Wednesday star Jenna Ortega has admitted that the intense filming schedule for the Netflix show left her in tears and 'pulling her hair out'.
Once filming for Wednesday was wrapped up and it had taken the world by storm, Ortega thanked fans for their support and admitted she didn't know if there were 'right words' for her feelings about its success.
The Addams Family spin-off has since been renewed for a second season on Netflix and Ortega, given that she's the star, will be back as our favourite morbid teenager with even more adventures at Nevermore.
However, she's admitted recently that the first season of the show was tough to put together - so tough that she 'didn't get any sleep'.
The star opened up about her experience at a Netflix-hosted Q&A panel in Hollywood on Thursday (9 February), when she described what her day-to-day life looked as she played Wednesday in front of the cameras and took fencing and cello lessons behind the scenes to better portray the talented character.
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Ortega said: “It was show up to set two hours early, do that 12-14 hour day, then go home and then get on a Zoom and have whatever lesson that I had. Or show up to my apartment, my cello teacher was already waiting for me."
The actor, 20, stated that it was 'constantly going', adding: "If you could, on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting the sixth day that week, it was ‘All right, well then, we’ll get your lessons in on that day.’”
“I did not get any sleep. I pulled my hair out,” Ortega said. “There’s so many FaceTime calls that my dad answered of me hysterically crying.”
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Ortega was determined not to let down any cellists watching the show as she played the instrument on camera, and noted the 'Paint it Black' cello sequence was particularly difficult to get her head around as she had to switch teachers when moving abroad, and try to depict a piece of music solo that was actually made for two people.
“I didn’t know where my hands were even supposed to go and then I had to make two cellos come out of one cello, which was ridiculous,” she explained.
In spite of her efforts to do as much work for Wednesday as possible, Ortega admitted that time constraints got in the way because 'Wednesday’s in pretty much every scene'.
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“They had to start using stunt doubles or occasionally cello doubles if they didn’t have time to get hands, but I was very adamant about being as well prepared as possible because I wanted them to be able to use myself, because that’s so much more believable if you could see your face," she added.
Though intense, Ortega is obviously willing to take on the challenge yet again with the second season of the show, which has not yet started production.
Ortega described the writers' room for the second season as 'very fresh', and expressed hopes that the new episodes would 'just focus on [Wednesday] and her experiences'.
Topics: Netflix, Celebrity, Film and TV
Emily Brown