Writers Strike Suddenly Has Wednesday Star Jenna Ortega in Crosshairs
The actress has been made a scapegoat.
As the writers' strike in Hollywood continues and production on many shows grinds to a halt, the writers themselves are turning their attention to the star of the hit TV series Wednesday, Jenna Ortega.
In the tense atmosphere of the strike, the writers apparently decided to remind the actress of something they felt was out of her jurisdiction.
"Rewriting is writing! See you at the line, Jenna," Karen Joseph Adcock, the writer of The Bear wrote on his Twitter page.
Adcock was apparently hinting at how Ortega would change some of her lines on Netflix 's Wednesday, and sarcastically urging the actress to join the writers on strike.
"Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up," read the picket line sign of Brandon Cohen, House Party writer.
Not only did Jenna Ortega play the lead role of Wednesday Addams in the Netflix series Wednesday, but she also made changes to her character's image and personality during the filming process.
On Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, the actress revealed that in some cases she had to go against the script to make her character more authentic:
"There were times on that set where I almost became unprofessional in a sense, where I just started changing lines. […] 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."
She noted that because of her actions, the head writer began to think she was up to something, so she had to talk to the writers separately and explain why she was changing lines.
Ortega said she was protecting Wednesday in such a way. At the same time, she did not interfere in some moments of the script that she also found inappropriate and too emotional.
Some fans believe that the actress was simply made a scapegoat, a person on whom to vent their discontent, since Ortega had nothing to do with the problems that sparked the WGA strike.
Hollywood screenwriters went on strike because they could not come to an agreement with the movie studios about improving working conditions and raising wages.
Source: Armchair Expert