Despite having Christina Ricci on the set of her new show Wednesday, Jenny Ortega chose not to ask any advice of the actress who originally played the role.
Back in 1991 Christina, was cast as the daughter of Gomez and Morticia in The Addams Family movie, a role which she would go on to reprise in 1993’s Addams Family Values.
The character, a teenager totally obsessed with death, inspired the new Netflix series Wednesday, in which Jenny takes over the role.
Directed by Tim Burton, the show follows Wednesday as she is sent to Nevermore Academy due to causing mischief at her previous enrolments, namely due to murdering some classmates.
Although when she meets a bunch of other misfits, she does her darnedest to avoid any connection but when she starts having strange visions, things take a turn.
Christina also features in the series as a botany teacher, but the two decided to avoid trading notes.
Jenny said: ‘I think when [Christina] was on set, neither one of us said Wednesday once to each other.
‘I don’t think she wanted to get in the way of my performance and feel like she was overbearing.’
She added that she didn’t ‘want to be too much like’ Christina’s portrayal of the character.
‘I felt like I didn’t want to pull up something that she did 30 years ago,’ she told MTV News.
‘For the sake of my own benefit, but two, yeah, I didn’t want to rip her off and I didn’t want to be too much like her.’
However she was aware of taking over a beloved role and was anxious about taking over.
‘I’ve never played such an iconic character who’s someone that I grew up respecting so much,’ she said.
‘So I think, when you respect someone so much, you just want to do right by them and right by everybody else who fell in love with her for a very good reason.’
Wednesday is streaming on Netflix.
