Jenna Ortega has confessed that she turned down the role of Wednesday Addams from Netflix ‘a couple of times’ when they originally approached her.
The 20-year-old actress ultimately agreed to play the famed Addams family figure in the adolescent murder mystery thriller.
Wednesday followed the Addams’ daughter as she sought to investigate a series of murders at the school.
After considerable appreciation for her portrayal, Ortega was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award, just losing out to cinema veteran and Hacks star Jean Smart.
Now it’s been revealed that Ortega almost didn’t get the part, with the Scream actor supposedly turning it down twice.
‘I got the email, passed on it,’ she said. ‘I thought Wednesday wasn’t going to be watched.’
Speaking to The Sunday Times, she continued: ‘I had done so much TV in my life [for Disney], but all I’ve ever wanted to do is film.’
Ortega’s breakthrough role was as a young Jane Villanueva in the telenovela series Jane the Virgin, as well as in the US TV series Rake.
She then rose to prominence on the Disney Channel sitcom Stuck in the Middle, which aired 57 episodes over three seasons between 2016 and 2018.
Ortega, who previously worked with Netflix on the blockbuster drama You, said she was only persuaded to return when famed gothic film director Tim Burton joined on Wednesday.
‘The only reason I went back is because Tim is such a legend, and we just happened to get along very well. But even then I said no a couple times.’
Even after accepting the part, Ortega admitted that she and her co-stars were unsure whether the show would be a success.
‘I didn’t expect the reaction,’ she added, noting that Wednesday may be a ‘nice little gem that someone finds,’ rather than one of 2022’s biggest series.
With the announcement of a second season, Ortega has stated that she wants Wednesday to avoid romance in future episodes.
She said: ‘I think we want to up the horror aspects a little bit and get Wednesday out of the romantic situation and just let her be her own individual.’
Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix.
