{"id":24039,"date":"2025-08-15T17:29:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=24039"},"modified":"2025-08-15T17:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:29:43","slug":"qa-with-jenna-ortega-wednesday-addams-producer-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/qa-with-jenna-ortega-wednesday-addams-producer-on-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Jenna Ortega: Wednesday Addams \/ Producer on “Wednesday”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You\u2019re a producer on the show this season. What was it like to take on that new role?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenna Ortega:<\/strong> It\u2019s been a really amazing experience being a producer on Wednesday. Now that I\u2019m familiar with the team and we all know each other and have worked together for so long, it\u2019s definitely a comfortable, safe environment to ask questions and learn a bit more. I\u2019ve learned so much this season, and it\u2019s been so cool being a part of conversations, talking about the color of blood, or the color of prosthetics and if the brain isn\u2019t big enough \u2013\u2013 things like that that are quite silly, but really do make such a big difference on the show. Getting to see everyone\u2019s costumes before they\u2019re approved, stuff like that, is very fun. But then also in the constructive workspace, to be able to learn from someone like Tim firsthand is a very special experience. Also, because I saw them every day on set, it was easier for them to just feed me knowledge in between takes and things like that, which was really informative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has it been like seeing the massive success of this show? Why do you think it is resonating with audiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> It\u2019s still quite difficult to comprehend. I see the effects and changes that it\u2019s had on my life and my castmates\u2019 lives, but it\u2019s something that you\u2019re very detached from. If you see a number, it looks kind of crazy, but it\u2019s not like I\u2019ve seen it in a room or anything like that. I just try not to pay too much attention to that stuff because success for me is more about feeling accomplished and being able to put something out into the world and feel proud. It\u2019s wonderful that it\u2019s been received so well, because there\u2019s a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we started the show, I was 18 and had never worked with a director as big as Tim. I had led a show before, but not with a character that was so well known and loved prior to me joining. It\u2019s a relief, but I would be lying if I didn\u2019t say that I still don\u2019t feel super anxious or feel like I have something I need to live up to every day on set. Maybe that\u2019s a good thing, but it hasn\u2019t gotten easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What excites you about Season 2?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Honestly, the most exciting thing is just being able to revisit her. Wednesday Addams is one of the coolest characters of all time, so to have gotten the opportunity to play her once was incredible, and then to be able to slip into the costume and tone again, it\u2019s so much fun. She runs circles around everyone that she has a conversation with. Getting to play someone who\u2019s so much more intelligent than you will ever be is quite funny and strange and enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like to collaborate with Tim Burton again? What did you do to top Season 1?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Working with Tim again was so much fun. He\u2019s one of the funniest people I know and probably my favorite director I\u2019ve ever worked with, so it\u2019s nice to have gotten into such a routine. We\u2019ve got quite comfortable, especially after Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as well. We got so many opportunities to strengthen our dynamic on set, so it was really great to be able to anticipate what the other wants, or doing a take and knowing, \u201cOK, well maybe he would enjoy it if I did something like this.\u201d As an actor, you want to take the director\u2019s lead and make sure that they\u2019re happy and comfortable, so it was nice getting to know him a bit more. I was maybe a little bit more confident or even rebellious in my takes because I knew that he\u2019d always bring me back or would always get what he needed. He allowed me the room to play, which is really lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did we leave off with Wednesday at the end of last season, and where do we pick up in the new season?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> We ended Season 1 with a stalker that was still after me \u2014 Tyler (Hunter Doohan), who has been sent to a psych ward, and half the school is burnt down. This season we start off with Wednesday being kidnapped. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to explain too much more than that; it\u2019s such a great opening sequence and so fun and we have some pretty special people that are a part of that. It\u2019s a nice way to come back into the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes the season bigger and better with even higher stakes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> The first season of any show, there\u2019s a little bit of trepidation, or there\u2019s trust, but still it\u2019s scary putting so much time and money and people into something and not really knowing where it\u2019s landed. Making the second season, we definitely put a lot more trust in our creative process and what we liked and what we didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season, there were just so many big sets and so many big sequences that was really exciting to go to set and wonder, \u201cOh man, I wonder what this stage will look like today, and I wonder what this person\u2019s going to be wearing today,\u201d and \u201cI wonder what this character is going to look like.