Jenna Ortega reflects on what it was like to achieve instant fame on Wednesday. Chronicling the story of the iconically dour Addams Family character as she attends Nevermore Academy, the 2022 Netflix series was released to great success on the platform. Wednesday season 2 has since been confirmed, wherein Ortega will reprise her performance in the lead role. The sophomore season of the streaming series does not yet have a release date, but should be arriving sometime in 2025.

Jenna Ortega leads Netflix’s Wednesday, but she’s backed by a strong supporting cast playing Addams Family characters, like Wednesday’s mom Morticia.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Ortega explains what it was like in the wake of Wednesday‘s success. The actor explained that she could not fully process her overnight fame at first, saying that she was “so thrown off by everything that happened.” She went on to explain what her career has been like, saying that she has lived “pretty much all of [her] life under this naive perspective” that she has to follow what everyone else says on set. Wednesday, for her, was a chance for Ortega to “ask [her]self what [she] wanted.” Check out the full quote from Ortega below:

For a long time I was so scared and so thrown off by everything that happened. So much of my life has been on set with other people telling you what to wear, what to do, what to say. I realized that I had lived pretty much all of my life under this naive perspective that I never challenged or questioned things because I never felt like I needed to. It was the first time that I felt like I actually had to ask myself what I wanted.

Jenna Ortega’s On-Set Independence For Wednesday Has Been Controversial

The Actor’s Comments Stemmed From Her Disagreements With The Writers

On the one hand, Ortega’s response to her Wednesday fame is a completely reasonable reaction to her nearly instant rise. While she grew up a child actor, Ortega’s career changed overnight upon the release of the Netflix series. She went from a relative unknown who had provided her talents for movies like The Fallout and X to a household name. Within months, Wednesday led to her first Emmy nomination and hosting debut on Saturday Night Live, as well as a number of other roles.

Upn further inspection, Ortega’s recent Wednesday comments unsettlingly recall some controversial comments the actor previously said about her experience on set. In March 2023, the star was quoted in an interview criticizing some of the show’s writing, noting that there were moments she felt “did not make sense for her character at all.” As a result, she would act self-reportedly “unprofessional” by changing lines on the fly. While Ortega may not have intended ill will with these comments, they were given greater scrutiny in the wake of the Hollywood writers’ strike.

Given this background, advocating for what she “wanted” on set and disrupting the sense that someone else tells you “what to say” is a much dicier thing for Ortega to claim than it might initially seem. In the same Vanity Fair interview, Ortega admitted that she “probably could have used [her] words better” when addressing the situation. In the past year of rising, Ortega has evolved to become more aware of these issues and the impact of her words, but she still leaves a negative legacy for some given her previous comments’ inherent disparaging of the Wednesday writers.