TV producer labels ‘Wednesday’ star Jenna Ortega “entitled” and “toxic” for “publicly shitting” on writers
Filmmaker and TV producer Steven DeKnight has labelled Jenna Ortega “entitled” and “toxic” after claiming she “publicly shit” on the producers and writers of Netflix‘s Wednesday.
On the March 6 episode of the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, Ortega shared that she had gotten involved with the script’s writing while on set for the show, at times even butting heads with the script supervisor because she felt “very, very protective” of her character.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday because it’s so easy to fall into that category, especially with this type of show,” Ortega said of her initial pushback on the script.
“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 to have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things,” she said.
Many have praised Ortega’s commitment to the role, but DeKnight (best known for Starz series Spartacus) was heavily critical of the Scream VI actress.
After being tagged in a tweet about her on-set behaviour, DeKnight told a fan that she’d “clearly shit on the showrunners/writer publicly”.
Doubtful since she clearly shit on the showrunners/writers publicly. https://t.co/3gtB0pOIEl
— Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) March 11, 2023
In the thread of another tweet, he suggested that Ortega could have approached the issue in a much more professional manner.
DeKnight wrote: “She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material.”
He added: “This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business.”
This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business.
— Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) March 7, 2023
Last month, Ortega revealed that she was “devastated” when she realised that committing to Wednesday would mean she couldn’t appear in season four of You. “I was so devastated when they reached out because I miss Ellie and I had been wanting to go back to Ellie for such a long time. But, I was in Romania, shooting Wednesday. I couldn’t travel back and forth with the pandemic and everything like that,” she said.
She added: “When you’re committed to a show, there was just no way it could have worked out. But that one, bummed me out.”
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Chris Edwards
NME