\u201d We had a lot of new faces joining and they all assimilated into the show so seamlessly and so well that there are plenty of new characters for people to learn to love \u2014 or maybe hate. It just feels like the show\u2019s been given new life, but Wednesday still remains very dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has Wednesday been up to over the summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Over the summer, Wednesday moved back to the Addams mansion. We get to see her bedroom this season. She probably purchased a lot more weapons, tortured Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) some more. She did scalp someone, and that\u2019s all I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How have her visions changed this year \u2014 and why is that a little bit concerning?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Wednesday\u2019s not having visions this year, or if she is, she kind of malfunctions and she has black tears. It\u2019s a problem for her because she\u2019s really improved her psychic ability over the summer. That\u2019s what she\u2019s done during the summer. She\u2019s gotten really good at using her psychic ability and then she abuses it and uses it too much and ruins it for herself. While she used the psychic ability to help her in investigations, she doesn\u2019t have that anymore. She has plenty of brains to work with, but it\u2019s a lot more difficult for her this time around and that\u2019s frustrating to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without spoilers, what will Wednesday have to face and overcome this season? What about that journey is exciting to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> There\u2019s no real emotional growth being made here, which is the joke with her, because she doesn\u2019t really grow emotionally. She has moments of weakness here and there, and there\u2019s always something with her mom, there\u2019s always something with Enid (Emma Myers). Maybe because it\u2019s a new environment for her, or Nevermore was a new environment for her in the first season, in the second season she\u2019s gotten a little bit more comfortable. She relishes and enjoys her surroundings more, even though they\u2019re obnoxious, even though they\u2019re terrible. She\u2019s learned to take things maybe slightly less seriously \u2014 or be a bit more playful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the atmosphere at Nevermore at the beginning of the school year? How is Wednesday now perceived among her peers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> The atmosphere at Nevermore in the beginning of the school year is a living hell. It\u2019s this terrible situation for Wednesday and she\u2019s very upset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does Wednesday feel about this new atmosphere in contrast to her friends?<\/strong> Ortega: Hell. Hell, fire, demons, dark. Dark, not the good kind. Everyone loves it. She\u2019s in hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She doesn\u2019t like being popular?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> That\u2019s the strange thing about the dynamic of the show, and maybe that\u2019s why it works so well. Wednesday rejects mainstream ideas and concepts and attention and everybody on the show doesn\u2019t. Then this weird, insane reception happened with the show, and she\u2019s still fighting that and it\u2019s an uncomfortable place to be in. But also, it\u2019s very easy to group people into these big bandwagons, but everyone internally always feels a bit odd, or they feel a bit left out, or they feel like they\u2019re not really able to connect. It seems so contradictory to what Wednesday is, but at the same time, that\u2019s kind of the point, if that makes sense. She\u2019s such an admirable, honest, truthful character who is a loner. The only people we deal with every day are the people in our head. It\u2019s just us in there. She\u2019s a very easy character to latch onto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday would absolutely detest the popularity of her own show.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Yeah, poor girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What new position is Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) taking at Nevermore, and how does Wednesday feel about this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> She works at the school now. She\u2019s working on this big gala for the school and trying to raise money for her high school and her children\u2019s high school. Pugsley\u2019s around because he goes to Nevermore now, and she\u2019s dealing with empty nest syndrome. She is being a little clingy and agrees to help out, and she lives in a gardener\u2019s cottage in Marilyn Thornhill\u2019s (Christina Ricci) old cottage at Nevermore, and is pretty much just spying on her kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morticia and Wednesday\u2019s relationship in Season 1 was so interesting to watch. How would you describe that relationship and dynamic in Season 2, and the challenges they are facing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> What I will say is: Season 2 was important to me. It\u2019s a little bit hard because obviously teenagers are always going to butt heads with their parents. I tried my best to leave in moments where we actually see them alike in certain ways, or at least have a bit more respect for each other. In Season 1, she is a very typical teen, rolling her eyes, \u201cGet away from me.\u201d I have a couple of moments like that in this season as well, but I wanted it to be different than what we\u2019ve already seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to have nice moments with Catherine, and she\u2019s so easy to work with. You throw something out and she\u2019ll pick it right back up and run with it. So I feel really lucky to have experienced this mother-daughter dynamic with someone as incredible as Catherine, because she\u2019s truly a legend, and so kind and normal and funny. Morticia and Wednesday are always bickering about their psychic ability, and like any older woman talking to a younger girl is just trying to give advice and protect her from the same mistakes that she made when she was young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also meet a new member of the Addams family this year: Grandmama (Joanna Lumley). How does her relationship with Wednesday begin to play out?