Spooky Connection Between Wednesday and Hannibal Lecter You Probably Ignored
What if we told you that there's one key character trait Jenna Ortega's Wednesday shares with Hannibal Lecter? Because she does, and it's chilling.
Jenna Ortega is arguably the best thing about Netflix 's Wednesday.
She put her own spin on the Addams Family character — which was no easy feat considering the competition from her iconic predecessor Christina Ricci, who had portrayed the role in two films in the '90s.
Jenna Ortega did a great job and took her character's signature still way of expressing emotions to a new level with a specific horror trick.
The thing is, Jenna Ortega never blinks in all 8 episodes of Wednesday. If you follow Jenna Ortega in Wednesday season one, you might not at once realize what's so puzzling about her face. It's a tiny but effective detail: she doesn't blink.
How come? According to Teen Vogue, Ortega once shot a Wednesday scene on a whim, without blinking. Director Tim Burton was obviously thrilled, and asked Ortega to do all her scenes like that.
Burton apparently really liked "the Kubrick stare" in which Wednesday kind of looked through her eyebrows.
The chilling "don't blink" technique actually has a long history in Hollywood, and Jenna Ortega was not the first to take advantage of this effect. Jack Nicholson used "the Kubrick stare" in his movie The Shining.
Still, arguably the most famous example of a film character who does not blink is Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
This way, the cannibal and serial killer embodied by Anthony Hopkins seemed to be able to look into the soul of those around him (and the audience, too). Hopkins received an Oscar for his disturbing performance in that cult horror thriller.
A staring contest between Lecter and Wednesday (or Anthony Hopkins and Jenna Ortega) would be a fun thing to watch for sure, right?