harper’s Bazaar the second season of the dark comedy is “bigger, bolder, gorier, and a bit darker,” as well as “sillier in the best way possible.” Ortega has been made a producer, and in an August 2024 Vanity Fair cover story, she explained why that was so important to her.

“I think with someone like Wednesday, who is in every scene, it only makes sense for that person to be that involved in what’s going on behind the scenes because she’s onscreen every second of the project,” she said.

She also teased then that Wednesday Season 2 would be “a little bit more horror-inspired.” Later, Netflix’s Tudum revealed it will follow her second year at the gothic and supernatural Nevermore Academy, this time joined by her little brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez). More kooky family members will interfere with her life there as well, and as director Tim Burton put it, “Your family at school is the worst thing possible, isn’t it?”

Wednesday Season 2 arrives on Netflix in two parts: the first half on Aug. 6 and the second on Sept. 3.