{"id":24051,"date":"2025-08-15T18:15:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=24051"},"modified":"2025-08-15T18:15:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:15:27","slug":"qa-with-fred-armisen-uncle-fester-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/qa-with-fred-armisen-uncle-fester-on-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Fred Armisen: Uncle Fester on “Wednesday”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s wonderful for you about this show entering a second season?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fred Armisen:<\/strong> What\u2019s wonderful for me is the aesthetic of Tim Burton. That\u2019s the first thing that as soon as I walked onto set for the first season, I recognized immediately. I was like, \u201cOh, this is definitely a Tim Burton set.\u201d But beyond that, I love the celebration of the weird \u2014 and I believe in that in life, in general. There\u2019s a goth flavor to it that I really like. What I like about the role of Uncle Fester is that he\u2019s kind of a loner. He is on the outside of it all. He\u2019s in the family, but just off on his own adventures. And he and Wednesday, even though they\u2019re related, they\u2019re also friends and they like each other, so they help each other out. So, even with the spooky quality to everything, there\u2019s an optimism to it too. It\u2019s still somehow happy and positive even though it doesn\u2019t look that way. Then, the way the story unfolds in Season 1 and in Season 2, it grows and gets more mysterious and I love that. And of course the humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season 1 was a massive success \u2014 why do you think this series resonates so much with fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> I wish it was easy to put into words why it resonates. You never know because it\u2019s chemistry, it\u2019s everything together. It turns out to be this perfect combination. The music, of course all the actors who are in it, the writing \u2014 everything just somehow made sense to everybody. I will say that I\u2019m partial to things that are kind of spooky and scary, but there\u2019s still something colorful about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed it as I travel around \u2014 people really like to tell me that they watched as a family. And I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s the only way to watch it, but there\u2019s something about it that appears to have bonded people of different generations. That\u2019s a rarity. But also the main character Wednesday \u2014 even going back to the original TV show, she\u2019s such a great character. There\u2019s something about Wednesday that to me is really funny. And even though we sometimes see everyone else as normal, I bet it\u2019s more like everyone thinks that everyone else is normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who are discovering the series for the first time, can you describe who Uncle Fester is and what he\u2019s like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> Uncle Fester is Wednesday\u2019s uncle, and he is someone who enjoys life. He\u2019s usually giggling or laughing, but he isn\u2019t a clown figure. He\u2019s sort of part of the underworld, and he\u2019s got a supernatural ability. There\u2019s electricity that runs through him, and he lives on electricity. He\u2019s gleefully weird, with a smile on his face. He\u2019s proud of who he is. It\u2019s almost like everything that comes out of his mouth is a kind of joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has Fester evolved in Season 2?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> The character hasn\u2019t evolved, but the exploration into what he\u2019s like has evolved. You get to spend more time with him, and you see that he is helpful. There\u2019s something unselfish about him \u2014 even though he might have been part of a heist, he doesn\u2019t seem to be living in wealth. He\u2019s still traveling and has his little suitcase and in Season 2, you just get to see more of that. And also you get to see how effective he is. He really does put himself in what you would think is harm\u2019s way to help Wednesday. He really makes it his business to help Wednesday out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What draws you back to the character? As an actor, what about him do you find interesting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> When I first heard about the role, my agent was like, \u201cWhat would you think of playing Uncle Fester?\u201d And I knew I was the right guy for it. It\u2019s the only time that\u2019s happened in my career where I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, they got the right guy. I can really do this.\u201d It was really, really natural. And at the same time, I wanted to honor the tradition of the role with the actors who have played him before in the movies and the show. I wanted to really keep it going as if I\u2019m wearing a uniform. I want to serve that character. I want to make sure that the character stays intact. I love it so much that, when I see a video or a picture of me doing it, with all the Fester makeup on and stuff, I get a good feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk a bit about working with the showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar this season. What was that like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> Oh, it was great because they\u2019re the conduits to everything. In Season 1, I got to know them and then in Season 2 even more, and also what their intent is, and how much they love the show. They\u2019re the best. They\u2019re excited and they\u2019re into it. They\u2019re a good combination of appreciative, and of course wanting to make something great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you describe Fester and Wednesday\u2019s relationship this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> This season, it\u2019s not just a discovery of Fester helping Wednesday. Right away Fester shows up, and Wednesday expects no less. She\u2019s not asking for a favor, she\u2019s not like, \u201cCan you please help?