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Wednesday and Grandmama \u2014 who\u2019s played by the beautiful, wonderful Joanna Lumley \u2014 are best friends. They love each other. They both look at Morticia and roll their eyes a bit. They\u2019re very alike, very hard, not very sensitive or open to things, love all things gothic and dark. They just really understand each other. They\u2019ve got the same sense of humor and don\u2019t really look at anything like it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like to work with Joanna Lumley?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> She is just the sweetest. Every time I saw her on set, and she called me \u201choney\u201d or \u201cdarling\u201d or \u201cbaby,\u201d I just melted. She\u2019s got the sweetest voice and she\u2019s hilarious. She might be the most professional person on set, just in the way that she carries herself and the way that she speaks and always knows her lines and always has good questions. She is just such an accommodating actor to work with. I learned so much from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pugsley is now at Nevermore. How does Wednesday like having her brother around at school?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> I wouldn\u2019t say Wednesday likes having a brother around, but I do think it\u2019s nice for her to attempt murder a couple of times, and I think it\u2019s much easier now that she has somebody that she knows like the back of her hand. It is a cat and mouse game with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s fashion is another huge point of conversation for fans. How would you describe your costumes in Season 2?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Honestly, I\u2019m wearing a lot of the uniform. When we do see Wednesday\u2019s personal style, it\u2019s a little bit different. I wore a lot of jeans in the first season and bomber jackets, but this season I\u2019m wearing a lot of skirts or really structured coats, so the lines are very sharp and precise and dense. I\u2019ve got a really cool \u201960s detective coat on for a majority of the season that cuts off; it has that flap all around, from the arms up. It looks pretty cool. Colleen Atwood and Mark Sutherland were very excited when we saw this coat. I\u2019d say it\u2019s maybe a touch more feminine, but we don\u2019t really see a lot of it. I have some cool sheer, tulle things, layering, everything. It\u2019s very gothic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you like about filming in Ireland?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> I\u2019d never been to Ireland, and it was wonderful. The crew was so hardworking, so sweet. Everybody here really felt like a family and it\u2019s wonderful that they\u2019ve all shot together so much. My favorite thing was just how kind the people are, but also the countryside was really nice. I did my best to see as much of the island as I could while I was there. I went north, south, east, west, I went all over. I\u2019m pretty proud of myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can fans expect from Season 2?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> This season has some of our best visuals. There\u2019s just so much that\u2019s going on in so many incredible setups. Everyone was really committed to make the season as best as they possibly can, knowing that maybe there\u2019s a lot more eyes than we anticipated watching and we just really wanted to deliver. Hopefully the viewers found themselves a bit more engaged or even more thrilled with the outcome of this season. We put a lot of love and care into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Episode 4, which is the midseason finale, leaves viewers on a hefty cliff-hanger. Tell us about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortega:<\/strong> Oh, yeah. When we were shooting it, we thought that it was really funny and interesting. Tim and I were crying laughing. We had so much fun shooting that. Speaking of what actually happens at the end of Episode 4 at Willow Hill, it was so fun, it was great to see Wednesday in that environment. Makes total sense that she would release a bunch of patients from a psych ward, although it was by accident. And maybe I wish it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was chaos. The sets were wonderful, it was so great having Christina Ricci back, and I absolutely love that we didn\u2019t see Tyler actually physically throw Wednesday out the window. That was Tim\u2019s last-minute idea where you just see the tension between the two before it happens, and then what breaks the silence is the shattering of the glass. I thought that was a cool way to end that episode. Because we\u2019ve taken so long to deliver the season \u2014 we\u2019re so sorry \u2014 if you\u2019re going to have a break in a season like that, it\u2019s nice to leave on probably the darkest note that we\u2019ve ever left on in an episode. I was excited to do that midway through the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Courtesy: Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re a producer on the show this season. What was it like to take on that new role? Jenna Ortega: It\u2019s been a really amazing experience being a producer on Wednesday. Now that I\u2019m familiar with the team and we all know each other and have worked together for so long, it\u2019s definitely a comfortable,… Continue reading Q&A with Jenna Ortega: Wednesday Addams \/ Producer on “Wednesday”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/wednesday-s2-netflix-poster.jpg?fit=550%2C815&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}