Jenna Ortega opens up about struggles after filming ‘Wednesday’: “I was an unhappy person”
Jenna Ortega has recently opened up about the impact that filming the Netflix sensation Wednesday had on her mental health.
Ortega played the eponymous Wednesday Addams in the Netflix show, which was first released in December 2022. The show instantly became the platform’s most-watched title in a single week and went on to smash its own record a week later.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, the actor surprisingly expressed sadness at the first season’s explosive success. She revealed, “To be quite frank, after the show and trying to figure everything out, I was an unhappy person.”
She continued, “After the pressure, the attention – as somebody who’s quite introverted, that was so intense and so scary.”
The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice actor had previously spoken out about the difficulties of celebrity life. “When people mention my name, it’s almost like my name has been taken from me. Now I just feel like I’m floating and… I’m up for interpretation,” she previously commented.
However, Ortega had to fight to get that same level of attention on set. She spoke of the juxtaposition of being an adult woman, playing a teenage character. “It’s always been really annoying, because you just don’t feel like you’re being taken seriously,” she said. “You know, it’s like how you’re dressed in the schoolgirl costume. There’s just something about it that’s very patronising. Also, when you’re short, people are already physically looking down on you.”
She expanded, “If girls don’t stay as this perfect image of how they were first introduced to you, then it’s ‘Ah, something’s wrong. She’s changed. She sold her soul.’ But you’re watching these women at the most pivotal times in their lives. They’re experimenting because that’s what you do.”
New cast members Steve Buscemi, Lady Gaga and Joanna Lumley, will join Ortega in the second season of Wednesday. Lumley will play the mother of Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
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