\u201d It\u2019s more like, \u201cHere\u2019s what we\u2019re doing, let\u2019s go.\u201d It\u2019s like a friend showing up \u2014 an old friend or even a sibling, someone who you don\u2019t have to explain anything to. I remember one of the first scenes I shot for Season 2, it was Wednesday sort of explaining, \u201cThis is what I\u2019m looking to do.\u201d And she doesn\u2019t have an expression of helplessness. She\u2019s not like, \u201cCan you please help?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThis is what the plan is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like working with Jenna Ortega again?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> Oh, she\u2019s the best. I saw her as a leader on set. It made me want to do a better job, so that she felt great about the whole thing. I love hearing about her life. She\u2019s in Paris and in London. She\u2019s living life as people should be living their lives. It\u2019s really, really cool. Most of my scenes were with her, so that was awesome. I feel lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get to see some of Fester\u2019s alter egos this season \u2014 he has 18 passports and 33 driver\u2019s licenses. Did you pose for those ID photos?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> Yes, I did. It\u2019s so funny doing this. It\u2019s so funny to even call it a job, but everything that I have to do, change into another outfit, put on makeup, never do I feel like it\u2019s a burden. \u201cOh, that\u2019s for the ID photos.\u201d \u201cGreat.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re going to take this photo over here.\u201d \u201cGreat, I would love to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want the photos to look good. I\u2019m into all of it. And I think part of it is Al Gough and Miles Millar too, that they have a real agenda and they also take nothing for granted. They make no assumptions about Season 2, which is really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fester has the time of his life as a Willow Hill patient \u2014 tell us about filming some of those scenes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> Oh man, forget it. It\u2019s the best because Tim Burton was laughing so much just at the idea of it. Fester, just sort of utilizing Willow Hill, but turning this facility into a fun project for himself. He\u2019s got this romance and oh God, it\u2019s one of the best lines ever, as he\u2019s kissing Louise in the rain. And also they let all the patients escape, which was really fantastic. And filming in Ireland, something about Europe is spookier. There\u2019s something scary about this old Irish building and patients running out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willow Hill is so Tim Burton and just from the way that it looks, I\u2019m like, \u201cOh my God, this is the best.\u201d There was one quick scene where all of us as patients of the facility are painting outside, and one of them has no face, and for one second they just showed the person who had hair but no face. And I was like, \u201cOh man, I am in the right place. This is where I want to be in my life, doing a scene like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also get to share a cell with Slurp. What was it like playing opposite Owen Painter in his zombie makeup?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> What\u2019s crazy is the makeup is so well done, but also he can\u2019t change expressions while we\u2019re just sitting there and talking. So we have these conversations, but I\u2019m looking at this thing, this creature, chin half falling off. And he knew it, too. He\u2019d be like, \u201cYeah, I know this is so weird.\u201d But that was pretty great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The costuming in the show is amazing, and it always communicates something specific about the character. How did you work with co-costume designers Colleen Atwood and Mark Sutherland to craft what Fester looks like this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armisen:<\/strong> That\u2019s all Colleen and Mark and the team. And they just had this really crazy idea: Fester has his uniform or regular costume, that long jacket with a big collar. But what does he do when he\u2019s at Willow Hill? So they came up with this idea that it\u2019s the same costume, but off-white. What is the logic of that world? Is that a jacket that\u2019s available to people? Is that an option that Uncle Fester had? We\u2019ll never know, but he somehow lucked out. It\u2019s almost like his costume is just a part of his being. I guess in the same way that the Frankenstein monster always has the same outfit. I\u2019m sure if he was vacationing in the Bahamas or something, there\u2019d be a beach version of it. Same jacket, same collar, but somehow colorful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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

What\u2019s wonderful for you about this show entering a second season? Fred Armisen: What\u2019s wonderful for me is the aesthetic of Tim Burton. That\u2019s the first thing that as soon as I walked onto set for the first season, I recognized immediately. I was like, \u201cOh, this is definitely a Tim Burton set.\u201d But beyond… Continue reading Q&A with Fred Armisen: Uncle Fester 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-24051","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\/24051","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=24051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24051\/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=24051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}