Wednesday: Behind the Scenes

By Giuliana D’Alessandro and Niki Skulikidis

Wednesday, a new coming-of-age supernatural series, created by Alfred Gough and Miles Miller, about the notorious Wednesday Addams was released on November 23, 2022. The series, starring Jenna Ortega, follows Wednesday’s first year as a Nevermore Academy student after being expelled from her past school. She attempts to master her newfound psychic abilities, while trying to solve the mystery of a monstrous killing spree that is terrorizing the nearby town. Along the way, she uncovers a supernatural murder that involved her parents 25 years before. Wednesday also learns to navigate her new and complicated relationships.

To fully embody the character of Wednesday, Jenna Ortega had to really transform to fully play Wednesday, well her version of Wednesday. This was the first time Jenna Ortega played a character who had already been portrayed before and who people already had an idea and expectations of. She wanted her portrayal of Wednesday to be fully her own version and not anyone else’s. On set, Jenna made a point of not asking Christina Ricci, the actress who played Wednesday in the 90s, for any sort of advice or guidance in how to play their character. Although Wednesday’s braids look so simple, many small details and multiple attempts went into getting them to be perfect and for Tim Burton to be satisfied. According to Jenna Ortega in a recent interview, as they were filming, Tim Burton took one of the hairdresser’s combs and used it to meticulously comb her bangs to make them look exactly how he wanted them. She described what he did as taking apart her bangs “fringe by fringe.” In addition to brushing her bangs a certain way, Jenna’s hair was also dyed black. Another small detail that very much impacted how Jenna played Wednesday was that throughout the show, she rarely blinks. She actually did not plan on doing this, she just did it while shooting one scene and Burton loved it and told her to keep doing it. Besides her hair and costumes, Jenna also committed to learning new skills needed to play and embrace her character. She took lessons on fencing, archery and canoeing for the show. She also learned to speak German and how to play cello. After leaning all these skills and having the perfect costume, hair and stare, Jenna Ortega was able to fully transform into Wednesday and become her character while shooting the show.

For the show, Jenna Ortega had the opportunity to choreograph and perform the iconic RaveN dance scene. She said in an interview with TV Guide, “That was interesting choreographing that, especially because I’m not a dancer. And Tim [Burton] completely trusted me and never questioned it at all. Which was nice but also scary”. While choreographing the dance, Jenna did a lot of research. Specifically on Siouxsie and the Banshees and goth clubs. “I found a lot of footage like there’s hours worth of footage of goth kids at clubs in the 80s dancing… I took some of the stuff that they do and added it towards the end just as like free improvising dancing back and forth”. Not only did she take inspiration from 80s goth clubs and bands, but also took inspiration from jazz and Fosse. “I think that someone who always had really interesting movements was Fosse and I had seen some of his films in the past so I took a little bit of um inspiration from him as well”. 

Jenna’s self-choreographed dance was also very influential on many social media platforms. The Lady Gaga song, Bloody Mary, became associated with the dance scene on Tiktok. Soon enough, it became a trend to recreate Wednesday’s dance to this song. Ghost blinking also became a popular trend on tiktok. While filming Wednesday, Tim Burton didn’t want Jenna to blink in order to give an eerie affect to her character. On tiktok, it became a trend to try ghost blinking, a strategy for keeping eyes open for extended periods of time. When ghost blinking, you begin by staring, then once your eyes begin to feel dry, you imagine yourself blinking without actually doing it.