In Defence of Jenna Ortega
Netflix’s lack of respect for the source material of their adaptations should kill their career— but it won’t.
Jenna Ortega is Hollywood’s latest darling. Just last year, she starred in The Fallout, Scream and X. Her role in Netflix series Wednesday as the titular character propelled her stardom even further. Wednesday is currently the 2nd most viewed Netflix series in English, just behind Stranger Things. All of this, just by the age of twenty.
Just as admirable as the outstanding projects that she has featured in, is the crystal clear vision Jenna Ortega has for her career. She rejected the role of Wednesday Addams several times, stating in The Times UK “I had done so much TV in my life. All I’ve ever wanted to do is film… I was scared that by signing on to another television show it could prevent me from doing other jobs I really wanted and cared about.” She eventually took the role for a chance to have Latine representation on the show.
Despite her reluctance to take the role, Jenna loves Wednesday fiercely. There can be no complaints from anyone when an actress loves their character. Not from critics, audiences, colleagues, directors, producers or writers. Unfortunately, it seems the writers didn’t share that love. It wasn't hatred towards Wednesday; the true opposite of love is indifference. Last month, Ortega appeared in Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert and discussed her experience on-set:
“Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about like, this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No, there’s no way.’”
“There was times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional, in a sense, where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought that I was going with something, and then I would have to sit down with the writers and they would be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things."
Wednesday in a romantic relationship isn’t out of character, the 1993 film sequel depicts this in tune with Wednesday’s character. Love triangles are shown ubiquitously in the media, despite rarely occurring in reality. A love triangle on Wednesday seems like a lazy way to create drama and a cheap way to draw new fans to the show but this is at the expense of fans of the original Addams Family TV and film series.
This isn’t the first time Netflix has disregarded the source material of its adaptations. Last year, Henry Cavill left his role as the lead in the series The Witcher, with actor Liam Hemsworth set to replace him. Cavill is a huge fan of the books and the video games and his performance as the lead character, Geralt, was met with praise from critics and fans. Reportedly the showrunners didn’t match Cavill’s adoration. As a fan, Cavill wanted to stick to the books while the showrunners wanted to follow a different route. This led to Cavill making last-minute script changes and conflict throughout the creation of the show.
None of this has been confirmed by Cavill or The Witcher producers. But based on what happened on Wednesday, it may not be too far off the mark. Big studios like Netflix often choose to create adaptations, reboots and remakes because there’s already a fandom there and therefore an audience. They believe a new story with familiar characters means little risk for profits. Studios however don’t seem to realise that fans will immediately abandon the new show if disregard is shown towards the original source material. There’s no space being made for original stories in the media and everyone is suffering because of it.
Henry Cavill’s devotion to The Witcher books endeared him to fans and contributed to the success of the show and Wednesday certainly benefited from the changes Jenna Ortega made. But while Henry Cavill received praise all across the board for his loyalty, Ortega received censure. In particular, a New York Post article called Ortega all sorts of names for her behaviour.
Surprising to no one at all, many more male actors have criticised the screenplays of their films and demanded changes. Robert Downey Jr in Avengers, Ben Affleck in Gone Girl and Crispin Glover in Charlie’s Angels. One of the many reasons people adore Robert Pattinson is because of his hate for the Twilight series, which catapulted him to stardom. If anything is said about these actors, they’re applauded for showing immense dedication to their craft. Affleck’s dispute with director David Fincher shut down the production of Gone Girl for four days, yet there were no articles calling him an ‘authoritarian dictator.’
Johnny Oleksinski calls Ortega’s behaviour ‘rotten.’ Of course, in this industry and in our society, a woman wanting to further her career is evil but not a word is said about men who are abusers. Within the same production, Wednesday actor Percy Hynes is facing a number of sexual assault allegations, along with reports of racist behaviour. The patriarchal and misogynistic system that fuels the film industry supports the protection of these men and the destruction of women who speak out against them. Caution may be required when reporting alleged crimes but the difference in the media coverage between the two actors by journalists isn’t a show of caution, it’s a show of cowardice.
Screenwriters also criticised Ortega for her behaviour. The thing is adaptations do a lot of the work for you. It’s important to keep in mind that whatever you write is in line with who the character is already. A good actor and a good writer will know the characters really well but in different ways. The actor is bringing the character to life and their suggestions are definitely worth listening to. To have an actor who loves their character so much is very valuable to have in a film or TV series. Films and TV series are collaborative. Actors making contributions to their character means that they care about their performance. Where’s the diva behaviour in that?
Jenna Ortega is incredibly inspiring for fighting for the correct portrayal of her character, for fighting to be the actress she wants to be. An actress that knows their character very well isn't an enemy to the writer's room but an ally. Jenna Ortega may be young but she has a decade's worth of knowledge on the industry. "I've been acting for 10 years… Almost over half my life" Ortega said in an interview with The Face magazine last year. "Now that I'm here, especially this year, I feel that I'm just now starting to see scripts that I'm interested in doing and projects that creatively fulfil me. As an actor that's all you're chasing and that's all you could want."